Taking your employees to industry events can help boost camaraderie, personal growth, network connections and their overall understanding of the landscape industry.
If you’re mulling over bringing some team members to your next event, here’s some advice from landscape company owners who see the value in bringing their staff with them.
Select The Right People for the Right Event
Mark Ables, president and CEO of Ables Landscapes, based in Charleston, South Carolina, says depending on the event will determine who is a good fit to attend. For instance, they will send their field employees to local events that have a hands-on focus.
“ELEVATE covers so many bases we can take even more people to that,” Ables says.
Gil Grattan, president of Virginia Green, based in Henrico, Virginia, says industry events can serve as a reward for hard work.
“We take people to events who we believe are up and coming and are going to provide something for our organization in the future,” Grattan says.
Grattan says company owners should consider who their leaders are and who would benefit the most from attending the event.
“Don’t always think necessarily about bringing your three top lieutenants necessarily, but people from your organization who you wouldn’t often think about,” Grattan says. “We even think about bringing service leaders or technicians sometimes to some of these bigger events because they walk away with a totally different perspective than we do.”
Ables sees traveling for industry events as a perk for his employees as some rarely get to travel or see a new city.
“We are rewarding those on our team who are hungry and looking to grow,” Ables says. “If you’re not, you probably won’t get the invite.”
Melissa Steinbach, VP of sales for Valor Landscape, based in Aurora, Colorado, says their employees enjoy the tours of other companies’ facilities the most.
“At Field Trip, you get to see how other people are doing it,” Ables says. “You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”
Set Clear Expectations
If you want to reap the most benefits from having team members at an event with you, set clear expectations for your staff on what you want them to achieve. This could be coming away with concrete takeaways or making sure they go to different sessions from everyone else.
Grattan says they want their employees to network with everybody because those connections can be powerful.
“We do tell everybody in advance don’t hang out in the pool,” Grattan says. “We want you to be in the seminars and we want you to be there and network.”
Ables encourages having your employees provide tangible takeaways. He says there’s nothing wrong with walking away inspired but if you don’t have specifics, it’s less likely your business will change.
“Once we get home from the conference, we have meetings,” Grattan says. “We’ll generally have a follow-up meeting the week after and then another meeting couple weeks later about what were the deliverables that we learned? What are the things that we need to talk about, implement and strategize?”
Challenges To Be Mindful Of
While there aren’t a ton of drawbacks to taking your team to industry events, it can be harder to attend events that are scheduled during your company’s busy season.
Ables says he has dealt with some pushback from other employees wanting to know if they can go as to an event as well and why they weren’t selected.
He says he has to communicate that it’s not in the budget to take everyone and that a particular event may have more to offer to another team member. He says employees can get frustrated if they feel they’ve been skipped over.
“I think the biggest thing for us is they’re missing time with their families,” Grattan says. “I’m always cognizant of the fact that this is family time for them. If they’re willing to go and they want to be away and they want to learn more, this is a great opportunity for them. Generally, they’re okay with that. Other than that, they love going and being a part of these events.”
Advice for Others
Glenn Bonick, owner of Bonick Landscaping, based in Irving, Texas, suggests varying the staff who attend from year to year.
“Obviously, key leaders that get plugged into the national industry you want to continue to support, but having those supervisors and administrators experience a show will bring back a sense of purpose and excitement that will fill your company more than you will know,” Bonick says.
Grattan agrees that if you only take the same four or five people every time, the perspective never changes.
“We never bring the same people twice,” Grattan says. “We always try to bring the different people to the events. By doing so, we, in turn, get different looks and different ideas because, generally, topics are the same, thought processes are the same, and people are the same. So by having different people there, we get different perspectives.”
Ables notes that you don’t have to attend industry events but you’ll hit a ceiling eventually. If you want to learn something new and for your leaders to be encouraged, you’ll want to start taking them to these events.
“The best companies in the country are going to be there with their staff and if they can afford to do it, then they are doing something right,” Ables says.
