how to keep and develop the best lawn care technicians

Finding and Keeping Great Employees

Lawn & Landscape Magazine Webinar

April 7, 2015

Brad Johnson

Founder, LawnAmerica Inc.

Finding and Keeping Great Employees 1

• Owner of LawnAmerica in Tulsa and four other branches.

• Our niche is weed-control/fertilization…not mowing or maintenance.

• Built and sold two other companies, with a total of 30 years in the industry.

• Have employed hundreds of folks, mostly good ones, learned many lessons, but still have not figured it all out!


• What is the #1 problem for lawn

and landscape business owners?

• At conferences, in conversations,

wherever, what do business owners

complain about the most?

• What do we always hear that is “our

biggest asset”?

• What is the largest expense category on

your P&L?


It’s People!


Employee salaries and related expenses are by far the largest

expense on our P&L.


16.3%

51.6%

3.3%

5.4%

5.1%

3.1%1.2%

14.0%

Year to Date Company Expenses

Cost of Sales

Direct Labor & Employee

Sales Expenses

Equipment Expense

Office & Occupancy

Overhead & Other

Contributions

Net Cash

So where then should most of our focus be? Where is the largest area

for financial improvement?


• We’re not going to discuss much on where and how to find good people.

• However, just as obtaining sales from referrals from happy customers, getting new employees from happy (or engaged) employees is the best way to do that.


• Our focus today is on how we keep those good employees from year to year, with less turnover, and giving them a place where they want to come to work.

• It’s all about Employee Engagement.


So why do we always seem to be needing new employees?

• Growth…that’s a good thing!


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$1,000,000

$2,000,000

$3,000,000

$4,000,000

$5,000,000

$6,000,000

$7,000,000

$8,000,000

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17

Series1

Series2

People Leave!

• Employee retention in our industry is a problem.

• I would speculate that many companies do not even measure and track that number, and if they do, it runs around 55-70% annually overall on average.

• Over the past 5 years, we’ve averaged about 88% retention, with zero turnover in the past 8 months with 54 team members.


So why do people leave?

• We are simply not providing them with an opportunity to engage their hearts, spirits, minds, and hands into their work in a passionate and committed way.


Let’s Look at our Industry

• Are we really providing a career for our front-line employees, with an opportunity to make a good living financially and support a family?

• Are we providing growth opportunities?

• Are we guilty of too often just looking at our front line people as Direct Labor….a number on a P&L, and a number which we all need to keep as low as possible to make a good profit?


• It’s really pretty simple….we have to give them such a great place to work at they want to stay, so that we’ll then have fewer new hires to make.


So What is Employee Engagement, and Why does it Matter?


There are MANY benefits to having fully engaged employees, one of which being that the chances of them staying on board go up greatly (87% less likely to leave.)

Establish a Baseline First

• Conduct an Employee Engagement Survey.



0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

1 3 5 7 9 111315171921232527293133353739414345474951

Team Member Engagement Levels March 2015 AVG 86%

Series1

What about Pay and Perks?

• Compensation matters, and perks and benefits matter. However………

• These only satisfy basic needs, they don’t really get one engaged.

• But without having their basic needs met (money), then you won’t even have a chance to build engagement into them.


• So are you paying as much as you can to your frontline employees, so they can actually make lawn care a career, or just paying the least you can to get by on?

• Are you providing a salary structure which provides performance incentives, rewarding individuals and teams for good performance and results?


Route Manager Incentive Pay


Category Jan. Feb. March April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Totals My Goal

5% Production $120 $740 $730 $1,310 $870 $890 $890 $850 $820 $1,320 $780 $430 $9,750

Production Over $195,000-5% bonus $50 $50

$20/Customer Net Gain $40 $140 $100 $0 $0 $0 $0 $20 $20 $100 $420

Respray Response $40 $40 $40 $30 $30 $30 $210

1st Application $30 $30 $30 $20 $20 $20 $20 $20 $190

Team Production Goals Met? $90 $90 $135 $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $135 $900

Dec. 1st Cancellation Rate 15.8% $600 $600

Within 2% of goal $200 $200

NPS ___% $300 $300 $300 $900

Within 5% of Company Avg NPS $100 $100 $100 $300

Production on Total Sales-2.5% $5 $25 $35 $45 $55 $55 $55 $65 $125 $145 $90 $40 $740

Re-Spray/Production--3.5/2/1 $70 $70 $60 $60 $40 $40 $340

Avg OT $40 $170 $250 $330 $250 $180 $160 $100 $110 $240 $200 $40 $2,070

Avg Christmas Bonus $3,000 $3,000

TOTALS $565 $1,095 $1,275 $2,060 $1,395 $1,735 $1,305 $1,195 $1,255 $2,260 $1,170 $4,360 $19,670

Production Focus

Sales Focus

Customer Service/Quality Focus Some guys make $17K, others make $27K

• So yes, solid, fair pay, while rewarding employees for good performance is important.

• Factors such as safety, benefits, reasonable working hours (especially Millennials), perks, etc. are all good also.


So How do we do develop those fully engaged employees in Lawn Care?

• Well, it’s sure not easy and is a constant challenge!

• Front line work can be very hard, monotonous, and not real “sexy”.

• However front line work can also be a great job with many positive benefits (such as being a great way to stay in shape!)


So a few things I’ve learned over the years that seem to help.

• For employees to be fully engaged, they must be provided a place where they can throw their hearts, spirits, minds, and hands totally into their work.

• They must understand the WHY of what they do, and have a clear mission that defines what success looks like.


• Employees like autonomy and trust, and to feel like they have a say in their jobs and in the company.

• They must understand that it’s not all about them, but about serving others.

• Employees like to work in teams.

• Employees like to be managed fairly, and given good feedback on a consistent basis.


• People don’t leave companies, they leave their owners, managers, and supervisors.

• Employees like to work for companies that have good, ethical, engaged ownership.

• Employees like to work for companies that give back to the community and do good things for others. They like to make a difference in their world with through their work.


So What is our Main Responsibility?

• You gotta LOVE your employees!


Route Managers, Techs, frontline CSR

Team Leaders, support, middle

managers

Me

• Questions?

Brad Johnson

[email protected]
