SURVEY SAYS!
It seems that in this day and age, there are fewer people interested in working in labor-intensive careers, which can be very rewarding. We’re helping the environment, building wonderful green spaces and improving peoples’ lives. But we’re challenged with helping young people see all that.
When you think of the labor challenge that so many of us face, technology could be part of it. How can we attract the 18-year-old who plays video games and embraces technology when, as an industry, we seem behind other industries in technology? If you’re not growing and adapting, you’re dying, and that’s a concern I think about for my business as well as the industry as a whole.
We have excellent employees who share the goals and mission of the company. We pride ourselves in treating our employees fairly and like family. As a result, we have a large percentage of workers who have been with us for years. Some employees have been with us for a decade.
Our most serious labor issue for the past couple of years, however, is hanging on to those long-time employees. This is especially difficult in the face of a booming construction market in South Florida. They offer hourly wages far beyond what we can pay. When a roofer or builder offers a laborer $20 an hour, and they are doing a job for us for which we can only pay $15 an hour… well, you see the problem.
Seasonal labor is my biggest worry. We have been a long-time user of the H-2B program, using it during low unemployment times during great economies, and we have relied on the stable seasonal labor that it provides. Although some contractors did not receive visas over the last two years, we were lucky and “won the lottery” getting ours. But we’re always worried about what will happen if we don’t. We worked diligently to lobby for expansion of this program. I personally have gone to Washington up to three times a year to meet with congressional staff and have ongoing relationships and correspondence with these folks throughout the year as legislation comes up.” TLP
KRISJAN BERZINS, OWNER, KINGSTOWNE LAWN & LANDSCAPE, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA
OLIVER RAY, PRESIDENT AND CEO, PHOTOSCAPE LANDSCAPE AND DESIGN, FORT MYERS, FLORIDA
BOB GROVER, OWNER OF PACIFIC LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT, PORTLAND, OREGON
8 The Landscape Professional // May/June 2019
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