Art Oliva is the Director of Operations for Prism, a third-party logistics (3PL) company. He has a long career in the logistics industry with a focus on warehousing for the food sector.

Nate Wheeler is the host of the popular Manufacturing Insiders podcast. He also owns weCreate, a nationally recognized marketing agency that helps manufacturers grow, save money, and become more efficient.

In this episode of Manufacturing Insiders, Art Oliva explains why true operational excellence goes beyond just shipping and storage. He details how a flexible approach to customer needs, from quality inspections to custom packaging, is built on a foundation of low employee turnover. This stability is the direct result of an intentional culture focused on employee well-being and strong leadership.

The conversation shifts to the core challenge of developing effective frontline supervisors to sustain that culture. Art shares his direct approach to leadership training, focusing on practical communication skills and the importance of consistency. Listen to learn how to build a leadership pipeline that treats employees with the same respect as customers, creating a more motivated and reliable workforce.

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Nate Wheeler (00:01.398)
Welcome to Manufacturing Insiders. Today I have Art Oliva with me, a third-party logistics guy who’s been in the industry for a long time. I was hoping we could pick his brain about logistics, which is an integral part of all manufacturing operations. I want to find out what manufacturers should be aware of when dealing with a logistics company, how to choose one, and ways they can become more efficient and save money. Welcome to Manufacturing Insiders, Art.

Art Oliva (00:36.909)
Thank you for having me.

Nate Wheeler (00:38.858)
What’s the one thing most manufacturers you’ve worked with in the past have not thought about regarding logistics?

Art Oliva (00:50.216)
One of the main things is pricing, getting estimates, and what it’s going to cost to do certain things at the facility. A lot of them don’t know all the little pieces that go on in the background and how we come up with our charges and rates to service them. Our motto is we don’t say no; everything is a yes. We just have to figure out how to get it done.

The majority of the time, it’s in our wheelhouse and is bread and butter to us, so we get it done with our standard pricing. But sometimes there are one-off projects they may have, like special quality checks, inspections, kitting, or builds that we have to price out. When they want to find a 3PL to work with, they’re not sure how that pricing works, so it’s about partnering with the right one that will match their financial needs and budgets. We’ll do pretty much what the customer is asking. It’s just a matter of breaking that down into costs and giving them the estimates to do it.

Nate Wheeler (02:11.786)
To understand what some of those things are, do you have an example? Which customer are you doing the most for in terms of all those little pieces that could potentially be upcharges? What would that customer be doing?

Art Oliva (02:33.481)
They’d be doing quality inspections. Since we work primarily in food, there are a lot of quality holds, inspections, or manufacturing checks that we have to go through for them since we have the product on site. They put in a request, and we have to do a time study. We do straight time studies; we don’t have standard times that we use for projects. We do it all on hand and then give them an estimate of what it’s going to cost for that project, inspection, or quality check. If we have the product in-house, we’ll pull it and get the requirements they’re asking for us to complete the study.

Nate Wheeler (03:14.734)
How is the time study done?

Art Oliva (03:28.925)
We’ll walk through the steps of the project and time everything. We’ll give them an estimate of the time we think it’s going to take for that quality check, project, or build. Then, based on the rates, we’ll tell them what we think it’s going to cost to do the project.

Nate Wheeler (03:46.476)
That seems like a time-consuming way to quote something.

Art Oliva (03:52.124)
Some companies use industry standards. They’ll say, ‘we’re going to do ABCD,’ and they already have their standards built in, so they know what it’s going to cost. For us, we have so many different customers that everything can be different. Their product is different from the next one. We do have some cookie-cutter pricing, but many of these projects are one-offs. We have to do it that way to make sure we’re capturing everything we’re going to do for the customer.

Nate Wheeler (04:23.864)
In terms of value-adds, I wouldn’t normally think of my logistics company doing inspections for me, though I’m not in the food manufacturing space. Is that a typical thing for you and your competitors to be doing?

Art Oliva (04:48.521)
When I say inspection, it depends on what you’re talking about. For example, an inspection could be for a leaking bottle, a loose bottle cap, or a carton where the glue flap is coming off. The customer might ask us to go through 5,000 cases to find the issue. That’s the type of inspection I’m talking about.

