BUILDING YOUR TEAM


Photos: Ryan Lawn & Tree


While Fitzgerald covers the Midwest


and Northeast, Davey has CLS tech ad- visors for the Southeast and Southwest as well. “We’ve strategically placed the trainer


where they’re needed,” Fitzgerald says. Davey Tree also has a LMS that em-


ployees can tap into on their own. “All Davey employees have access


to our LMS, which allows them to take hundreds of different courses in the hor- ticulture industry, and not just on plants and insects,” Fitzgerald says. “We also have courses in communication skills, sales, leadership and management.” For Ryan Lawn & Tree employees


seeking out training, they have virtual online training including Tree Talks with Matt, their LMS, paper-based training materials, videos, quizzes, and field assessments. The field assessments are where the employees show they can execute the necessary skills. Evans says their employees prefer


hands-on training the most so they will put on events to bring people together and verify their abilities. “We try to create an ecosystem that


supports it,” Evans says. “So we come at them from multiple directions.” They have a staff of 16 learning coaches who are subject matter experts who develop, train and facilitate the field assessments. Training is 25% of their focus, and the other 75% is their normal job. Evans says these are individuals who enjoy growing other people. Evans says 10 years from now, these will be full-time positions. “The incentive structure for the learn-


16 The Edge //January/February 2025


ing coaches is tied to the performance of our team,” Scheffler says. “We pick metrics that are meaningful to the business and are tied to the organizational goals. We don’t say, ‘How many people did you train?’ We don’t care about dollars per hour of training. None of that stuff. We don’t care about butts in seats. It’s literally, are you supporting the goals of the company?” They monitor where they have the


greatest impact, such as first-year reten- tion. “Instead of losing 50% of all new asso-


ciates, roughly $500,000 a year, walking out,” Scheffler says. “We turned that around, and we’re at 91% retention now.” Another metric they monitor is speed


to competency. They have decreased this from six month to get someone competent in their role to 45 days. “We’re trying to change the paradigm


from what I call passive learning, which is sit in a meeting and listen to somebody spit something out or go to a conference and listen to somebody just talk to actu- ally showing that you can do something,” Evans says.


Scheffler notes that they are reaching a tipping point as their company grows. He says their projections show them doubling in size over the next three to four years, going from 500 to 1,000 peo- ple, which means their current learning coach model will be harder to scale. He anticipates they’ll switch to a


hybrid model where each location will have a couple of full-time coaches and additional part-time learning coaches.


SKILLS TO FOCUS ON WITH NEW HIRES When it comes to training new hires specifically, you must first address their current skill level. Evans says if a new hire has the skills of a specialist one already, they would be hired and paid as a specialist one, but they would start as a trainee. “We can’t just put you in because


you’re not going to learn anything about the culture of Ryan Lawn & Tree, how we service our clients, the different nuances, how to use the software,” Evans says. “All of those things have to be addressed.” Fitzgerald says they focus on covering


safety topics first and educating new hires on the different tools available through the Davey Institute, such as the mulch calculator. Word says depending on the division the employee is working in, they may ap- proach their initial training differently. “If they are in our maintenance divi-


sion, we have them demonstrate certain basic skills before we put them on the truck,” Word says. Evans says they also break their trainees into different categories with a curriculum covering topics relevant to di- visions like turf, irrigation and landscape. They cover their beliefs, history, culture and what customer service should look like, as well as necessary compliance safety standards. Evans says this baseline checklist must be done within 45 days. After covering the basics, Word say training attention to detail is the most significant skill to fine-tune. “Good basic skills add up to a much better finished product,” Word says.


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