Career growth is one of the main reasons employees stay with their current company, but this doesn’t always have to come in the form of moving up within the company. For some, expanding their skills and moving into a parallel role can be more fulfilling.
When you move from having just a career ladder in your organization to a career map, you can avoid losing great employees who would be unhappy managers but are still looking to do more.
The career opportunities you provide not only help with employee retention, but also attracting new hires as well. Katelyn Milanes, director of culture and employee engagement for Fisk Lawnscapes, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, says their growth opportunities are what interest their new hires the most.
“We invest in our team by paying for certifications, training, and development programs, and we provide clear growth tracks so employees can see a path forward,” Milanes says. “People appreciate knowing that their hard work and ambition are recognized, and that there’s support for them to advance both their skills and their careers.”
Offering Multiple Paths
Everyone is motivated differently, so before you start outlining alternate growth paths, take the time to talk to your team members to learn what type of work they find the most rewarding.
For instance, some may enjoy the client-facing tasks, so it makes more sense for them to move into account support and eventually a business development role. Have them shadow a current business developer or take on stretch assignments to help them determine if this is the right next step for them.
Meanwhile, another employee may take pride in cultivating their technical expertise. They could eventually become a senior or master technician. You could support this by offering an internal training class where select employees come in early once a month to deep dive into different topics and strengthen their horticultural skills.
Another possible career track is to allow your veteran employees to move into a trainer role where they are able to pass on their knowledge to new hires. Depending on the size of your company, this could become their full-time responsibility, or it could be an additional task for the employee.
Remove the Guesswork
The growth tracks you have available in your organization should be visible to new hires from day one. For example, Myatt Landscaping & Construction, based in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, has a Level Up program that informs employees exactly what they need to do to get to the next step.
Employees are expected to master specific tasks by 90 days and one year, and then if they are seeking pay bumps, they can work through the different levels of expertise.
“The range in each level is about a $2 range,” says Misty Gil, recruiting specialist and company ambassador for Myatt. “It goes up a little more when you get into level three, four and five.”
At Myatt, a level three employee is learning how to be a crew leader, including completing time sheets and mixing spray chemicals. A level four employee is a crew leader who is looking to become an assistant account manager or project manager. Level five employees are assistant account managers and project managers who are salaried.
While this follows a more traditional route, employees don’t have to guess what it takes to advance.
Invest in Upskilling
Another way to support team members’ career growth is to invest in their training with outside resources such as certification programs, apprenticeships, and tuition reimbursement.
NALP offers contractor members free access to the Landscape Technician Training Courses and the Landscape Business Management Training Courses. These can help with cross-training team members and allow employees to learn different business-related skills.
Ahlum and Arbor, based in Columbus, Ohio, offers their team members an apprenticeship that takes a new hire to a certified arborist in three years and has guaranteed pay scales.
“It’s hands-on and book theory learning and builds great, well-rounded employees,” says Chris Ahlum, president of Ahlum and Arbor.
He says younger employees have expressed an interest in flexibility, so they have started to cross-train their employees as well.
“It helps build ‘the bench,’ but they also get the satisfaction to learn something new,” Ahlum says.
Meanwhile, The Davey Tree Expert Company, based in Kent, Ohio, offers an Employee Educational Scholarship, which ranges from $1,000 to $5,000 per academic year. Employees must pick a major related to the green industry, business, administrative or technical work skills that are related to their position or that they intend to pursue at Davey. Part of the criteria is that the employee must be with Davey for one year if full-time and two years if part-time.
“Once they’ve demonstrated that, we hope that investing in them as people through this scholarship will be viewed by them as the company making an investment in their development and make this a place they want to stay and build their careers,” says Erika Schoenberger, senior vice president and general counsel for Davey Tree. “This is an example of how we are walking the walk and not just talking the talk of our values. Overall, it’s always going to be worth it in the long run because our differentiator as a company is and always will be our people, and if we buy into our people, we can retain the best and brightest.”
Ultimately, you want to show your employees they have multiple routes to go next. When you provide opportunities to specialize, cross-train or explore different roles, ambitious team members have room to grow without feeling forced into management.
