The Right People Make All the Difference
Not everyone is cut out for cold work. Period. In my experience, the people who stick around aren’t necessarily the ones with the most experience – they’re the ones who don’t mind bundling up and can handle the physical demands without complaining.
When I’m hiring, I look for folks who’ve worked outdoor construction in winter, or maybe commercial fishing – people already comfortable being uncomfortable. I always take candidates into our -10°F freezer during interviews. Their reaction tells me everything I need to know.
Safety Isn’t Just a Poster on the Wall
We had an incident back in 2019. One of our guys got trapped in a freezer for 30 minutes when a door mechanism failed. Scared the hell out of everyone. Since then, we’ve overhauled everything about our safety protocols.
Now we focus on practical stuff:
- Real emergency drills, not just talking about them
- Teaching people how to recognize when a coworker is getting too cold
- Making sure everyone knows how to override door locks
We also installed better lighting after a forklift accident happened in a shadowy corner. Sometimes the simplest fixes make the biggest difference.
Training That Actually Works
Forget those generic warehouse training videos. Cold storage is different.
We start everyone with a buddy for their first month. No exceptions. They learn things you can’t put in a manual – like which freezer door sticks, or how to stack pallets so they don’t tip when the floor gets slick.
Our best trainer is Mike, who’s been here 22 years. He tells new hires, “This ain’t rocket science, but it ain’t for everyone either. Pay attention and you’ll be fine.”
Keeping Your Best People
I lost three good workers to the Amazon warehouse down the road last year. Know why? They offered $2 more an hour and heated break rooms with free coffee.
We couldn’t match the pay, but we added better break areas and flexible scheduling. Now workers do 4-hour rotations – time in the freezer, then time in receiving or shipping. Nobody gets stuck in the cold all day.
Made a huge difference in morale. People can handle the cold better when they know they’ll warm up soon.
The Paperwork Nightmare
FDA audits are no joke. I’ve seen operations shut down over poor documentation.
Every single person needs to understand why we log temperatures every hour, even on night shift when nobody’s watching. One missed check can ruin a whole shipment of products.
We keep it simple – logbooks at every checkpoint, digital backups, and monthly reviews of all records. I personally review the logs every week and call out any gaps immediately.
Never Stop Improving
The best ideas come from the people doing the work. My dock supervisor figured out we could reduce cold air loss by 30% just by changing how we stage outgoing shipments.
We do monthly team lunches where everyone shares one problem and one solution. Sometimes the ideas are crazy, but sometimes they save us thousands.
Cold storage is tough work, but with the right team and proper training, we keep things running smooth – even when it’s -20°F and the snow’s piling up outside.
Connect with Anand on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anand-k-799aa5184/
Find more at King Feast.
