Showing Off: Using Employee Achievements to Build Workplace Culture

Griffin Voltmann, Certification Program Manager, QualityPro

Accreditation is more than just a way to attract clients. It is an internal declaration of purpose—a statement that a company is not merely servicing accounts, but taking an interest in their clients, their industry and most of all, their employees. QualityPro companies confidently state that their technicians and client services professionals are the best in the industry, and with good reason. But building a culture of quality within a company means reminding those employees of what it is they’ve accomplished, and what it is they’re now a part of.

Celebrating Employee Victories

The most significant touchpoint for the majority of those working for QualityPro accredited companies is our testing and training program. All employees who interact with clients must be certified as having been trained to the national standard set by QualityPro in order to ensure a baseline quality of service. Each certificate of completion represents significant time, effort and achievement from an employee personally buying into their company’s, and our industry’s, culture of excellence. The following exams are available to all accredited companies in the Online Learning Center at npmapestworld.org. Completion of each will issue a credential that employees can be proud of. All credentials earned are searchable at www.npmaqualitypro.org/certificates.

• QualityPro for Sales & Service Employees
• Pest Management in Food Processing & Handling Facilities
• GreenPro
• QualityPro Schools
• QualityPro Public Health Core
• Rodent Specialist
• Mosquito Specialist
• Client Service Professional
• Manager Training

QualityPro serves as a mark of excellence for your sales and client services team as well, making them feel recognized as the industry professionals they are. QualityPro encourages individuals to show off the certificates they earn through social media, LinkedIn, and framing the certificates, which may include our latest credential: the Client Service Professional (CSP).

Training certificates are an individual’s achievement, not a company’s, which is why they follow an individual throughout their career. In a very real sense, the individual achievements of your

employees contribute to the achievements of your company. As you onboard and continue to develop your employees, approach the exams as an investment in your people, showing that you are helping them develop professionally. This can aid in retention and help employees see their future with your company. We’ve heard from companies who have seen significant improvements in their office culture by publicly displaying training certificates earned by employees—if you show your pride in their work, they will show it, too.

This improvement compounds with each new training certificate an employee earns, proving that the more a company invests in an employee, the more that employee will feel invested in the work they do. We’ve seen study groups form at companies where employees who have already taken the exams have turned around to help others earn their own certificates, and then celebrate their peers’ achievements alongside the company. They understand the level of work and personal achievement and want to pass that along to others to keep raising the bar.

Excellence at All Levels

Although most of the QualityPro standards are about your HR and operations, employees at all levels should feel pride in what you’ve earned. The same standards of excellence that raise your company above the rest make it the best place for employees to work. Make sure that your technicians understand what it is your business is doing for their benefit by being part of QualityPro.

While they should fully understand the exam requirement, they may not see all the back-office policies that make your company one of the best in the industry. QualityPro offers an array of tools and resources specifically to post or use around the office for this purpose, but it’s worth explaining what steps you’ve taken to standardize and professionalize your operations. We recommend showing off the QualityPro Company Presentation slides or presentation video as part of your onboarding process for employees who may not have worked for an accredited company before. These resources are available at QualityProTools.org.

Working for a QualityPro company is an opportunity for employees to gain forward momentum with their career through a company that cares about fostering an environment of success at the personal and professional levels. Employees recognize the investment that you are making in their success, and will carry that same investment forward through their interactions with each other, with clients, and with the industry as a whole.

QualityPro is administered by the Foundation for Professional Pest Management, an independent organization that has been developing good business practices and standards since 2004. Designed specifically for pest management companies in the U.S. and Canada, we are proud to certify over 500 of the best companies in the pest management industry. QualityPro is endorsed by the National Pest Management Association (NPMA). For more information, contact us at QualityPro@pestworld.org.