Turner: Culture is about investing in people

Editor’s note: As part of our Road to Recovery coverage, P&Q is turning to some of the industry’s leaders for their takes on the road ahead. This month, producers were presented with the following questions: With the pandemic persisting for almost a full year, how has your company and its operations fared in maintaining the culture established prior to COVID-19? How has your culture been challenged over the last year, and what action have you taken, if any, to maintain it? Has your company culture changed in any way – for better or worse?

Maintaining a thriving culture in any company is always a challenge. But when you throw a global pandemic into the mix, it becomes near impossible.

COVID affected our teams mentally due to the sheer stress of the unknown regarding their families’ health, the economy and the divisiveness of our country. We have tackled that stress within our teams by maintaining a message of hope through our unofficial company slogan: “Love People, Move Dirt.”

Our “no secrets” approach allowed us to invest more in our culture and connect with our people by being transparent. We kicked off our “Turner Mining Live Podcast” in 2020, giving listeners a peak behind the curtain at our mishaps, big wins and expensive lessons learned.

We also shifted our social media strategy to get more interactive with employees and the industry by doing Instagram Live Q&As with followers. Additionally, we did multiple 24-hour employee takeovers of the company’s social media channels to give an inside look into a day in the life of a miner.

A big takeaway for us in 2020 was that successful companies are built on successful cultures.

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Keaton Turner is the founder and president of Turner Mining Group, a national contract mining operation.

Featured image: PamElla Lee Photography