A Crash Course in Building Company Culture for Landscape Contractors and Pool Builders
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The Content Team,
HALSTEAD.
Professionals in the landscape industry know how to put the nose to the grindstone and get work done. This physical labor can be accompanied by job satisfaction and a feeling of accomplishment every day—yet it’s only possible when everyone works together as a team. A sense of teamwork, camaraderie, and respect among everyone can keep projects running on time and lead to customer satisfaction when it’s all said and done.
Strong company culture can help to ensure this happens week in and week out, improving productivity, employee engagement, and helping to attract talented team members. If you want your company to stand out from your competition, creating a strategy for building a positive company culture can help. Your company and your competitors may use the same equipment and the same materials, but it’s the company culture that will set you apart.
As Jim Paluch, the president of JP Horizons, says “great companies have great cultures, period.” This piece of wisdom comes from his 30+ years of experience working with landscape company owners and noticing that the one thing successful companies had in common was having a great company culture. It’s something that has to be talked about, especially amid the current labor crisis.
The Labor Crisis
While the landscape industry has experienced a severe worker shortage for quite a few years, after the pandemic it’s harder than ever to find experienced workers. However, adapting is the name of the game in this industry. Just as our project plans and schedules can be derailed due to the weather and we adapt, we can adapt to the labor crisis too.
When you are facing a shortage of workers, you may be tempted to add task after task to the workload of employees who are highly skilled, personable, and motivated simply because you know you can rely on them. However, it’s not sustainable and will lead to burnout and unhappy workers who will soon leave your company.
Focusing on employee retention is a smart strategy, and that begins with company culture. In fact, according to Jobvite’s 2021 Job Seeker Nation Report, the number of job seekers who rated company culture as very important has gone up by 37% since 2019.
What Is Company Culture for a Landscape Business?
Every landscape company has a culture, whether intentional or not. When there is a company culture established that values positive attitudes, having pride in work, passion for the industry, and teamwork, employees are more likely to work as a team and want to do good by the team for the benefit of the company. This results in quality work that your customers will notice.
Examples of Good Company Culture
Simply put, company culture is about the attitudes and behaviors that influence the employee experience. It shapes the company and how employees act by setting the standard of what attitudes and behaviors are acceptable. Healthy company culture is more evident in the tech industry than in any other, so here are some examples of companies that are often recognized for their company culture.
Apple
Apple encourages its employees to think outside of the box. Innovation is especially relevant in the tech industry but can be valued in every industry, including the landscape industry. Encourage your employees that it’s OK to think differently and to be innovative. That could be something as simple as allowing an employee the freedom to come up with a unique pool design and not being afraid to share it.
Apple also encourages competition to a certain extent. Although, competition within the workplace can be a fine line between creating a toxic environment and promoting productivity. While some of your employees may find competition to be inspiring, others may not.
Google offers incredible perks such as flexible schedules, free food, nap pods, a gym, swimming pools, and being able to play video games at work. They even offer unlimited paid time off.
The very nature of landscape work is physical labor that requires being on-site, on time, and on schedule in order to assure customer satisfaction. No landscape company is a giant of a company as Google is, with the ability to offer unlimited paid time off and not suffer the financial consequences. It’s simply not possible to offer perks like these in our industry. However, a landscape company could provide a comfortable area where employees can gather and relax during downtime.
We can learn a valuable lesson about company culture from Google. They value their employees enough to show they truly care. Their perks reflect that they see their employees for the people that they are and not just easily-replaceable workers to fill a seat or position. They’re investing in their employees in hopes of retaining them, which is exactly what is necessary to sustain and/or scale a landscape or pool business in today’s climate.
Why Is Company Culture Important for Landscape Businesses?
There are numerous reasons why company culture is important. Here are some of the potential advantages of having a healthy company culture in the landscape industry.
When your employees are happy, they may actively recruit talented workers which may help with the labor shortage problem.
Happy employees who feel respected will often work harder and do better work, which may help you attract new business and increase revenue.
Your employees may be more driven to provide better customer service which could result in happy customers.
It may make retaining talented employees easier.
Who Builds Company Culture?
Company culture starts with the leader. If you’re having problems, it’s likely due to something that you as the leader are doing or not doing. As a leader, self-awareness is key because resolving such issues depends upon you recognizing the problems and taking action to fix them. Don’t think that the actions of your employees are solely based on their character, because their actions are also a reflection of the company culture that you as a leader have helped to create.
What values are your managers modeling to employees? Get your upper management on board with a company culture that values a good work ethic, respect, and passion for the industry. When the leaders of the company are taking action and have positive attitudes, this will trickle down to the crew.
Steps to Building Company Culture
The task of building a company culture can seem daunting. Just remember to keep it simple. It doesn’t have to be achieved in a day, and it won’t be. Determine what the simplest thing you can do to see progress is, and go from there. Here are some steps that may help get you started.
