Training/Mentoring my future company leaders.

baumeister

baumeister

New member
Location
New buffalo Michigan
I have recently made a significant increase in the amount of time energy thought money and equipment for training my employees.I am a 15 year business owner. I have three kids and a wife and at 46 today my birthday I lie sick in bed w the flue. Yuck. I know my body can't do what it used to do at 26. I worked for a small tree care company then. that company worked its employees to the bone and had a huge turnover of mostly chemical dependent middle age and muscle bound iron pumping jocks led by a drill Sargent like boss. A whole Nother story!
But That taught me the most important thing any person could have the opportunity of learning: be someone you're employees look up to, someone they respect. be a mentor. Instill in them a desire to know more , Never stop teaching and know your teaching limits. When you reach your limits of teaching be sure to use the correct tools to continue that teaching. So that brings me to my question:
What tools have you found very useful in teaching your employees to run your business?
 
Obviously on site training is huge, but we sit around and do a demo on a basic cobra cable.
We have a guy that runs our phc and we encourage the guys to bring back samples that our beyond our knowledge.
If the job is safe enough push there technical limits. if the tree just needs pulled over get them to set up a redirect or 3:1 anyways.
I get them started notching stubs after the crowns are torn down.
Show and make them set up b&t, porti, etc each time you can gets them more in to the habits
Regular safety meeting some times turn into story time.
Always ask how they would do the job if they were doing it even if you are and your plans vary I find it breaks everyone into a similar mind set when work styles flow together.
Training and courses are offered and to each there own speciality we won't send our phc guy to a crane seminar, etc.
This winter I'm doing an overhaul on our health and safety stuff, we're doing shop organization over haul, etc.
The boss over sees this but he's taking a bit of a back seat and the crews are doing the planning and implementation of this stuff but obviously the boss still has the say, it is his place and money, but he puts the onus on us. We're the ones that need and use everything each day so our efficiencies can only help or hinder ourselves.
The trick is to involve the employees as much as you can in things other than just cutting and chipping makes them feel more belonged.

My question is how and what do you do to sort out levels of employees? I mean if you're trying to get the employees to run the show so you can take a back seat how do you sort out positions, unless you already had a manager, supervisors, quoters, etc.
How do you cover your job if you're doing less?
 
How do you guys blend them into quoting management etc or do you have someone else for that or are you not that hands of yet?
 
Train your replacement. One of the things many business owners are shy on sharing is cost structures and pricing. Understanding that goes a long way to getting the crew to understand the business motivations behind decisions. Observe your crews see what natural inclinations they have. Does one lean more towards the operational aspects and another towards customer service? Foster those talents. Making the shift from doing to managing is a huge challenge for people who are technically oriented. Give them access to courses that develop the "soft" skills, communications, sales, time management, organization. Discuss the business side with your crew not just the operational stuff.
 
treehumper said:
Train your replacement. One of the things many business owners are shy on sharing is cost structures and pricing. Understanding that goes a long way to getting the crew to understand the business motivations behind decisions. Observe your crews see what natural inclinations they have. Does one lean more towards the operational aspects and another towards customer service? Foster those talents. Making the shift from doing to managing is a huge challenge for people who are technically oriented. Give them access to courses that develop the "soft" skills, communications, sales, time management, organization. Discuss the business side with your crew not just the operational stuff.
Click to expand...

The books aren't really my business or my call, I try to involve myself with everything I can up to that point though. Planning if something is a good call for productivity, scheduling, policies, quoting, hopefully soon more large project managing start to finish. As much as I can I try to grow by inserting myself as much as possible, but respect I don't need my nose in his books. He includes us but often leaves the numerical values out and I'm fine with that.
 
Without getting into the hard numbers but at least to understand pricing and job costing. Things like rates charged for crews or equipment, travel time, etc... This provides much better understanding of how the business generates it's revenues. I found when my boss was comfortable sharing that info it help me with looking at jobs and managing the crews. When I was approached by prospective clients I could then price the jobs better and close deals on the spot or even upsell clients on additional work.
 
One of the first things I learned as a wee private in the Army was to teach your job to the man below you and learn the job of the man above you. By the time I became a team leader I already knew that job because I learned it from my team leader who was mentoring me. Why? Because we were constantly training. Im not saying that you should run your business like an airborne infantry squad. Trust me, I tried that when I first got out of the army and started working in the trees. Guatamalan groundies think your loco when you yell at them and drop them for push ups. After 15 years in the industry I have chilled out quite a bit. I have realized that not every one wants to operate on the same level of intensity as I try to operate on. I still enjoy teaching. I have spent the last week teaching my guys how to run a speed line. This was something that they had never seen before.

I have trained a few climbers from scratch in the past, but right now I am working with my newest arborist in training. She is also my better half and business partner. I honestly dont forsee her ever doing anything other than small ornamental pruning and shrubs but she is eager to learn. We just had confirmed EAB just a few miles away and we are planning on buying an ArborJet in a couple months. She helps drag brush and chip from time to time. She knows more knots than most groundies and puts up with me goofing around on my silly tree site. I think she is getting tired of me watching Ben's videos on YouTube over and over and over again though.
 
