Ambition and Turnover

[ourboarwrist]

I am the tree care supervisor for a 30-40 person Tree/Lawn/landscape company. We have 8 employees dedicated to tree care full time, but we are going through a period of huge turnover right now. The biggest problem is that our community is mostly college students and they tend to look at their time with us as a stepping stone to bigger things. Many have come back to us after a couple of years out of school when they realize we are actually a really good company to work for. These employees stay for a while and then leave when they realize that upward movement is unlikely. This year we will end up losing and having to replace five full time tree care employees. Every time we have to replace it really puts a hurt on production and efficientcy. We look to hire highly motivated individuals, but it seems this high motivation and ambition is also a big problem when it comes to retention.

I was wondering if others have dealt with this, and if anyone has suggestions for finding long term, knowledgeable, highly motivated employees. I don't think pay is the issue because most of the employees are leaving the area completely, instead of looking for higher paying jobs locally. We also offer insurance/retirement buy climbing gear of your choice and give out generous bonuses.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

There was a sketch on Saturday Night Live and MadTV called, Lowered Expectations. The sketches parodied Great Expectation dating videos. Sometimes I realize that this is the reality of the world. Lowered rather than Great might be a solution. Not ideal of course

The costs and frustrations of training are high. Maybe finding someone with Lowered Expectations might help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xLsRI7-hBs

 

[southsoundtree]

An exit interview might help, in addition to talking to them now. What are they after? What would help to keep them/ bring them back?

 

[zale]

If you are hiring college students it does not surprise me they don't last long. After 4 years of school and getting a degree, this type of work is usually not appealing to them.

I have had several college students work for me and they all want to be consultants or sales after spending a summer in the field. They don't know what they don't know.

In our area we have a large hispanic community with a incredible work ethic. If you treat them right, you have employees for the long term.

 

[treehumper]

The problem is not specific to our industry but to small business in general. Not only that but a result of the corporate culture they witnessed while growing up. They were bombarded with the message that loyalty to an employer is not valued and to look out for yourself.

One of the things that is happening is called boomeranging. Employees leave the company and then come back after gaining some experience elsewhere. This is not a bad thing but it's not cheap.

Really assess your hiring criteria by looking at the employees that do stay and thrive in your company. Are they really "highly motivated"? Are you inadvertently mixing motivation with ambition?

 

[RopeShield]

Almost every year is a new crew. Once and awhile someone sticks it out for two years.
Grass is greener on the other side.
This year we got only one application from an actual arborist.
We have hired and lost 5 people this year already, Let go or left.
Seems these people want to work with their friends or other young people.

Best year we ever had I hired "best friends" and the sister in-law of the best friends and the friend of the sister n law and acquintance of the "best friends". Our best, happy and productive season.

Happy team is a winning team!

Hope it helps.

 

[KevinS]

My buddy and I got hired straight out of college 6 years ago by the same company we are still with. We are his longest full time employees in quite a few years. We've had some stay seasonally but if you can find a group that jives well that's half the battle. We've had our share come and go as well.

Productivity is important to our boss but he is trying to let us take more off his plate the longer and more dedicated you're there.

We do very little consulting, so we see the highest you can go with our company is being a climber, doing quotes, and rarely giving input on projects( consulting).
We have a phc guy that runs that show from fertilizing to diagnosing. So the fact that the boss lets us kind of run things helps him and us hold each other accountable for the growth and success the business is seeing.

He still deals with most of the small details meetings and long drawn out deals because trees still need worked on to. But I've seen my investment of efforts and training positively grow the company to where we are and where we're going, and having a boss that sits down and deals everything square and shows you all the cards makes me stick around and want to work for him.

Sorry if derailed there but just thought an opinion from the other side may help.