People First, Pt. 6: Meet the Safety Core Values Award Winner, Linda Elgas

We’re back with another edition of our People First series recognizing TA Service’s award-winning employees. In our last feature, you met Dave Crosby, the winner of our Service Core Values Award. This week, we’re introducing you to Linda Elgas, our Safety Core Values Award winner.

Our Core Values Awards is a new, annual series of awards recognizing TA’s exemplary team members who embody our core values: people first, service, safety, results, and innovation. We’ve chosen our winners from an exceptional pool of employee of the month honorees.

Linda started her warehousing logistics career at TA Services 14 years ago, and in that time, she’s had an outstanding track record of safety success. Because of her commitment to ensuring safety in everything she does, Linda was an obvious choice for the Safety Core Values Award. In her role as a team lead at our Janesville, WI warehouse, Linda leads by example — constantly communicating and ensuring everyone around her wears their PPE to meet TA’s organizational safety standards.

Linda is extremely thoughtful and cares about her team members like they are her family. Not only does she play a leading role in the safety of our warehouse facilities, but she also exemplifies all of TA Services’ core values day in and day out. We are extremely proud to have Linda on the TA Services team and to present her with the 2022 Safety Award.

We had the chance to chat with Linda about her commitment to safety. Here’s what she had to say.

Q: Can you tell us about your role at TA Services?
A: I’m the customer shipping team lead for first shift at our Janesville, WI warehouse. Every day inside of a warehouse is a different adventure, but I’m here to assist the team with anything they may need. I’ll assist our admins with getting orders put out and help pickers find their parts. I also get full loads scheduled for the day or week. And as a team lead, I’m part of the safety walks that we do on a weekly basis.

Q: What do those safety walks consist of?
A: Every week, the team lead supervisors have a different area we are tasked with inspecting. Depending on which area we are assigned for the week, we are given a checklist of certain things to go through to ensure the warehouse runs smoothly and safely. The warehouse safety checklist covers things like fire safety, electrical safety, dock safety, first aid, ensuring battery chargers are in designated department areas, and other general safety measures.  

Q: Why is safety such an important core value at TA?
A: Safety is extremely important to us at TA Services; we want to ensure all employees go home in the same condition they came into work in. We all have families at home — kids or parents — and I want all my coworkers to go home healthy and safely.

Q: What are some of the safety protocols TA has in place?
A: We have several protocols — whether it’s wearing the proper PPE, steel-toe boots, or color-coded vests to identify employee groups. We also have walking guidelines for getting around the warehouse and approaching a PIV [forklift] driver. Everything we do is done with safety in mind.

Q: What do you like most about working at TA?
A: My favorite thing about working at TA is working with all the employees — getting to know them and working together as a team. It takes a group effort to be able to get our customers’ products out promptly and safely, and we have a great group here.

Q: As a lead, what advice do you share with your team members?
A: Do every job safely. We’re here for eight hours every day, so it’s important that we create a fun, friendly environment. But our number one priority is to get the job done right and get the job done safely. 

Please join us in congratulating Linda on this well-deserved honor. And be sure to check back next week to meet another award-winning employee.

Ready to join a winning team? Start your warehousing logistics career with TA Services.