That's the way to do it KS,minus the drop and do 50 routine. The difference here is you're not fighting a war and we don't make sacrifices at all costs. We provide the cross-training so the company doesn't suffer too significant a loss of productivity when someone is out for any reason. I trained my jr. climber such that he could step up to cover my extended absence. He had the confidence to learn the rest on his own. What is an important part of this philosophy is respecting the contribution that the individual is making and ensuring the position is still there for them to return to. Otherwise there will be fear of a loss of job security.
 
I still think in terms of military operations orders. Commanders intent, concept of the operation, and contengency plans are always in the back of my head. Task and purpose is big with me. When I have my guys do something out of the normal SOP I always explain why we are doing something that way. I can use my speed line example. It didnt take long to convince them that speed lining every thing over a wall and right to the chipper was alot better than tossing it all over a 5 foot wall. Now that they have the basics down, I start training them up on setting it up for them selves.

I noticed this thread the other day and it got me to thinking. I really do need to find someone to start training up to be a junior climber. Preferably some one who is enrolled in CSU's forestry program and needs a summer job, or some one who is a young vet who just got out of the military. I would like to find some one who is just as passionate about things as I am. Im not getting any younger.
 
Hmmmm. Very nice discussion. To put this into perspective it would help for me to know how big your companies (how many employees). Also where you fall in rank. I own a small tree care company and run one crew all year long. In the winter it's me my office help (two days a week) and my two main guys. My aim is to develop a crew that will operate on their own. At this point the person I missing is the sales person. That is my job right now along with going out on site whenever I choose. I am looking to train my main foreman who has been with me for almost 9 years to step into to sales. I am still reluctant to share a lot of numbers with him although he does see job pricing on occasion. I have just purchased Arbor Gold which I have a year of experience with from another company I work for.currently I am trying to set up a job costing aspect of that software. It's rather complex and I have just started. As for my foreman,I have also worked through estimating with him. However the jobs that he looks that at this point are straightforward ones and do not involve client relations. Does anyone else have some experience with the job costing aspect of Arbor Gold?thanks for all the awesome comments. And thanks to Tom and Mark for this great site!
 
I have experience with job costing- you can always do a simple man hour return report. Thats all i do. The rest is thru quickbooks.
 
baumeister said:
My aim is to develop a crew that will operate on their own. At this point the person I missing is the sales person. That is my job right now along with going out on site whenever I choose. I am looking to train my main foreman who has been with me for almost 9 years to step into to sales.
Click to expand...
What skills and/or aptitude have been demonstrated by your foreman to qualify him for the role of sales? Being good at sales is more than just the ability to estimate and the gift of the gab. What are calls that only require an estimate and those that actually require sales skills? Continue giving him the estimate calls to build up his confidence in pricing. Send him on some selling courses to develop the customer relations side. While you don't need to share with him costs, give him the rates you charge, man/hr, crew/hr, day rates, equipment rates, minimum daily/weekly/monthly revenues. How will you compensate him? Sales people have to be up on this in order to help grow the business.

We are very similar in structure and size to you. I'm the sr. climber/arborist. I also assist on sales and do training.
 
treehumper said:
What skills and/or aptitude have been demonstrated by your foreman to qualify him for the role of sales? Being good at sales is more than just the ability to estimate and the gift of the gab. What are calls that only require an estimate and those that actually require sales skills? Continue giving him the estimate calls to build up his confidence in pricing. Send him on some selling courses to develop the customer relations side. While you don't need to share with him costs, give him the rates you charge, man/hr, crew/hr, day rates, equipment rates, minimum daily/weekly/monthly revenues. How will you compensate him? Sales people have to be up on this in order to help grow the business.

We are very similar in structure and size to you. I'm the sr. climber/arborist. I also assist on sales and do training.
Click to expand...

How could you possibly do an estimate, sale, quote, etc if you don't know your hourly rate
 
Simple. Quotes can be done by either time or money. For me, I can have my guy estimate time and material on site. I put the number for $ together. He does have an idea on hourly cost , however that can vary depending on who the customer is.
 
baumeister said:
Simple. Quotes can be done by either time or money. For me, I can have my guy estimate time and material on site. I put the number for $ together. He does have an idea on hourly cost , however that can vary depending on who the customer is.
Click to expand...

Why does your hourly rate change whether you're working for fred bob or joe? does your insurance change, does your standard over head fluctuate or do you just ding your rich customers little more?
 
Last edited:
Yes very good question I struggled with this ethically for a long time. I do have a standard hourly rate. I also do work for people less fortunate who can't even afford my hourly rate it is part of my personal and ethical responsibility towards my low income Social Security retired folk. I had a long talk with one of my clients/friends who is a much wealthier person. My basic question was is it fair to charge those who can afford it more?. His simple response was : 'yes, those of us know we may not always be paying the same that those on Social Security pay for services in the area. Most of us are okay with that. We see hiring you above someone else as worth extra cost because of your professional knowledge and your wholistic approach to tree care and the environment. '. I would write more on this later have to switch to a keyboard.
On another note
One job I looked at on a 4 mil property on the lake said he was not going to pay any more than $7000 to remove A giant dead ash tree behind his house.The job was a five figure job easily and to be done safely required a crane. His driveway was only about 2 inches thick and so to bring the crane in was also very difficult and involved him signing a waiver off on his driveway. In the end of course I did not get the job nor did three other tree care companies in the area who bid it at five figures.some idiot came in climbed the tree got it down for $7000. We will always have to deal with that and as far as I'm concerned if the guy wants to go through a bidding war like that to get his tree down it's not a job I am interested in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom