Growing a business can be a tricky balancing act. Small companies, especially, must multi-task efforts toward profitability and build a team that can support additional revenue. There are daily operations to manage—accounts to service—while planning to secure the infrastructure and human resources to support growth. Because owners of smaller operations wear many hats, decisions relating […]
Americans are turning to apprenticeships to develop a much-needed workforce. An apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of skilled crafts practitioners. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, more than 5 million people will be trained through apprenticeships in 1,000 industries over the next five years. And the landscape industry is part […]
By Maria Pallotta, chief of staff, Canopy Lawn Care, Raleigh, North Carolina One of the most impactful conversations of my career happened during my first week at Canopy Lawn Care. Our CEO, Hunt Davis, had a conversation about one of his long-term goals at Canopy. He wanted our workforce to match the diversity of our […]
If you’re like a lot of landscape business owners, then you might be struggling to figure out how to bridge the generation gap when hiring. Whether you’ve already hired new young people—or you’re just looking to attract more of them to your business—then you may have already noticed that there seems to be a disconnect […]
Like so many others, Casey Hurd, owner of Worton, Maryland-based Greenscapes Land Care LLC has been struggling with labor. More specifically, he says the trouble is “finding qualified workers.” Hurd, the 2019 NALP Young Entrepreneur of the Year, says he’s learned you must be proactive when it comes to hiring great people. “People aren’t going […]
Caitlin Clineff, recruiting specialist and company ambassador for Myatt Landscaping in Raleigh, North Carolina, says these days, everyone is facing a labor shortage in the landscape industry. That’s why we can all benefit from how the industry is approaching employee recruiting strategies. “We have to do something about this ourselves,” Clineff says. The key time […]
In the past three years, NALP member Ben Carruthers, owner of Carruthers Landscape Management Inc., in Dallas, says the company has become more “HR-focused” than ever before. He’s been working with Human Resources “Harvester” Steve Cesare, of The Harvest Group, on a number of ways in which the company can improve their employee onboarding process—among […]
When it comes to hiring more labor, NALP member Lisa L. Kuperus, vice president of Farmside Landscape & Design in Wantage, New Jersey, says it must be a multi-faceted and ongoing effort. In this tight labor market—and with the industry’s struggle to receive H-2B workers—there is no time to become complacent. “We absolutely must have […]
Motivating employees and making them feel like valued members of the team has always been at the core of how Jason Musch, owner and president of Dutch Valley Landscape Contractors, has run his business. He says “without our employees, we are nothing.” Even so, in the past, the Chicago-area landscape maintenance company has experienced problems […]
Employee retention has never been much of an issue at McHale Landscape Design, a $20-million full-service landscape and maintenance company based in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. In fact, the company has many long-term employees who have been with the business for two decades or more—including McHale’s 50 foremen. But Kevin McHale, president, says he was getting […]