“We’re always looking for leaders.” They may drive a truck, repair a vehicle, or take customer service calls, but for Tom Cray and Tracy Mixan, who are out to establish Papillion Sanitation as the best garbage collection and recycling business in Omaha, their recruitment strategy sets them apart. “These are the guys who are going to lead the company in the future.”
Career Opportunity
While Papillion Sanitation may not be the first name people think of when considering great career opportunities, Tom and Tracy encourage job seekers to think again.
“Our company culture is really unmatched,” Tracy confidently asserts. “We put our people first and we’re intentional about it.”
Tom adds, “We emphasize promoting from within, and as people come up, they see what our leadership is like, and it helps to protect the culture we’ve built.”
People will always have trash, and they will always need solutions for the removal and recycling of their trash, so Papillion can rest confidently in its job security. The work remains consistently steady throughout the year. They offer competitive wages, and some of the drivers have been with the company for more than two decades.
Papillion is constantly looking to grow with Omaha. As the population increases and new developments take shape, they consistently and regularly evaluate opportunities to grow their footprint. There’s a challenge to maintaining the equilibrium they’ve established, as they never want to spread themselves so thin that their outstanding customer service deteriorates. At the same time, they want to continue expanding the reach and opportunities for their employees by meaningful and strategic growth.
Organizational Philosophy
Tom and Tracy describe Papillion as a “decentralized company with great corporate backing that allows them to have great things, such as industry-leading benefits, opportunities for new trucks, growth,” and the like. Enjoying the best of both corporate resources and a mom-and-pop-shop mode of operation allows employees plenty of opportunities to shape company culture while accessing promotions and professional growth.
Safety is the foundational value, so they provide their frontline staff with everything they need to be able to do their work, from uniform service to mechanized trucks. As a result, the employees return home safely at the end of each day.
The workers on the front lines are Papillion’s greatest resource, and so the leadership team takes a servant leadership approach to helping them succeed. They flip the hierarchy upside down, positioning leadership to work on behalf of the employees, providing them the direction, tools, resources, and autonomy that enable them to thrive on the job.
Modern Approaches to an Age-old Industry
Papillion is on a mission to create sound waste management solutions. The diversion of green waste, or organic materials, from landfills for composting has been an important initiative in recent years. Plant materials can be broken down and utilized as aggregate very successfully.
Modern garbage collection is far more sanitary and less labor-intensive than it once was. Papillon uses automated trucks with hydraulic arms to do the heavy lifting and dumping of the cans. With these trucks, not only are the employees safer and able to avoid direct contact with the trash, but the teams are also able to service more clients, enabling Papillion to continue its growth.
Papillon is currently working to improve their recycling program, and they’re aggressively seeking solutions for effective glass recycling, a process that to this point has been both incredibly labor-intensive and responsible for tremendous carbon monoxide production.
Recently Papillion opened a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility in Bellevue. They had outgrown their former facility and needed to better accommodate their growing fleet of trucks and operate adequate mechanical shop space to perform maintenance and keep the trucks in optimal condition. With 8 service bays, a well-organized shop, and a full training curriculum and professional development path, novice mechanics can grow, and experienced ones have an opportunity to use their skills to help the company grow.
Papillion and the Community
Every year around Christmas time, Papillion hosts a bike-building event so the staff can collectively give back to the community. The company buys many bicycles and orders a meal for the employees. Together, they work to assemble the bicycles, all of which are donated to the community.
They also host Papillion Days, during which time they strategically place dumpsters about the city and encourage the community to get involved in helping make the city a more beautiful place to live. People can bring things they wish to dispose of, and it is hauled away.
For future sanitation workers and large truck enthusiasts, Papillon will also schedule Touch-a-Truck events with local elementary schools. The kids can learn about the trucks and how they work, sit in the driver’s seat, and carry home some Papillion swag, just for them.
Papillion Sanitation has made a long-term investment in Omaha. For thirty years, they’ve been serving the community and making the city a better place to live. And ultimately, it’s their employees and customers who are receiving the dividends.
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