Effective digital recruiting requires captivating storytelling. If you could have five minutes of your dream candidate’s attention, what would you say to dazzle him? Imagine what your ideal candidate would like to hear. Desperate companies tend to throw everything they can offer into the conversation, hoping to get lucky. This is like trying to marry someone right after a first... read more
Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly of profit sharing. Incentive programs are always among the most engaging topics in business management workshops. Every owner or manager sits up straighter and leans in closer to hear how other contractors implement incentives for better productivity and efficiency. And while there’s no perfect system, there are many systems better than no... read more
Get ordinary people to do the extraordinary more often than not through company culture. Running a company is exciting until it becomes a slog, isn’t it? A slog is when profits sag, revenue growth slows and you feel like choking more than 50 percent of your staff to death on a daily basis. What happened? Is it typical? It is... read more
Groom employees to step into critical positions well in advance of needing them in those roles. Few landscape companies would say they have enough employees who are ready to step into management positions. Most would acknowledge they need many more A-players to supply a much talked about, but rarely well-implemented, talent pipeline. The high cost of not having trained, agile... read more
It shouldn’t be much trouble, unless you’re currently out of compliance. The Department of Labor’s (DOL) new overtime rule, scheduled to go into effect Dec. 1, will hurt, but I don’t think it profoundly changes the way landscape companies do business—unless you’re out of compliance with the current DOL regulations. In working with hundreds of small business owners in the... read more
Here are several best practices for handling employee separations. Parting ways with an employee is always difficult for managers. I’ve handled hundreds of employee separations as a manager throughout my career and know there are solid best practices for handling these situations. Some of my greatest regrets as a manager involve situations in which best practices weren’t followed, resulting in... read more
