Employee Spotlight: Shawn Chaplin
posted on Tuesday, June 5, 2018
“I’ll never forget the day that I received a phone call from Jeff Hansen out of the blue just to say, “thanks” for a job well done,” said Tom Boge, who’s been an employee with Iowa Select Farms for 23 years. “It really meant a lot to me and still stands out as a fond memory all of these years.”
Like many of our other tenured employees, Tom has quite literally worked his way through our production system. While he started as an entry-level animal caretaker at a sow farm in Iowa Falls, Tom has also worked as a finishing manager, finishing supervisor, maintenance technician, senior supervisor and now oversees construction projects as a site supervisor.
“It’s been the people that I’ve worked with and the challenge to be the best that has kept me here all of these years,” said Tom. “No matter what, there is always someone around to give you advice or lend a helping hand. I will never forget being told by Allen Whiley, who was Director of Production at the time, that I was using too much creep feed in farrowing. It’s always stuck with me and proved that everyone, no matter their role, goes the extra mile to help others.”
For Tom, some of the biggest changes he’s seen over the years go beyond the farm.
“We have done a great job of increasing and improving our abilities to communicate instantly,” said Tom. “With just a simple click of a button on your phone or computer you can see where any farm is at production wise. It’s a huge improvement that has made us a lot more efficient.”
Tom is referring to Tools; an internal web application the company uses to manage data from hundreds of different farms and make information accessible throughout the company.
“We have our support teams to thank for so much of the behind the scenes work,” said Tom. “Production can’t do it alone and we wouldn’t be successful if we didn’t have people working hard in the background for us. There’s always someone supporting us and looking for ways to improve.”
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