Fact: People working at a greenhouse operation do so much more than grow nutritious food!
NatureFresh™ needs a lot of people on our team who know how to grow healthy plants, but we also employ hundreds of people with unique skills that work in diverse roles throughout our operation!
Whether it’s a role at one of the farms, in our warehouses, at our distribution center, or within the many office spaces, our employee needs are incredibly diverse – we have many team members with unique backgrounds and different skill sets to help us grow and find success.
Take a closer look at 9 different roles we have featured below – you will quickly discover that there is a lot more to running a successful greenhouse operation than many people might assume.
Roles in a Greenhouse
We have featured 9 roles at NatureFresh™ that are often found in a typical greenhouse operation – if any positions seem like a good fit for you, check out our Careers page for current job openings!
Growers
Our Tomato, Pepper, and Cucumber plants need expert Growers to help them grow strong and healthy! Our Growers are knowledgeable in plant growth and nutrition, pest control, and high-quality fruit production. But Growers don’t just take care of our plants – they also coordinate people working with crops and give them the knowledge they need to successfully protect, cultivate, and harvest from our plants.
A typical day for a Grower involves adjusting the greenhouse growing environment so that our plants can thrive. This includes everything from changing the internal greenhouse environment, including temperature, humidity, and air flow, to adjusting nutrient levels in the nutrient water feed and changing shade curtain orientation for the optimal amount of sunlight to enter our greenhouses.
If our plants are comfortable and well-fed, our Growers and their team are among the many people to thank!
Energy Team
At every level of our operation, we need power and heat – this is where our Energy team comes in! Our Energy experts know all the ins and outs of our natural gas and biomass boiler systems, which are what they use to create power and to heat our greenhouses.
Biomass boilers burn clean waste wood and convert it into an energy source – by using biomass boilers, we save roughly 17,000 tons of wood from being thrown into landfills every season! It’s the job of our Energy department to coordinate deliveries with local suppliers so that we always use reliable sources for the scraps being burned in our biomass boiler.
The Energy team at NatureFresh™ is constantly monitoring our energy usage, finding new ways to increase our energy efficiency, and discovering more sustainable energy solutions – without them, our greenhouses wouldn’t be able to operate!
Bio Scouts
One of the most effective ways for us to prevent and react to pests in our greenhouses is by applying beneficial bios, or good bugs, to our crops. Our Bio Scouts are important members of our Integrated Pest Management (IPM) team who introduce a host of good bugs into the greenhouse to fight the bad bugs, like Spider Mites or Thrips, that pose a potential threat to our plants.
To apply beneficial bios, our Bio Scouts explore the greenhouse rows every day, searching for signs of crop damage or plant stress. Plants are smart – when they experience a threat from a pest, they show their stress in their leaves, making it easier for our Bio Scout team to discover bad bugs and deal with them appropriately.
Without our expert Bio Scouts and the good bugs they spread, we wouldn’t be able to protect our plants from destructive pests – their work is crucial for our plants’ health!
Maintenance Workers
A greenhouse operation is made up of many different moving parts – which is why we need an expert Maintenance department to keep everything running smoothly!
From hooking up electrical lines to troubleshooting new Packhouse machinery, the Maintenance team is always busy fixing and improving the different machinery and utilities throughout our facilities. Their team members are often considered ‘Jacks of all trades’ – they always seem to know exactly how to fix a problem, no matter how complex it may seem.
If you like problem solving and getting your hands a bit dirty, working in a greenhouse Maintenance department may be right up your alley!
Human Resources Team
As a greenhouse operation that is always expanding, we need a strong Human Resources department to recruit new people and manage the needs of our team!
Our Human Resources team members are responsible for recruiting new talent, partnering with departments to create positive employee relations, administering company policies, and maintaining governmental food safety and health and safety compliance. They are also the go-to resource for the NatureFresh™ team if anyone needs professional or personal guidance or support.
With a confident team of Human Resource specialists to recruit new professionals, the NatureFresh™ family is excited to keep growing!
IT Technicians
Greenhouses have become incredibly high-tech facilities that use the latest gadgets to maximize efficiency and communication. Our IT department is an important part of the NatureFresh™ team because they keep us connected and updated with the best tech available.
Our IT department is constantly searching for and introducing us to new and exciting technology to make our team more efficient. Whether that is cross-company software solutions or tech ‘toys’ that help us share our story with consumers, our IT team is often behind new technologies being introduced within our company.
With so many new technological innovations being introduced to the agriculture industry every day, an expert IT team is essential to help any greenhouse operation thrive.
Line Leaders
Once our products are picked, they need to be packaged up for delivery to retail locations throughout North America. This is where our Line Leads come in – they can always be found in the middle of the action as fresh products get packed for shipment to our retail partners.
Line Leads must show great attention to details – NatureFresh™ holds the highest standards for quality, so it is essential for our Line Leads to be detail-oriented as they prepare our products for distribution. Things they need to keep an eye out for include the application of accurate labels, consistent cleaning of packing lines and machinery, and keeping team members motivated!
Our Line Leads are the crucial link that gets our produce transported safely to our Distribution Center – a big step closer to your grocery cart!
Distribution Team
Once our produce is packed up, we still need to get it to our retailers! Our Distribution Center team is responsible for shipping our products in an efficient and safe manner – they spend their day inside our Distribution facility allocating orders and loading our trucks with new deliveries.
The Distribution Center is always a bustle of activity – from trucks being loaded and checked, to forklifts weaving through order stacks, to the refrigeration units being filled and emptied, there is always something keeping this team busy.
Our Distribution team makes sure only the freshest NatureFresh™ products arrive at your local store – their quick work is essential!
Sales Representatives
Fresh Tomatoes, Peppers, and Cucumbers don’t just appear on store shelves with the snap of a finger – a greenhouse operation needs savvy Salespeople working with retail partners to consistently supply them with greenhouse-grown products!
Our Sales Representatives work directly with our valued retail partners to provide them with the highest-quality products 365 days a year. Our Sales team is also constantly attending industry events to stay up-to-date on industry trends and new packaging innovations to benefit our consumers.
Without the hard work of our Sales team, we would grow lots of delicious food, but we wouldn’t necessarily be able to sell it at your favorite stores! Our Sales Representatives are an incredibly important part of the NatureFresh™ team.
We’re Always Expanding!
We have shared 9 different roles that exist in the greenhouse industry – but we have barely scraped the surface to show all the opportunities cropping up every day at greenhouse operations just like NatureFresh™!
If working in this exciting and dynamic industry sounds like the perfect fit for you, feel free to check out our Careers page for open positions!
You can also explore our Grow-To People page to meet the type of people working at our farm! Learn about their backgrounds, past work experience, and what they love most about working at NatureFresh™.
