Finding great employees is tough work. Every employer knows this.
Keeping great employees can be even tougher.
After nearly four decades of hiring guys and gals to work with their hands, training crew leaders, and building teams, I’ve noticed something important:
Great employees are attracted to companies that look successful.
Think about your favorite football, baseball, basketball, or soccer team. When game day arrives, the team doesn’t show up wearing mismatched shirts and torn-up shoes. They show up looking sharp, wearing uniforms, carrying themselves like professionals, and ready to compete.
The landscape business is no different.
People want to be part of a winning team.
That means your company should look like a team.
Your uniforms should be consistent. Your trucks should look similar. Your company name, logo, and contact information should be displayed professionally. When every crew member looks like they belong together, you send a powerful message to employees, customers, and prospects:
“We take this business seriously.”
But the appearance of success goes much deeper than uniforms and truck graphics.
Let’s talk about equipment.
Suppose Crew #3 reports to work Monday morning. They load up and head to the first job. The crew leader grabs the trimmer, pulls the rope, and nothing happens.
He pulls again.
Nothing. She won’t fire up. He pulls and pulls. He tinkers and tries again. Finally, after 15 minutes, he throws the machine down and goes to get the back-up.
And the same darn problem happens again. The $500 trimmer is now sucking the spirit out of a $45,000 employee.
Now the whole crew is frustrated. They just wanted to do their work…make 8 hours and call it day. But the day is not going the way it was supposed to go.
Broken Equipment = Broken Spirits
If you want to run employees away from your company…just let equipment problems fester. I don’t care if it’s a crew leader, technician, seasonal help or long-term crew members, equipment problems that are allowed to remain will run folks off! It’s a fact.
Want to keep folks longer?
Buy good equipment and get repairs fixed fast. Failure to get the needed equipment, tools OR supplies in the hands of your teams destroys their morale. And these equipment problems that hang around are recognized as something else…
It’s become a leadership problem.
Nothing destroys teamwork faster than making good employees fight bad equipment.
Faulty mowers, broken trimmers, dead blowers, trailer lights that don’t work, truck doors that won’t latch, ramps that are heavy and slippery, and tools that can’t be found because the truck is disorganized all create negative job conditions.
And negative job conditions are the enemy of employee retention.
The best employees always have options.
When they compare your company to another company with newer trucks, organized tools, dependable equipment, and fewer daily frustrations, where do you think they want to work?
The answer is obvious. Great employees want to win. They want to work for a company that invests in their success. They want equipment that starts. They want tools that can be found.
They want trucks that make the day easier instead of harder.
And they want to know the owner cares enough to fix problems before those problems become daily frustrations.
Now, before you say, “Tony, I can’t afford new equipment,” let me offer another perspective.
Can you afford turnover?
Can you afford to lose a dependable crew leader because he’s tired of fighting equipment problems every day?
Can you afford to spend thousands recruiting and training replacements? Sometimes the cheapest employee retention strategy isn’t a pay raise. Sometimes it’s a blower that cranks on the first pull. A mower that cuts properly.
A truck that is clean, organized, and dependable might be the perfect employee retention strategy. Want an idea of what a really well organized truck looks like? Video Here.
Remember this simple truth: Winning teams look like winning teams.
And when employees see that you’re committed to providing great equipment, great tools, and great working conditions, they’ll be much more likely to stay, grow, and help you build a company worth being proud of.
Because great employees don’t just want a paycheck.
They want to be part of a winning team.
Tony Bass, founder
PS – The NCAA College Baseball World Series tournament is going on from now through next week. Our Georgia Bulldogs have made it to Omaha this year. So I’m cheering for this team to have a great tournament and win the national championship. Go Dawgs!
If you have been struggling to find, hire and keep great employees, then you should get a copy of The Landscaper’s Guide to Finding, Hiring and Keeping Great Employees. Every step in the hiring game is explained in detail. Get your copy and you’ll have a playbook to guide you on your journey. You may be one crew leader away from adding another $350,000 to $500,000 in revenue. Invest in your education. It’s the right decision. You can purchase online right here.
