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Ask the Expert with U.S. Lawns: Conquer Your Staffing Challenges

21K views 53 replies 7 participants last post by  Mike_LS 
#1 ·
How do I find and keep quality employees? Should I pay my employees more? Get your top staffing questions answered by Ken Hutcheson, President of U.S. Lawns, in our latest Ask the Expert event. He will be live for a two-hour Q&A session to answer questions about your staffing challenges and other hot topics.

Who? Ken Hutcheson joined U.S. Lawns in 1995, nurturing the company into a multi-state franchise operation. Since becoming President in 2002, he has grown U.S. Lawns into the largest commercial grounds care franchise in the nation. 

When?
 Tuesday, October 11, 2016 

What Time? 12:00-2:00 P.M. ET

Where? Here! Bookmark this thread and join Ken right here for the live chat event.  

As the largest online community for landscaping professionals, LawnSite invites you to the third installment in the Ask the Expert series, where you can get advice from industry experts in a live Q&A forum, brought to you by U.S. Lawns. Stay tuned for our next Ask the Expert event on November 9, 2016.

You must be a registered user of LawnSite to participate in the Ask the Expert events. Create your free account now.
 
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#2 ·
Hello and welcome to the latest LawnSite Ask the Expert event, sponsored by U.S. Lawns. You must be a registered member to participate in today's Ask the Expert event. Click here to create your free account now. Also, please remember to refresh the page to keep updated with the comments on the thread.

These live Q&A sessions are a chance to get your burning business questions answered by leading green industry experts. Today, we're honored to have Ken Hutcheson, President of U.S. Lawns, back for a two-hour session on staffing issues and other hot topics.

Born and raised near Orlando, Hutcheson graduated from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Horticulture. From there, he cultivated a thriving business in interior plant design, which he franchised in the 1980s. Ken joined U.S. Lawns in 1995, nurturing the company into a multi-state franchise operation. Since becoming President in 2002, he has grown U.S. Lawns into the largest commercial grounds care franchise in the nation. Ken is an esteemed public speaker, renowned innovator and franchising expert. He sits on the Accredited Snow Contractors Association (ASCA) Board, and has been honored with the prestigious Lawn and Landscape Leadership Award. In 2013, he achieved his longtime dream of completing the Boston Marathon.
 
#15 ·
All great ideas. It's important to take a broader view of the situation. I've found most companies don't treat employee recruiting with the same level of commitment as customer recruiting (sales). In today's competitive environment these are equally important. A good employee recruiting program should include all of the typical media channels, including; digital, print, radio, direct mail, and grassroots efforts.
 
#20 ·
Any ideas on how to attract and retain the younger generation of workers in our business. It seems as if there is a big disconnect with this era of employees. We are located in three different states in the Southeast and are constantly trying to recruit at local colleges, technical schools, and posting adds in newspapers as well as social media.
We have interest in the positions and get as far as hiring some and then they find out it is a job where you actually have to work to get paid. At this point the work ethic and attitude completely changes and demoralizes the entire staff.
 
#22 ·
You're right. This can be a challenge. You may want to consider adjusting your target candidate. Some of our most successful employees are a little more mature than you're describing. Widen the circle. At the same time, you can't ignore the younger generation. We find they require a higher level of engagement. Set the right expectations. Answer the question "why" before it's asked.
 
#23 ·
Something to consider; if you are not getting referrals from your current employees you may want to look in the mirror. Is there an organic problem within your organization? Are your employees happy? Retention is as important as recruiting.

A question for the group; what type of turnover rate do you have?
 
#24 ·
Target candidate adjust almost on a daily basis. Through the course of the growing season turn over rate greatly increases. It goes from having desirable employees through the winter and spring months to whatever we can get in the door to do the work in the dead heat of the summer.
We have been utilizing the GANTT system and breaking the jobs down to an understandable level from our aspect. We take the supervisors and train with them on almost a daily level. We are on the jobsites training the crew laborers for the supervisor. Even with the job broken down with times, map that depict where to park the truck, where to start, what pattern to follow, and times each task should take, it still seems to be "Rocket Science".
There seems to be no sense of pride in a job well done or responsibility in the work force today.
Does any one have any idea on how to overcome this dilemma?
 