1.Identify Core Values
First, identify what the core values of your company are. Determine the who, what, and why: who you are serving, what the company goals are, and why the landscape work your company does is important. This concept is often what inspires a company's mission statement, which can be a helpful tool to communicate the company culture to employees and partners. Get clear on your company’s purpose and the standards that you expect.
There are some core values that many leading companies view as non-negotiable in creating a healthy work environment. These are the core values that may be included:
Safety: Your crew should receive training on safe work practices and how to properly use the equipment. The well-being of your employees should be a top priority.
Respect: If you want to be respected, respect your employees. When your employees know that you have their backs, they will be loyal. Respect is the foundation of trust, and much of that starts with fair treatment of all employees without favoritism.
Integrity: This means valuing dependability, honesty, and accountability. Model what it means to be an upstanding team member and to have a good work ethic. Be transparent with your employees about how the company is doing and ask them to be transparent with you by sharing their feedback in anonymous surveys.
Appreciation: Everyone wants to be appreciated. As an owner, show your gratitude for the work that your managers are doing. It’s a good idea for managers to consistently communicate their appreciation for the work the crew is doing, and so on. This culture of appreciation will spread quickly throughout your company.
Growth: Communicate career paths to your employees, both new employees and veterans. They need to know what their potential within the company can be. Offer opportunities for education and training to help them grow.
Empathy: Your employees are people with personal lives too. Show understanding, and allow some flexibility so that employees have the ability to prioritize family over work. Respect family obligations.
Positive Attitude: We’ve all worked with people who see every problem, but never try to find solutions. Nip that kind of attitude in the bud quickly. Positivity is contagious, but so is negativity. Toxic attitudes are never worth the talent.
2. Develop a Strategy
Remember that the strategy that you use to develop company culture with your crew may be different than the strategy that you use with your accountants, which may be different than the strategy that you use with your salesmen, and so on. You need to know who you are engaging with and identify mindsets.
The tactical methods that you implement to develop company culture may vary with each group and you will want to determine what your strategy will be with each. Certain perks and benefits will appeal to some employees more than others. Although, bonuses seem to be a perk that every employee appreciates. However, creating a company culture has to do with more than compensation.
One of the ways that you can show appreciation for your employees is by taking the entire team to a sporting event such as a college football game. Invite your office staff to attend a banquet that supports a local cause and pay for the entire table. Plan an annual golf outing with your management team.
Help your employees have a healthy work/life balance by including families in some of your company outings. Plan an outing to a water park or amusement park where families are invited. Purchase a real estate property in a prime vacation location and allow your employees and their families to stay there for free.
These tactical methods don’t have to be expensive or elaborate. Cater lunch for your entire team, offer personal and positive recognition at team meetings, write a personal and handwritten thank you note, celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries, anything that will show your employees that they are valued.
3. Start Talking About Your Company Culture
As a leader, enthusiasm for the landscape industry starts with you. Energy is contagious, and you want to put positive energy into the work environment. While you may have an initial conversation with your employees when you are excited about the prospect of creating a company culture, it doesn’t stop there.
Interact with your employees and be personable yet professional. When your crew shows up for work each morning, don’t hide away in your office. They will respect you for showing that you care about them as people, not just as employees.
Continuously talk about the company culture in different ways. Use every opportunity to share why you are in business, why your company is doing great things, and why employees need to help make the company successful. This can be done in team meetings, casual one-on-one conversations, and formal employee reviews.
When an employee knows why the landscaping industry is important and why the work he/she does is important, they will be much more engaged. But don’t expect employees to inherently know the whys, as a leader you have to communicate this with them and transfer the enthusiasm. They need to know what’s in it for them.
4. Stay Consistent and Reinforce
As the saying goes, don’t just talk the talk but walk the walk. Having a strategy and talking about company culture does nothing if you do not start taking action and stay consistent with it. Implement the tactical methods for building company culture and stick with it.
Company culture is something that can be very fluid. For example, the culture of your management team may be great and, at the same time, the culture of your crew may not be. This is why consistently talking about what your company values is helpful for maintaining good company culture.
Take every opportunity to reinforce the culture of the company. Stay consistent in what you allow and what you don’t allow so that your employees are clear on what the expectations are. Consistency is the driving force for maintaining company culture. When you begin to see dedicated employees who truly understand the culture and are modeling it, it will be an inspiration to continue.
The ROI for Investing in Company Culture
Company culture will pay for itself over and over in measurable ways. As your team adopts the positive mindset of the work culture, you will be better positioned to attract talented individuals to your workforce, win more customers, and improve the overall performance of your team. Plus, it’ll be much easier to retain good employees who are engaged and dedicated.
