Cultivating Care

Published: Jun 12, 2019

In his 12-plus years at Nutrien, Dean Punk, Mechanical Supervisor at our site in Patience Lake, has been impressed by Nutrien’s commitment to the well-being and growth of its employees. Along with the company’s strong emphasis on safety, he has observed this caring attitude through the opportunities that he’s been encouraged to pursue. 

Dean's employment journey began in the mine at our Potash facility in Cory, Saskatchewan in 2002. After almost a year, the Operational Superintendent encouraged him to apply for a supervisory position at the surface facility. "I'm not sure I would have applied for the supervisor role if I hadn't had the encouragement from my leaders -- it really gave me a boost of confidence to know they believed in me and knew that I could do the job," says Dean.

Nutrien was correct in its assessment because in only a few short years the mill was enjoying the best production years in its history. By 2008, Dean was ready to take on a new challenge, becoming part of the team that would ultimately monitor, and construct our Cory plant expansion project. This project managed to increase the 2006 levels of potash production by 1.2 million tonnes. 

"I was so fortunate for this opportunity; it was incredibly challenging and rewarding to be part of the success of that project."

Dean's career is a great example of Nutrien's purpose-driven culture to grow our world from the ground up. Through a combination of leader encouragement, continuous learning and hard work, Dean has been able to grow his impressive career right here at Nutrien.

In addition, Dean has experienced growth in Nutrien's approach to one of our core values: safety. "I have seen the evolution of our safety culture through increased awareness and initiatives such as our Safe Work Plans and Flash Reports of incidents that are shared across all work sites," he points out. "This shows how we are continually learning ways to improve safety. 

"In my 12 years at Nutrien, I’ve had the pleasure of working with so many talented individuals at all levels of this organization and have witnessed tremendous amounts of opportunity. When leaders recognize potential and encourage their staff to take their careers to the next level, we create productive, lifetime employees."