When I first heard about the promotion of Alastair Higgs (Europe Service Manager) and the appointment of Antonio Farina (Area Sales Manager: Italy, Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus), Rain Bird‘s corporate culture came to my mind unintentionally.
As a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, the importance & quality of corporate culture increased in 2020. The cultural environment is one of the three environments (technology + physical + cultural) that affects the employee experience.
This is the only environment that you feel. It is the vibe of your organization. The culture of the organization determines, among others how employees are treated, and even how employees get their jobs done.
Jacob Morgan thinks there are 10 attributes that organizations must focus on to achieve an exceptional culture:
- Company is viewed positively,
- Everyone feels valued,
- Legitimate sense of purpose,
- Employees feel like they are part of the team,
- Believes in diversity and inclusion,
- Referrals come from employees,
- Ability to learn new things and given the resources to do so and advance,
- Treats employees fairly,
- Executives and managers are coaches and mentors,
- Dedictated to employee health & wellness.
2020 will be remembered as a year when everything has changed. People are rethinking how they want to live and work. I heard recently that many golf club employees in the UK are not so excited to return to work in the hospitality industry.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that Brexit makes it harder to find great professionals. I also see that people take care more seriously wellbeing and mental health.
Prophet Consultancy believes wellbeing & mental health needs were one of the TOP 3 drivers of cultural change in 2020.
I am expecting that employees will want to work in a company that has a positive impact on the world. Are you proud of your employer??
We should not ignore the importance of belonging. Belonging is highly correlated to employee engagement. I hope Alastair Higgs & Antonio Farina write their opinions and motivations regarding Rain Bird in the comment box.
New appointments at Rain Bird
Alastair Higgs
Alastair Higgs has been promoted to the role of Europe Service Manager. In this new position, working from Rain Bird Europe’s office in France, Alastair’s responsibilities will include developing and driving forward service activities for Rain Bird across Europe.
He says
“My new role widens my remit significantly and covers the full spectrum of Rain Bird products over a much larger geographical territory. Having been involved with golf throughout my career to date, it’s a welcome change to be dealing with a range of new sectors from agriculture to residential.”
He adds
“As our focus is increasingly software-centric, remote and on-site support is becoming much more important, not only for new installations but also throughout the lifetime of Rain Bird systems. An enhanced service offering puts customers in full control and gives them complete peace of mind, enabling them to maximise efficiency of central control and cloud-
based technologies and gain all the benefits that these offer.”
Antonio Farina
Antonio Farina has joined the Rain Bird Europe Golf Team as Area Sales Manager Golf. With a Master´s degree in Economics and over thirteen years of experience in the agricultural, turf, and golf industries, he adds significant international experience and expertise to the growing European team.
Prior to joining Rain Bird, Antonio worked at John Deere in Italy as Financial Area Sales Manager, Turf Territory Manager, and most recently, as Sales & Marketing Representative.