Nate Wheeler (05:11.832)
That clears up my confusion. What are some common value-adds that you do that your customers may not be aware of?

Art Oliva (05:17.785)
A lot of them don’t know that we’ll do relabeling. For example, if they’ve manufactured 10,000 units and the manufacturer put the wrong barcode on it, we’ll go back through and relabel all their products for them. Or maybe their boxes were the wrong type of corrugate. It came overseas to us, and the customer says the corrugate isn’t strong enough. They may say, ‘We’re going to send you all new corrugate; we want it all boxed up.’ We’ll repackage it all for them.

We’ll do various things for them if they want to see if we can do it. For us, we primarily try to do everything the customer wants. We’ll look into other resources if we need to. Let’s say we have to buy a piece of machinery to do the job—not a big piece of machinery, but something small. There are different things we may have to do to complete the project for the customer. For us, it’s 100% customer service.

Nate Wheeler (06:53.112)
That’s a big differentiator. A lot of companies just want to take a standardized process.

Art Oliva (06:58.151)
That’s correct. We do have standards and a standard process, don’t get me wrong. But for us, it’s about being able to cater to our customers and whatever they’re looking for. There are some things we can’t do, and we let them know that. But for the most part, we try to do anything and everything the customer is asking, within reason.

Nate Wheeler (07:22.816)
You said you’re primarily in the food space. Why that differentiation? Is that just what’s come to you over the years, or is there a specific reason you focus on that industry?

Art Oliva (07:28.073)
Yes.

Art Oliva (07:37.986)
That’s what Prism does, and we do it very well. Our quality, our audit processes, and our general processes in place all revolve around the food industry. We have other customers that are not in that space, but that is primarily what we do, and we do it very well.

Nate Wheeler (07:58.242)
When we’re talking about the transportation and warehousing of a product, what’s the difference between food and, for example, a die-cast part?

Art Oliva (08:14.931)
For food, there are a lot more facility requirements. For example, distributing garments is nothing like operating a food-grade facility. There are many more requirements you have to have in the building, like cleanliness. We are ambient temperature for the most part, though we do have some temperature-controlled space as well, but that’s a small part of our overall picture.

Nate Wheeler (08:34.914)
Humidity, temperature, all that kind of stuff.

Art Oliva (08:44.925)
The majority of it is ambient, so we don’t have to worry about that too much. What I’m talking about is pest control. Pest control is a big one for food, and that would be a big difference between the two industries. I’m just using a generic example.

Nate Wheeler (08:58.123)
So from a logistics standpoint, for the food manufacturer, logistics is going to be a more expensive part of their operation than for someone in the garment space because of those requirements.

Art Oliva (09:16.548)
I’m not 100% sure. I’m mainly talking about the facility and the expense on our end.

Nate Wheeler (09:25.226)
I just assumed if it costs you more to do more things, then it’s going to cost them more. What is doing business in California like these days? I’m on the East Coast, and we look at it as another country in some ways.

Art Oliva (09:47.494)
It is. I’ve always worked in California. I’ve visited the East Coast and other parts of the country, and it is different. The main difference I’ve always seen is the labor and how the labor laws differ in California. A saying I hear a lot in the industry is, ‘There’s the right way to do it, and then there’s the California way.’ For example, you have OSHA, and then you have Cal-OSHA. California is a big difference in the labor itself, and it’s a big part of what we have to deal with.

Nate Wheeler (10:26.828)
The old Cal-OSHA tax. I’ve met quite a few guys over the years that don’t have great things to say about that organization.

Nate Wheeler (10:41.454)
There’s the aspect of protecting our workers; we don’t want people dying on the job. But there’s the other aspect of, ‘Oh, you didn’t have the right signage up here. Here’s a $15,000 bill for you. Eat that.’

Art Oliva (11:00.465)
We try our very best to comply with all those requirements. We have in-house compliance and a compliance manager that keeps everything on track. For us, it’s about auditing our processes. We do that every month; we go to the facilities and inspect them. That’s part of my job as well. I go to the facilities and inspect them to ensure food quality, safety, and general operations are all in order. We constantly look at our facilities to make sure they’re in compliance.

