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I reached a milestone – reflections on my time with ASP
On August 15, 2021, I reached a milestone in my career – my 10-year anniversary with ASP. What’s even more amazing is that I share this milestone with Darren Scott of the Resource Planning department as we both embarked on our career with ASP on the same day. Back then the small office was located on Brant Street in Burlington and the addition of the two of us was a 25% jump in staff. They managed to clear out a very cluttered office for me (coincidentally I still have a very cluttered office in our current location of my own doing). I had to go through three intense interviews and a personality test. I am happy that I was chosen to join the ASP Management team. My experiences from the food manufacturing business prepared me well for the strict regulatory environment and compliance with the security programs. I wasn’t prepared for the challenges unique to an employee service business. Our frontline workers are the face of ASP – not the managers, not the executive, but the staff that are in front of the customers every day. How they look – uniform clean, pressed, how they act – smiling, courteous, is key and important. The image of ASP is them. Having a tour of the various locations serviced by ASP showed me how proud the employees were to be wearing their uniform and representing ASP. They were friendly and extended a handshake welcoming me.
This forced me to change the way I think as the product we sell isn’t fixed, but a pliable dynamic person who is impacted by everything from the weather, their drive to commute or anything that is happening in their personal life positive or negative. The importance on employee satisfaction has been a high priority for the management team and is reflective of the focus and dedication they have in understanding the need to maintain frontline staff that are engaged and happy in their role – they’re what is important. Even through a pandemic and the fear of the unknown, the team has done their best in understanding and communicating with the employees and still focus on employee satisfaction. This has always been the case and remains so with even more emphasis given to it. As the goals remain the same, other things have changed. The market focus was in the GTA and a small operation in Calgary. There was a staff compliment of just over 500 staff. We now have 2,000 staff, sales have more than tripled, our service offering includes canine explosive detection and school crossing guards, our geography includes Ontario, Alberta, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. We moved from our main headquarters on Brant Street to Appleby Line in Burlington and have moved to a second larger office in North York to replace the small downtown St. Mary Street Toronto location. And we continue to grow. The people factor remains the core driver in our everyday interactions with employees, customers, vendors, and peers. I am very proud of the people of ASP that I have had the opportunity to meet and hope to meet many more. I want to thank the accounting team of Sherrie, Gisselle, Yemisi, Melissa and Paige who work tirelessly to ensure the employee is put first and making my job easier, to the remaining office staff for letting me be part of your lives, my supporting and loving wife of 30 years for tolerating when work calls and to Dean Lovric our President and CEO for adopting me into the ASP family 10 years ago. I am honoured to be part of this wonderful extended family. It has been a fun ride like no other in my career.
“Having a tour of the various locations serviced by ASP showed me how proud the employees were to be wearing their uniform and representing ASP.”