THE NALP EXPERIEN
RIENCE
“Eric Chester’s keynote presentation was fantastic. His advice around creating a great work environment was the most beneficial.” - Scott Sittler, channel marketing manager, Husqvarna
and offers job seekers a new career path via a paid apprenticeship with a professional landscape company. As an apprenticed industry, the landscape profession is now considered a skilled trade.
Apprentices are required to receive 2,000 hours of on-the-job training as well as a minimum of 144 hours of in the classroom or online equivalent. Barr says she was very curious to hear during this summit how compa- nies were implementing the program. “When I first heard about it in 2019, I had a hard time envisioning how we could implement it and make it work,” she says. “After hearing about the suc-
12 The Landscape Professional //May/June 2020
cesses of other companies and how they put it to use in a practical sense, it really helped me frame it in my mind and understand how we could move forward with it.”
RETAINING After you’ve went above and beyond recruiting your employees, the last thing you want to do is to lose them over not having a company culture that makes them want to stay. Starting with improved onboarding can help new employees feel welcomed from day one. Some of the ways to achieve this is to assign a mentor to a new employee from the start and
allowing them to anonymously submit feedback. Make sure your new hires understand your core values and how you implement them on a daily basis. Celebrate employees’ accomplish- ments and recognize them on social media. One way to develop a positive culture is to create an awards program where individuals can recommend other employees for awards. Another aspect of a strong company culture is to invest in educating and training staff. This will not only attract new recruits but shows current em- ployees how much you value you them and your desire for them to continually improve.
In the same vein of providing employees opportunities to improve, offering a visible career ladder is also critical for both prospects and staff. Highlight how a person can reach a certain job position while understand- ing not everyone progresses on a set path. Also there are people who don’t want to be promoted to a different type of job.
In employee reviews, make a point to monitor and document employees’ core competencies to see how people are doing overall. TLP
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