Nate Wheeler (11:34.792)
Is making sure that gets done part of your job as the operations manager?

Art Oliva (11:41.134)
Yes, as Director of Operations, I go to all the facilities and work with the management team at each one. It’s about making sure they’re doing the day-to-day operations, but also looking at the facilities and ensuring they are handling the basics of food quality and safety. On top of that are the specific customer requirements. One facility can have 20 different customers, and there could be 20 different sets of requirements.

Nate Wheeler (12:17.996)
I would imagine with that much going on, you are leveraging some interesting technology. Have you been using anything from the AI or robotics side of things to optimize your operations?

Art Oliva (12:35.493)
We started getting into that techie side of things last year. A lot of our quality and safety procedures are pretty standard for the industry. We use a TQM, a quality-based system, to keep a lot of our documentation and track everything to ensure we’re staying on course. I think in the future, we will be looking more into that.

Nate Wheeler (13:10.592)
From the warehousing standpoint, there are some interesting things out there. I talked to a guy a week or so ago who is developing a robotic solution for warehousing. The only caveat is that you have to use their racking and bin system, though some racks can be retrofitted. Once you get it set up, it’s 100% automated. They can run an entire warehouse with one or two robots that take stuff off the shelf, repackage it, and put it in the shipping containers or cartons. I would imagine that may be difficult when you have a lot of different types of products and variation in processes, but that was one thing I came across.

Art Oliva (14:10.569)
In the past, what I’ve seen with those is that it’s a standardized system, so the product and the customers you’re bringing in have to meet that spec. For us, we have many different customers, and their sizes vary. A pallet isn’t just a pallet; it could equal 15 different things for a couple of different customers. We try to standardize it the best we can, but we cater to our customers.

If a customer says their pallet height is a specific dimension, we say, ‘Okay, we’ll make it work.’ We don’t tell them it’s not going to fit in our system. We say, ‘This is what you have, we’re going to bring it in.’ If we have to modify our floor space or our rack systems, we’ll do it. A lot of those systems you’re referring to are cookie-cutter systems where, once installed, the customer has to conform to that system for it to work.

Nate Wheeler (15:23.488)
It would only work in specific use cases. I see that problem in robotics all the time because even the process of picking up a part may require a different attachment or arm for the robot, depending on the size of the part.

Art Oliva (15:45.226)
We have a radio-controlled racking system in one of our facilities, and it works very well. We utilize it the best we can. Certain customers can use that space because of their pallet dimensions and how the system will move, pull orders, and put the product away. For us, it works for some of our customers, so it’s a good system.

Nate Wheeler (16:14.414)
What’s the biggest challenge in the logistics space right now for you?

Art Oliva (16:25.001)
For us, it’s that many of our customers have ordered a lot of inventory. It goes back to the COVID situation, and now we’re seeing the back end of it where many customers have over-ordered. A lot of customers have excess inventory, which takes up a lot of space. For us, space equals revenue, so that’s a good thing.

However, the inventory doesn’t turn as often as we would like for some customers. We always want to see the turns, of course. But their inventory is taking up space in our buildings, and our buildings being at capacity are all good things. The main issue is that the inventory isn’t turning as quickly as some customers would like.

Nate Wheeler (17:18.062)
Is it specific types of inventory that you’re seeing?

Art Oliva (17:23.057)
No, it’s just in general, across the board.

Nate Wheeler (17:27.018)
Have you noticed since the tariff shakeup a few months ago that people tried to order more inventory while they had an idea of the cost, but then it just ended up sitting around?

Art Oliva (17:48.212)
The tariff situation affected us and many of our customers as well. When it affects the customer, it obviously affects us. I didn’t get too involved with the customers on what they were doing or their strategies. I’m more on the facility side, where I’m just seeing the effect of it.

Nate Wheeler (18:27.069)
Are you managing just the warehouses? Is the trucking piece a separate side of the business?

Art Oliva (18:37.673)
Yes, transportation is another department or division. I don’t handle transportation; I handle the warehousing side. This includes dealing with customers, assisting them, and being an escalation point for them. I go to the facilities and help them with day-to-day issues and give them direction. If customers have an issue they want to escalate, that comes to me as well.

As I mentioned earlier, I also go to the facilities to make sure they’re complying with everything that needs to get done daily. Then there’s the labor side of it. I monitor our labor hours, our spending, and give that information back to the management team on their performance. Labor management is a big part of it, along with the day-to-day distribution operations.

Nate Wheeler (19:42.358)
Are you struggling with the workforce at all? Are you doing a good job of keeping everything staffed, or is that a pain point?

Art Oliva (19:53.19)
No, for us, our staffing is pretty good. One thing I would say about Prism is that our turnover is low. We have a lot of tenured employees here, which is a great thing to see. Our turnover generally comes from newer employees who have been here for two to five months. There’s always the pay rate issue with newer employees; they’re always looking for the higher dollar. We see that turnover with them, but the tenured employees stay, which is a great thing.

Nate Wheeler (20:43.16)
You must be finding ways to advance them and get them into roles with more responsibility over time. How are you retaining them?

Art Oliva (20:53.801)
For retention, our work schedules are a big factor. We have one shift for the majority of our facilities, so it doesn’t vary much for our employees. They aren’t rotating between first shift, second shift, and graveyard; it’s primarily one shift, Monday through Friday, which is a great thing. The way our business is structured, it’s generally one shift for about eight-and-a-half to nine hours a day. If business fluctuates, we work weekends and overtime like any other 3PL.

The employees love it. They like the schedules because they don’t fluctuate a lot, and when overtime is available, they can work extra hours. I feel it’s a good fit for them because they don’t have to deal with drastic schedule changes. We just expect the employees to do the job. From what I can tell, they get it done, come to work, go home, and everything keeps going at a steady pace. The employees seem to be happy.

Nate Wheeler (22:22.03)
That doesn’t happen automatically, so there must be more to it. From a culture standpoint, are there things you are doing to give these employees a sense of work satisfaction? For example, having visual indicators of performance, like showing when a metric is really good for the week. How are you maintaining that motivation?

Art Oliva (22:56.969)
Some of the things we do go back to the culture of the facilities and Prism. We try to keep the facilities clean, which is something not everybody does. We want to keep our facilities clean and organized and maintain high standards for inventory levels and accuracy. This prevents employees from having to work in a disorganized facility where products aren’t where they should be. That kind of environment tells the employee that management doesn’t care and makes it harder for them to do their job.

We try our best to have a clean, organized facility with inventory where it’s supposed to be, and we assist them with any issues they have. We also drive a safety culture, listen to their concerns, and have an open-door policy. If an employee sees me walking the floor, they can talk to me. I’m out there saying hi and asking questions. If they need help, they can come right up and start talking to me. That goes for me, the VP, and the president. We have an open door for everybody, and when they see us, they feel they can talk to us.

Nate Wheeler (24:15.18)
That seems to be a common thread among companies that are successful with their employees—that open-door policy and approachable leadership concept. I think that’s important. I’ve done close to 50 podcasts now, and I’ve started to consolidate the similarities between successful leaders in the manufacturing or business-to-business space. That was one of the things I wrote down, and I’m going to publish that once I get a few more points.

Art Oliva (24:53.481)
One of the things that has been talked about regarding labor struggles is the challenge of younger generations coming in and being able to perform manual tasks. That is a challenge. But one of the things I’ve been thinking about lately is the leadership talent and the leadership pool. We’re worried so much about the hourly employees coming in and filling these roles, but my question is, are we going to have the leadership team to lead them?

Will they have the skills and knowledge to be leaders, take them to the next level, and build them up? I think we’re looking at it from the standpoint of just filling roles and not looking further upstream. Do we even have the leaders to lead those in these roles? That’s what I’ve been looking at lately.

Nate Wheeler (25:46.38)
That’s a fair point. All you really hear about is filling the lower-level positions. It almost seems like a generation or two ago, leadership was inherent. If you grew up on a farm, you had to take care of things. You almost have a generation now that wouldn’t know where to start with leadership. One of the biggest aspects of good leadership is good communication, and we’ve lost a lot of that interpersonal communication over the past decade because of social media and other reasons. How do we teach that generation to communicate and be good leaders? Do you have an internal training program you’re looking at?

