We are attempting to acquire another facility that will need a lot of repairs and updating this may also help us keep our field teams busy during inclement weather.”
TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT The slower months are also a prime time to invest in your team’s professional development. Not only does this keep them involved in the business, but team members also appreciate being invested in.
Grover says they focus a lot on training
during the off-season, completing internal trainings like safety courses and skill-building workshops, as well as offering financial support for external trainings and certifications. “We attempt to retrain everyone on our standard operating practices and we look to create a few new documented best practices each year that everyone is trained on before the next season begins,” Moore says. Moore admits they still have room
for improvement here because it’s not easy to create a training curriculum and deliver it in a meaningful way.
PLANNING AND TEAM BUILDING The off-season can also be an opportunity for strategic planning with your team. You should also consider hosting various team gatherings during the slower months so employees can still have a sense of camaraderie.
Moore says they have a standing monthly all-hands meeting where they share a meal, celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, make general announce- ments and play bingo as a group. “We provide prizes to the first 20 bin- go winners and everyone seems to have a good time,” Moore says. “ We do a cou- ple of holiday-themed parties including potluck meals where the administrative and sales staff provide a home-cooked meal to our field teams.” Grover says they also host holiday celebrations, team-building retreats and client lunch and learns. “These gatherings strengthen relation- ships among team members and clients while also fostering a sense of communi- ty,” Grover says.
MINIMIZING LAYOFFS One tool that Moore and Grover both use to minimize the need for seasonal layoffs is the H-2B visa program. Grover says while some seasonal ad- justments may be necessary, they focus on opportunities to keep their employ- ees working.
“Our use of the H-2B visa program has
“We firmly believe that our team members are the very most important assets in our company and we believe they all want to contribute to the company’s success. Providing each of them a level of work and income security is paramount to our long- term success and it’s a key component of the vision and mission of our organization.” - Jack Moore, CEO of Grassperson Lawn Care & Landscape
helped eliminate the need for making seasonal layoffs because those employ- ees with a visa return home at the end of the season,” Grover says. Likewise, Moore says they have been using the H-2B program for over 15 years and have received their visa workers every year except for 2020. “This provides a built-in seasonal work staff which is very useful to our compa- ny,” Moore says. “It allows us to employ a lot of full-time, year-round team members and we have never had to lay anyone off at the end of a season. If we did not utilize the H-2B program, I be- lieve we would need to lay off one-third of our field staff each November.” Grover says they’ve also been able
to smooth out some of their seasonal- ity with hard winter pruning and use of growth regulators. Previously, their staffing would decrease by nearly 30%, but now it typically decreases by 20% depending on work demand.
National Association of Landscape Professionals 27
Photos: Pacific Land- scape Management
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