#27 ·
There is no silver bullet. It's a complex situation with many moving parts. It sounds like you are doing more than most. One area you may want to focus on is the crew leader position. Right jobs, right equipment, right employees. That's what it takes for a crew leader to be successful. Does your crew leader recognize the importance of the people on the crew? Does he treat them with respect? He is rewarded for employee retention? Or is his focus solely on getting the job done on time. You set the tone.
 
#29 ·
Hi! We seem to not be able to recruit laborers. We offer competitive wages and benefits. However, that does not seem to attract laborers. We've also used Craigslist, Zip Recruiter, & Green Industries and haven't had any luck. Any other tips would be of great help! Our competitors seem to poach our employees and offer an additional dollar if they leave us. Unsure how we can overcome this obstacle.
 
#31 ·
I have an interview with them asking alot of questions. If we decide to try one of them we then put them with a crew leader for training and evaluation. After the first week with the training crew leader we move them to a crew that we feel will be a good fit for them and the crew, or we let them go if they can't meet our standers.
 
#33 ·
As we all know efficiency on the job comes with repetition. First and foremost job quality is to be obtained over the amount of time it takes to get performed.
There are incentives in place for the crew leaders if jobs are both of acceptable quality and within budget guidelines. Most of the time we struggle with the quality due to the fact that we are short on labor, therefore the people that show up on a normal basis work to the point that they are beat down. We literally have tried to hire three or four extra people to try to counter act the absents and still at times by the end of the week end up with not enough to fully staff the crews.
From talking with other companies in our area our starting rate for non experienced crew members is higher than any other, our crew leader rate is the same or higher than most other companies. Throwing more money at the situation does not help.
We go as far as to have drinks and frozen popsicles in the freezer for them at the end of the day and quarterly cook outs where everyone can gather and socialize.
 
#36 ·
I've looked at perhaps posting on builder sites, we have tried sign-on bonuses as well as referral bonuses, but as you stated earlier we might have a problem if our own employees aren't happy. I think it is safe to say that our employees have held us hostage. When an employee threatens to leave if we don't give them more money, we give in and throw in a little extra. How can we change this?
 
#38 ·
I appreciate your honesty. Changing a company's culture is tough. That's what the off-season is for. We've seen some success stories where companies have turned over most of their staff during the off-season and started fresh in the spring to establish a different culture without the baggage. I'm not sure I would recommend that, but understand, someone is establishing the culture in your business. Is it you, or is it your employees? As an owner, I certainly hope its you.
 
#37 ·
We don't give new employees full uniforms of the first day, we give them tee shirts the first day and full uniforms after two weeks. Our equipment is in great shape. We have a clip board in our well kept shop for the crew leaders to post anything they want or need. I can't remember one time this year that they haven't gotten what they wanted.
 
#43 ·
Have you asked the employees that are leaving, why? You may surprised at what you hear. Are you confident your crew leaders are treating the new employees respectfully when you are not around? Is the new employee given the worst tasks on the job? I said this earlier, you may want to consider offering incentives to your crew leaders for retention.
 
#47 ·
High level answer ... tell a compelling story. Everyone wants to be part of a winning team. Is that your story? Do people want to associate with your business.

On a more tactical level ... we've seen great success with a grassroots type campaign. Get back to the basics. Are your trucks and trailers logo-ed. Are your employees in uniform? The type of work that you do and your quality sends a strong message to the market. There is also great opportunity on the digital front. What does your online message say about you? Targeting messaging is also important.
 
#44 ·
At U.S. Lawns, we strongly believing in developing our employees. We recognize that we need to take a base level worker and convert them to a professional gardener in a short period of time. To accomplish this, we offer both classroom and field level training and certification. We also host a series of group, regional and national meetings to further advance the skills of our team.

For you, I recommend reaching out to your local suppliers, your ag department, and NALP. These are great sources of information.
 
#45 ·
I have asked some of the better one's why they left. I get all types of answers from them from money, different field because the work in our industry is so demanding to less travel to and from the shop etc. I had only one tell me it was because of their crew leader and he has been addressed about it. Seem like the pool we have to draw from here that they dont need a reason so to speak. It to hot, i need to babysit, wife didn't want me to work ect.
 
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