Art Oliva (26:46.153)
I have started doing that myself. I am the trainer for our leadership training. I started the program after noticing that newer supervisors were asking questions and dealing with certain issues. I started asking my own general questions to get a feel for the leadership team as a whole. I started with the basics and decided we would have a training session on communication. As you pointed out, communication is key; I think that’s the number one thing.

Then I started looking at things like, do you know how to adequately track attendance? That’s a basic question. When someone’s not meeting your attendance expectations, do you know how to handle that? What’s your next step?

Art Oliva (27:46.512)
We had all the parts in place, don’t get me wrong. But it was about the supervisors understanding how to manage that. That was one of the pieces we were lacking a little bit, but now they’re doing a lot better. Reporting was another one—just basic reporting. How to fill out reports thoroughly, the verbiage, and what elements should be in there. In general, it was about taking the little things and coaching them on what steps to take next.

When looking at the leadership team, it’s not just about knowing the job. I think a lot of companies promote the people who do the job best, which is great. Promoting in-house and promoting from within is excellent; I firmly believe in that. But sometimes we promote the people who are best at the job, but are they going to be a good leader? Will they have the skills to lead the team? That’s the other part I look at as well.

Nate Wheeler (28:55.244)
I was interested to hear your perspective on attendance policy. When you ask them if they know how to track attendance, where do you draw the line between what is okay and what is not? How do you remedy that? What is your policy for addressing those issues with an employee?

Art Oliva (29:25.863)
Going back to the younger generations, their concept of time and being on time is different; many of them lack those skills. They think if they show up at 8:10, they’re on time because they’re here. So, it starts with asking the question, what do you define as being late? Technically speaking, if your start time is 8:00, arriving at 8:00 is late.

The question is, do you allow some time for them to be late or for one-offs? Do you allow a grace period? In the past, I’ve always set up a grace period. If the start time is 8:00, I’d say if you’re here between 8:00 and 8:05, you’re not late, but that’s not an everyday occurrence. You still need to be at work at 8:00.

Art Oliva (30:24.637)
What the facilities and supervisors started doing was saying, ‘Yes, the start time is 8:00. We have to be rolling at 8:00.’ But then you have the one-offs of somebody arriving at 8:05, 8:03, or 8:02. After that, they are late, and you have to start recording and tracking it. Then you set the expectation of how many lates you can accept in a week or a month. Let’s say the standard is five lates a month. If that’s your standard, then it’s across the board for everybody.

You have to hold that standard and be consistent with every person in the building. Consistency is what drives it. It’s not just about having the expectation, the standard, or the policies. You have to be consistent and drive that with everybody, and not fall into favoritism. My thing is, if you’re going to start doing this, you have to make sure it’s consistent from day one through year 10.

Nate Wheeler (31:35.286)
Just like raising kids, right?

Art Oliva (31:37.615)
Right. And it’s not easy. I get it, and we work through it. I’m not just talking about Prism; I’m talking about in general, over all the years I’ve been doing this, it’s pretty much the same. A lot of companies I go to have those elements everywhere where it’s not consistent.

Nate Wheeler (31:57.452)
That’s something I’ve always struggled with too. You like an employee and the work they’re doing, so you tend to let them get away with stuff. Then it just builds over time, and they get away with more and more. I’ve had recent experiences where an employee likes to have YouTube videos running in the background while working. But then you look, and it seems like you’re seeing more YouTube videos than work being done. At what point do you draw the line and say, ‘You just can’t do it’? I can’t write content with a YouTube video playing; I’m either going to be paying attention to one or the other.

Art Oliva (32:45.511)
It’s the same thing.

Nate Wheeler (32:47.086)
Drawing the harder lines is important, but we’ve also felt like hostages because of the labor shortage. It’s like, how am I going to refill this role? Then the employee says, ‘Well, I want to work from home,’ or ‘I want to work half as much as I was,’ and you feel like you have to agree.

