Change — the power in it!

Maximize
your systems and employees. President Thomas C. Conway Jr. says
Suffolk, VA-based Smithfield
Gardens is evaluating all of its business systems – including
pricing, retail, estimating and production – to make sure the
processes in place are working and achieving their full potential.
If they aren’t, changes to the systems and the employees responsible
for those systems are being made.

Similarly, Smart hired additional employees, which will allow the
vice president and operations manager to become more focused on
driving sales, instead of taking care of office duties.

Define
job descriptions. Dave’s Landscape in Hudson, MA, rewrote job
descriptions with specific skills and pay ranges attached to each
level. This will give employees a clear vision of what they need
to do to get to the next level and pay increase.

“This will eliminate employees asking for a raise and me giving
in just to get them off my back,” explains owner David Rykbost.
“We can look at the chart together and assess where the employee
is and either give the raise with a smile or talk about what needs
to be done to achieve it.”

Demand
accountability. Several owners stress the importance of complete
accountability, beginning with themselves and working all the way
down the chain of command. Dave Rooney, owner of Rooney Landscape,
Rolling Meadows, IL, meets weekly with every employee that reports
directly to him to establish and follow up on agreed-upon goals.

“Accountability will be easily accomplished by reviewing from
week to week what has been done and what we still need to work on,”
Rooney says. “This will keep me in touch with the pulse of
the company.”

Andy Blanchford, Blanchford Landscape Contractors, Bozeman, MT,
agrees.

“We have a lot of great ideas and systems, but the accountability
was all mine, and nobody but me knew it. If things didn’t happen,
I got to beat myself up for it.”

This year, he’s identifying critical areas to create accountability
and has assigned the systems improvement process to his managers.
They hold regular meetings to evaluate processes and create accountability.