Creating an Animal Welfare Mindset in Your Company
By, Phillip Clemens, president of Hatfield Quality Meats
(Presented at 2002 Animal Handling Conference)

Our topic this morning - creating an animal welfare mindset in your company should interest each one of you.

I believe, if you are to begin to create and animal welfare mindset, it begins with and understanding of what your organization's mindset on any issue. So I ask each of you here today, what is your organizations mindset? Do you know it? Let's take it back even a step farther - what is your mindset? Have you clearly established your own mindset?

I believe to begin with, this issue is very personal. Each of us in this room must first and foremost determine our own mindset on what we stand for. We must build absolutes into our life, once we do, we than can look at the organizations we represent. Again, I need to emphasize that I believe this is a very personal matter.

Once you have established your own personal absolutes, you then can match those to the organization that your have chosen to be employed by. Each organization must know what they stand for and why they do what they do. I prefer that each organization put their values into writing.

Representing a family business, I often look at what makes family businesses succeed and what allows them to fail. All successful family businesses that have existed for more than 25 years have established values. I firmly believe that you first identity your values. These are the foundational building blocks. From your values, you build your vision. From your vision you build your mission and make plans for fulfilling your vision. In fulfilling your vision, you can never violate your values.

Let me put this into practical terms. Let me tell you what we do at our family corporation. First we have clearly identified our values. They are:

1. Honor God in all we do.
2. Earn a reputation of high ethics and integrity
3. Make sound business investments
4. Take a long-term view
5. Share success with employees, community and shareholders
6. Be good stewards
7. Seek to set commercial standards

These values then translate into our Vision. It states: "It is the Clemens Family Corporation's goal to own profitable diversified enterprises that honor the Lord Jesus Christ. We are committed to be a Clemens Family controlled corporation. We will be good stewards of all God has given us including our assets, employees, and the environment in which we work and the neighborhoods in which we live."

From this Vision Statement, each of our enterprises builds their mission statements. No mission statement or actions will be permitted that violates our values or our vision.

So how is this carried out in our animal welfare actions? I strongly believe you can't compartmentalize each segment of your life or your business. You must be consistent in your actions. You can't treat your customers and employees well and then treat your animals in a different way and expect to get away with it. I believe if you tell your employees that you will treat them with respect and utmost care and then treat your animals in an inconsistent manner, your employees will know that their treatment is in jeopardy.

But, just putting the values and vision in writing, doesn't mean it will be carried out. It takes accountability to make sure it is being carried out. Those accountabilities then get translated into financial incentives to be brought to reality. I believe money can reward or penalize people for their actions. Just remember that there is only a 17" difference between a pat on the back and a kick in the pants. Employees need to know that you are serious about animal welfare.

This is where the idea of stewardship is very valuable. A steward is someone who manages something they don't own, but treats it as if it was their own. Our Company has a long-standing religious heritage. Our first values states that we will "Honor God in all we do". Our family and business refers to the Biblical standard that God has created all the animals for our benefit and that we as mankind are here to take care of them. In essence we are to be stewards of the animals God has provided.

A cynical person may say - you are raising these animals to be slaughtered, then you are actually slaughtering them - how can that be looking out for the animals welfare? I believe it is very clear. God has given them to us to have dominion over - that means to use under our direction. To raise animals for food is very natural. But, it requires that animals are raised in the best possible conditions, transported in the kindest way and then processed by the most humane treatment.

Both yesterday and today you have heard Temple Grandin share her ideas on animal handling, transportation, stunning and processing. She has dedicated her life to making sure that animals are treated in a humane way. At times, the meat industry shutters at her ideas - but she is right on the money. Animals needed to be treated with respect and in the most humane way as possible. It may cost extra money to do it right - but it is the right thing to do.

To help me carry out the right things on a daily basis, my wife has given me some posters to hang in my office to remind me about doing the right thing. Let me share a few of these sayings with you:

"There is no right way to do a wrong thing"
"What is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular"
"People may doubt what you say, but they will always believe what you do"

You see, creating the right mindset first begins with the person you saw in the mirror this morning - YOU! You then choose to work at a company that will not violate what you stand for. You also encourage the employees that work at that company to uphold the values the company espouses. Creating the mindset for the rest of the firm begins with you and is embraced by you. It is then carried forth by the entire organization for everyone's wellbeing.

Let me tie in the final point that makes all of this work - financial incentives. Talk is cheap, but achieving desired results should bring reward - and part of that reward is financial. Remember, "People may doubt what you say, but they will always believe what you do". At Hatfield we do this in several ways - but far and away the most meaningful is our Profit Sharing Plan. Currently under our Plan, and employee can earn a maximum Profit Sharing of 24% of all wages earned during the year. That is a significant amount.

How does this tie into animal welfare? First, we do not compartmentalize the profit sharing. Everything must work together to achieve the maximum reward. The starting point is the animal we process. If the animal has been mistreated - beginning back at the farm, it will yield poor results. Starting off with animals that are not the healthiest will lead to dissatisfied consumer.

The animal must be raised properly. It also must be transported in safe and comfortable method. At Hatfield, our nickname is "Home of the Smiling Porker". We want our animals to come in rested and relaxed. An "uptight" animal that is stressed will affect the quality of the meat. Poor quality meat leads to unhappy consumers and lower profits.

The animal must be handled properly before it gets to our facility. Once it gets to the plant, it must be treated as something of value. Proper handling by our receiving staff and the pen personnel is essential. Temple has designed our pens from ventilation, lighting and line of sight areas. The area leading to processing area is also critical. Once the process of harvesting is begun, it must be done in a very stress free and humane way. Again, Temple's designs have been very helpful.

If this process is done right, the chances of success and a profitable result is greatly enhanced. However, if this initial process is mishandled, chances of being profitable are greatly diminished. When our employees do it right - it pays huge dividends. Last year, we shared over $9 million in profit sharing with about 1,100 employees. If they had reached all their goals, that amount could have been $4 or 5 million more.

You see, we don't always do it right each time. However, it is our goal at Hatfield to be "The Most Trusted Provider of Wholesome Food". It begins with our values, is translated into performance and rewarded by Profit Sharing. Owners must be committed to doing things right and translate their expectations to management and then management must work with employees to meet those expectations. Creating the right mindset begins at the top and must be carried out by each of the parts of the chain.

What will you do to create the right animal welfare mindset in your organization? Remember - it begins with YOU!

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