Art Oliva (33:07.552)
It’s the same thing with cell phones. Everybody’s pretty much tied to their cell phone. Now, imagine going into a facility that tells you you can’t have your phone on the floor. You’re going to be on the floor for three or four hours at a time without your phone. The reaction you get from them makes it seem like you told them to give up their firstborn.

We have to deal with that. If they do have their phone on the floor, they can’t use it. Some of them don’t want to leave it because they’re afraid it’s going to get stolen, which I understand. But it’s a matter of not being able to use it because it’s a safety issue. You can’t drive with your cell phone, so what makes you think you can operate a piece of equipment while using it? You have to explain that aspect to them. We have those policies in place, and we just have to enforce them. Most companies I know have that policy.

Nate Wheeler (34:17.9)
I think that’s a great thing. I wish my employees couldn’t have access to their phones at work, but most of them work remotely, and I have no control over that. A little more on the leadership side of things.

Nate Wheeler (34:43.18)
Beyond communication, which is a broad topic, what do you think is the most common deficiency in someone you’re looking to move into a leadership position that you have to address?

Art Oliva (35:01.641)
For communication in general, it’s knowing how to talk to employees. When you’re trying to get your point across or give directions, you need to know how to do it so they understand you’re just asking them to perform a task, not telling them what to do. Some individuals will raise their voice, or their demeanor changes and comes across as rude or disrespectful.

Over the years, I’ve learned to keep my tone pretty level, whether I’m talking to a supervisor, a manager, or an hourly employee. I try to keep it one tone and get my point across with what I’m saying, not with the tone of my voice.

Art Oliva (36:02.409)
Some people do the opposite. They’ll say something, but the tone of their voice indicates if they’re serious, kidding, okay, or in a bad mood. I try not to do that; I try to keep it consistent. That’s the message I try to give everyone. The other thing I tell people, since we have so many customers, is to talk to the employees like you would talk to your customer.

Nate Wheeler (36:18.318)
I like that.

Art Oliva (36:30.119)
I hear a lot of supervisors who will talk to a customer with a smile on their face, giddy and cracking jokes. That’s how you should talk to the employees. You can talk to them just like that. I get that you get stressed and have the weight of the facility on your shoulders, but sometimes you have to step back and talk to the employees that way as well. In turn, they will give that back to you.

Art Oliva (36:59.709)
That’s what I’ve learned over the many years I’ve been doing this. When I started earlier in my career, I was very harsh. I wanted to make sure things were getting done, so I was very direct, raised my voice, and did those types of things. But it took individuals pulling me aside and telling me that’s not how you do it. They told me to follow certain steps to get more out of it. Once I started doing that and saw the employees giving me positive results in return, I realized that’s the only way to do it. Once you do that, it will come back to you tenfold.

Nate Wheeler (37:40.588)
I like that a lot. I haven’t heard it said like that before. It’s not just what you say, but how you say it. A lot of us default to putting our emotion into something that doesn’t need it; it just needs the statement itself.

Art Oliva (38:00.647)
When I was doing training on communication with the teams, I was talking about how to communicate, giving them different examples like body language, how you look at somebody, or if you cut someone off. We went through basic communication skills. It doesn’t get fixed overnight, but giving them an awareness of things to be mindful of when they’re talking to individuals and employees helps a lot. It really does.

Nate Wheeler (38:38.226)
That’s going to make a big difference in employees sticking around. One of the main reasons people leave is because they didn’t like their leadership or the way they were being treated.

Art Oliva (38:50.441)
That’s a fact. I’ve done that in the past myself—feeling disrespected or belittled. One day, you turn around and say, ‘Enough is enough. I can’t do this anymore,’ and unfortunately have to make those tough decisions.

Nate Wheeler (39:08.822)
Do you do this training with people when they’re about to be promoted into a leadership position?

Art Oliva (39:20.157)
I do both. If we’re thinking about promoting somebody, I’ll have some general conversations with them. Once we decide to promote them, I’ll start going through the training. When I started last year, I trained everybody—every supervisor and manager we had on staff across the different facilities. I held these training sessions with all of them.

