We were lucky to catch up with Theresa Frueh recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Theresa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

Animal Ark has historically had a small staff supplemented by a large group of volunteers. My predecessor almost doubled the staff in the three years that he was at the Ark. The problem was we were in desperate need and short staffed while he was hiring and we ended up with a staff that didn’t fit well together. We had new staff members still figuring out what they wanted to do with their careers and we had original staff members that needed consistent, reliable help.

When I took over we were in a cycle of heavy turnover. As a small nonprofit animal sanctuary there will always be a small amount of turnover. At this time we were still in the desperate mode. We were hiring someone from the first few waves of interviews just to fill that role. As you can imagine, that led to an another wave of turnover and so on and so forth. About two years ago we started streamlining our questions, interviews and job expectations. We collected larger groups of potential employees before we started the interview process and we were finally willing to wait for the right employees instead of settling for the best of the batch.

It’s taken about a year and a half but it’s paid off. Our staff is mostly new this year but we selected people who had the right experience but also the right personality to gel with the team.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Theresa Frueh. I’ve been with Animal Ark for a total of 18 years. I’ve always been interested in wildlife and I knew from a young age that I was going to do something with animals when I grew up.

I discovered Animal Ark when I was 15. My mom took me out to see the animals over summer break and it was love at first sight. I signed up to volunteer at the end of that visit and I’ve been a part of Animal Ark since.

Animal Ark is a wildlife sanctuary located 25 miles north of downtown Reno, Nevada. We provide a permanent home to wildlife that can’t go back to the wild. Some of our animals were orphaned, others were injured in the wild, and most of our current animals were born in captivity.

We are open to the public 9 months of the year and serve as an educational resource for our community. We work with schools to provide field trips through the facility and outreach programs at the schools.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

We created a morale committee. The committee has an annual budget and works to plan and execute monthly staff activities, birthday treats and a couple team building activities. This has been a high success this year.

We’ve also revamped our evaluations. Instead of touching base once a year we are moving toward doing a check in every two months. These check-ins provide us with an opportunity to communicate expectations on a more regular basis but it also gives the staff the opportunity to voice concerns.

Both of these approaches have led to increased staff morale. The key that we’ve found is giving space for the team to feel seen and heard. A space for games and fun doesn’t hurt either.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Advertising is expensive and often out of reach. To compensate we’ve funneled a lot of time into our social media platforms. This has brought new guests to the park and it’s brought additional income to the park.

We also send press releases out the news stations when we have a special event or new animal.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://animalark.org

Image Credits

Animal Ark Staff