As part of our ongoing series about why our professionals at CTEH do what they do and love what they do, we’ve asked staff members to answer some questions about what engages them about their work for this organization.
For this post, we heard from Jacob “Jake” Bird, Operations Support Manager. One reason he is proud of CTEH is looking back on the progression of the organization over time.“Everyone has an attitude that progress is key, and we are never satisfied with where we are as a company,” he said. “The continuous push to provide a better product to our clients and the community makes me very proud. We are cutting edge, always evolving and provides many avenues for advancement.”
One way his team contributes to continuous improvement is increased efficiency of personnel resources. CTEH Operations Support team recently worked with CTEH software developers to create a program that allows Bird’s team to schedule and track employees and equipment in the field in real-time. When multiple responses are happening at the same time or a project needs CTEH to increase the number of employees in the field very rapidly, this software quickly identifies the most qualified people.
The constant progress means the company becomes more efficient all the time, which means it consistently increases what it can do to support clients.“Because we are pushing the envelope on what we do and how we do it, there is never a feeling of a ‘dead-end job,’” Bird said.
As Operations Support Manager, Bird oversees a team of four employees that ensure the readiness or our scientists and equipment, this entails many hats, some of which include ensuring the following: to be on-call 24-7-365; a TERP team is ready to deploy within two hours of client request; logistics of personnel and equipment during all phases of a project; documentation, maintenance and calibration (if required) of vehicle fleet, trailers, equipment and plane.
In our next post, Bird discusses CTEH’s contributions to his career and to the communities it serves.