Nate Wheeler (39:47.99)
Are you going to do that once a year then?

Art Oliva (39:49.354)
If needed, but I also do it with anyone who gets promoted. They’ll go through the entire training session I put together. As new topics come up, I’ll add to it and review those topics with everyone else.

Nate Wheeler (40:06.028)
I like that. Most companies could benefit from focusing more on the communication of their supervisors and managers and providing yearly training or a couple of times a year. That’s a huge part of running a successful business.

A lot of companies focus on the technical aspects of production, like how many parts they’re pushing out or how many boxes they’re shipping, but the soft skills are really important.

Art Oliva (40:44.679)
I was on both sides, so I saw both sides. When I started in management, the industry was still doing classroom training, bringing in a trainer, and having HR hold classes or sending people to travel for training courses. Then I saw the transition to everything being online, where you get a link and are told, ‘Hey, take your training,’ and you’re sitting in front of a computer for an hour.

Now it’s the same thing. You get a link, and they monitor you with check-ins to make sure you’re doing the training. But I feel there should be a combination that includes in-person training. I 100% agree with you that we’re losing those interpersonal skills. If I don’t have the opportunity to talk to somebody and ask questions or talk to you a little bit after the training session and pick your brain about something else.

I think we’re missing that in the industry. I’m talking in general; I don’t know what other companies do. But having one-on-ones with trainers, classes, sit-downs, and general meetings—not everything on Zoom or Teams, but face-to-face conversations—is important.

Nate Wheeler (42:13.686)
I agree. It’s going to come across much better if it comes directly from you as the leader. Even if it comes from HR in person, an employee automatically thinks, ‘It’s another HR training,’ and blows it off. But if it’s the director of operations or the president saying, ‘Hey, here are the things that have worked for me. You guys have watched me do it. This is how I operate, and here’s how I do it.’ I think that will have a bigger impact than an online training or a third party coming in.

That’s a lot of interesting stuff to think about. I’m glad we were able to get into that leadership discussion, as it was a strong takeaway for any company. I appreciate your experience and the tips you were able to give us.

Art Oliva (43:16.297)
No problem. Over the years, one thing I’ve decided is that I want to give back. I’m no expert, but any information I can give to people who ask questions, I freely give it. I work with a college where I sit in with students and talk with them. It’s information I like to give back because I think it’s valuable. I wish something like that was available to me when I started years ago, but I really enjoy doing it.

Nate Wheeler (43:59.928)
Do you have your leadership training process documented in any way?

Art Oliva (44:07.271)
I do. Each training has a guideline or an outline of what I’m going to talk about. I email that to the individuals before the session for them to review. I even take it back to whiteboarding, which you don’t see often nowadays. During the training session, I make sure a whiteboard is available. I start jotting down my thoughts and their thoughts, putting up acronyms and their questions. If I can’t answer it right away, I’ll jot it down.

I take it back to a classroom setting rather than just saying, ‘Here’s the information, read it, and we’ll go over questions.’ I go a step further and we’ll go through scenarios. I’ll ask them questions because I know what’s going on in their day-to-day world. I’m able to use scenarios relevant to what they deal with, asking, ‘What about this situation? How would you handle that?’

Sometimes I’ll use real scenarios that happened at a facility. I’ll bring it into the session and say, ‘Here’s what happened, here’s what could have happened, and here’s what should have happened if we had followed these steps.’ I use those real-life scenarios to break it down and show them how it could have had a different result. I’m not saying the original result was wrong, and that’s what I tell them. No one did anything wrong; these are just things that could have been better.

Nate Wheeler (45:41.646)
I like that. If someone was interested in learning more about how you approach that training, would you be willing to share something with them? We’ll make sure to include a way to get a hold of you in the bio of the video for anyone who wants to incorporate some of the techniques you’re using in your facility.

Art Oliva (45:53.174)
Yes.

Art Oliva (46:08.551)
Yes, definitely.

Nate Wheeler (46:11.201)
Thanks a lot for coming on today, Art. I really enjoyed it.

Art Oliva (46:14.933)
Thank you very much for having me.

Nate Wheeler (46:16.724)
Absolutely.