Chapter 403: Employee Benefits (Medium Cup)

Chapter 403 -188: Employee Benefits (Medium Cup)

The Monan Branch’s contracted area in the Kerchin Desert was a massive thirty million mu. In the future, it would require at least a hundred thousand employees—a number that might even exceed the population of Zhelimu City.

Under these circumstances, the company couldn’t rely on the government to provide all the supporting infrastructure. After all, officials had to manage the bigger picture. Even if they planned for the necessary facilities, construction and completion would take time.

In the early stages, Hailufeng Company would have to provide various services for its employees on its own.

Currently, the amenities available to employees at the Tamin Chagan Base included a cafeteria, bathhouses, and restrooms, as well as a small park, a small stadium, and an indoor activity center.

Liu Zhiben explained to him how these facilities were being run.

Jiang Miao listened for a moment, his brow furrowing. He then gave an order: “The indoor activity center needs to be managed properly. The card and board game rooms, billiards rooms, KTV, and so on—strictly prohibit employees from gambling or engaging in any illegal activities there. I’ll have the Supervision Department assign people to specifically monitor the use of these facilities.”

“Understood. I’ll issue a stern warning to everyone,” Liu Zhiben quickly affirmed.

“This can’t just be a verbal warning; it needs to be institutionalized. I want you to coordinate with the Legal Department to draft a detailed set of regulations on employee conduct. If an employee doesn’t change their ways after multiple warnings, fire them and report them to the police.”

“Yes, I’ll make the arrangements as soon as possible.”

In Jiang Miao’s view, employee conduct was a critical issue. If left unchecked, it could easily spawn a host of other problems.

Take gambling, for instance. If someone got desperate after losing big, it could easily lead to an extreme incident. The consequences could range from minor to severe. An employee committing suicide by jumping off a building would be relatively manageable. What he truly feared was sabotage during production or someone lashing out and indiscriminately attacking other employees.

He brought this up specifically because of a nasty incident that had recently occurred among the construction crew contracted to renovate the employee residential complex at headquarters.

It started when several construction workers were gambling together. One of them lost over a hundred thousand yuan. The more the man thought about it afterward, the more convinced he became that his coworkers had ganged up to cheat him. The next day, a brawl broke out on the construction site. One worker’s arm was broken with a shovel, and the man who lost the money ended up with three broken ribs.

The incident infuriated Jiang Miao, and he gave the foreman a vicious dressing-down.

The incident also served as a wake-up call for Jiang Miao. He had already ordered the Legal Department to draft regulations on employee conduct.

At the same time, he required all companies contracted for Hailufeng Company projects to sign a supplementary clause regarding the management of their employees’ conduct. If any similar nasty incidents occurred, a corresponding amount would be deducted from the contractor’s payment. In severe cases, the contract would be terminated outright.

The contracting companies involved were startled by this and promptly launched internal investigations.

Within Hailufeng Company itself, Jiang Miao also ordered the Supervision Department to investigate employee conduct and issued an internal memo encouraging anonymous tips.

Sure enough, the results of the investigation were shocking.

Problematic employees were discovered at Headquarters, the Gannan Branch, and the Qionzhou Branch. Seventeen people were found to be involved in gambling: some gambled with other employees, some were involved in online gambling, and others gambled with shady friends from outside the company.

As a result, the company fired five people, issued stern warnings to twelve others, and circulated an internal notice about the matter.

Although nothing of the sort had been discovered at the Monan Branch yet, Jiang Miao knew very well that when people get bored, they tend to look for trouble, and for many, gambling is a way to pass the time.

The Monan Branch had been extremely busy for the past few months, and many of the employees were still just getting to know one another. That was why there hadn’t been any obvious signs of gambling. However, with the arrival of winter, much of the work at the Monan Branch would come to a halt. Once people had more free time on their hands, the problems would begin to surface.

That was why Jiang Miao was reminding Liu Zhiben to pay close attention to this matter, so he wouldn’t be trying to fix things after it was already too late.

…

At noon, Jiang Miao ate in the cafeteria with Liu Zhiben and the others, taking the opportunity to inspect its management.

When it came to the cafeteria, Jiang Miao’s primary concern was food safety. He carefully inspected the cooking oil, seasonings, fruits, vegetables, and various meat products used in the kitchen.

As an agricultural company operating in the Monan Region—a major producer of cattle and sheep—the beef and mutton were supplied by their own slaughterhouse. Fish and seafood products were shipped from headquarters via a cold chain. There were no major issues in this area.

However, when it came to the fruits and vegetables, Jiang Miao noticed that many items were not stored properly.

“You need to arrange for cold storage in the cafeteria as soon as possible. It’s autumn now, so these fruits and vegetables are fine, but they’ll spoil easily come summer.”

“Yes, Boss. I’ll arrange it immediately.” Liu Zhiben nodded repeatedly like a chicken pecking at grain, fine beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

After completing his inspection, Jiang Miao was, on the whole, quite satisfied.

This was partly because the Purchasing Department operated independently of the branch. Neither the branch company nor the cafeteria was responsible for procurement. Since the Purchasing Department was strictly managed by the head office, it was unlikely they would use substandard ingredients.

After lunch, Wu Song led him to the Tamin Chagan Breeding Base.

First, he inspected the livestock.

The local yellow cattle, crossbred Simmentals, and crossbred Angus, all raised under a rational conditioning program, were doing well.

The local yellow cattle were being conditioned to enhance flavor and growth speed, with the meat primarily supplied for Chaoshan-style beef hot pot.

The crossbred Simmentals were conditioned for growth speed and a high lean meat content, intended to be sold as an affordable beef product.

The crossbred Angus were conditioned for growth speed, flavor, and marbling, with the meat supplied to Western-style restaurants and barbecue joints.

Jiang Miao observed that the marbling on over a hundred of the crossbred Angus was nearly on par with Wagyu. Clearly, this group could be used as breeding stock to cultivate the next generation of domestic, highly-marbled beef.

Next, he took a vehicle from the north gate of the breeding base and traveled five kilometers to the organic fertilizer plant, located in the heart of the farm.

To facilitate transportation, a simple railway track had been laid between the breeding base and the organic fertilizer plant. Electric carts used the track to haul manure and organic fertilizer between the two sites.

The fertilizer plant was deliberately located five kilometers away to minimize the impact of odors from fermenting manure on nearby residents and the Silver Sand Bay Scenic Area.

In addition to conventional fermentation facilities, the organic fertilizer processing plant also housed a worm farm and a black soldier fly farm.

The worm and black soldier fly farms were semi-experimental, currently operating only on a small scale.