LM’s advisory board on why employee recognition is important as the season winds down

(Graphic: LM Staff)

Why is employee recognition important as the season winds down?

Landscape Professionals

Richard Bare
Arbor-Nomics Turf
Norcross, Ga.

“The fall aeration and seeding season is almost as stressful as the spring sales and growth period. This falls primarily on our field partners. So, we concentrate on taking lots of pictures of our guys and gals and hang them on our walls in our office and feature them in as many videos as we can. I think this goes a long way to steer our culture into being caring and loving towards our customers and each other.”

Paul Fraynd
Sun Valley Landscaping
Omaha, Neb.

“Employee recognition doesn’t have an off-season, so we should bake this into our culture and rituals. However, the end of the season is especially important because of the natural feeling of closing out a year, expressing thanks and reviewing our lives as winter approaches. End-of-season recognition allows us to leave our team with a feeling of accomplishment, appreciation and motivation to come back the following season refreshed and excited!”

Luke Henry
ProScape Lawn & Landscaping Services
Marion, Ohio

“It’s a great time to celebrate some of the various “wins” from the year, whether those are completed jobs, accounts added, company growth or team member advancement. All too often we are so focused on the future, we forget to celebrate the past and present accomplishments for the year. We have found that a quarterly team meeting is an excellent time to do this.”

Bryan Stolz
Winterberry Landscape & Garden Center
Southington, Conn.
“The end of the season is a great time to identify those who performed well through the main season. It can give that little boost the team needs to close the season out strong. And recognition and engagement go a long way to driving retention next season.”

Industry Consultants

Marty Grunder
The Grow Group
Dayton, Ohio
“Employee recognition is always important. Don’t just do it at the end of the year; set up a plan to do it year-round, right now. What behaviors do you want present in the organization and how can we recognize them based on facts, not assumptions?”

Phil Harwood
Tamarisk Business Advisors
Grand Rapids, Mich.

“It’s one of the top drivers of engagement and retention.”

Jeffrey Scott
Jeffrey Scott Consulting
New Orleans, La.

“Employee recognition is important all year, but as the employee invests more physically and personally, the more payback they have earned. Recognition is different for every employee, so you have to be able to read the person. The best recognition is the advancement of their careers, so don’t wing it based on this article, take a proactive approach.”