Integrated pest management is a partnership between a pest control provider and their customers, which is one of the reasons we believe it’s so important to educate key members of your team on pest control. Read on for our top 5 reasons why we think it’s important to educate your staff on pest control.
Pests are a problem for just about every business owner or manager. They can infest retail stores, warehouses, manufacturing facilities, hotels, healthcare properties, schools, government buildings, food processing plants to name but a few. An Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach is therefore an essential part of any successful business plan, regardless of industry.
Because integrated pest management is a partnership between the pest control provider and the customer we believe it’s important to educate key members of your team on pest control for your business.
Here are 5 reasons we believe you should educate your staff on the pest control process:
1. Spot infestations early
Pests such as cockroaches, mosquitoes and bed bugs can establish large, hard-to-control infestations surprisingly quickly. If your business does develop a pest problem, it’s vital to stop the issue before pests migrate to other parts of your business, or start attracting more pests. When staff are trained on what to look for and how to recognize the early signs of a pest infestation, it can help prevent a small problem from become a much bigger one.
2. Save money!
Staff who are trained on spotting the first signs of an infestation become your first line of defence against pests. By educating them about pest management and preventive measures you can nip a problem in the bud and save both the time and money that a serious infestation can land up costing (not to mention damage to your brand and reputation).
Trained staff can offer useful information to pest control technicians about potential pest activity. Working in partnership with your pest control provider creates the best opportunity for the quick resolution of a potential problem, which if left unattended, could cost you far more.
3. Stay compliant
Pest awareness training can also help employees remain compliant with local legislation. Being familiar with common pests found in your type of business or industry sector and their breeding sites can help with quick identification, as well as with executing prevention strategies, which can help your business stay in compliance.
4. Improve relationships with your customers
In an ideal world your customers would never, ever see a pest on your premises, but we all know that there may come a time that they do. And if that happens, you would want your staff to know how to handle the problem professionally and discreetly, so that your customers feel reassured that the problem will be dealt with correctly.
5. Improve productivity
Pests can contaminate stock and cause damage to structures, products and equipment, which can be time-consuming for employees to address, and result in decreased productivity. Preventing this from happening in the first place can mitigate productivity downtime.
In the long run it’s actually much easier to prevent a pest problem from ever occurring than to eliminate an established infestation, which means that knowing what to watch for and which steps to take can help your employees work smarter rather than harder.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) vs. Traditional Pest Control
IPM focuses on pest prevention and uses pesticides only where absolutely necessary. It is a multi-strategy prevention and control plan, which includes interior and exterior inspections of the property, pest identification, recommendations, ongoing monitoring of pests, implementation of control methods, documentation, and monitoring of the control program.
IPM programs also include an education component. A professional pest control company who truly practices an IPM approach will work with you and your employees to help teach you what conditions are conducive to pests and how to help prevent pests from becoming an issue.
Making your employees part of the pest management partnership is a good business decision. That’s why it’s so important to partner with an experienced professional pest control provider who can help educate your employees about proper pest management.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.