Transcript:
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mike allen here want to make a quick
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video took a quick run this uh afternoon
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and we think about a conversation we had
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with a couple of our lawn care uh
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business friends and clients about um
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the size of the business didn’t allow
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for them to actually create room for
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advancement when they were hiring and
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when they actually onboarded and hired
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employees
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employees were looking for more of a
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career they’d done one hell of a job
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going in and finding a players that
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wanted a career not just a seasonal job
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but the issue that they’re facing is a
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lot of these a players are investing a
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lot of time a lot of money going out
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recruiting and onboarding them
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and got lucky enough to actually get
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them on the team but once they got on
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the team they realized there really was
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no room for advancement which actually
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wasn’t the case so what i’m going to
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suggest right off the bat in your hiring
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process no matter the size of your
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business you can have room for
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advancements i’m going to take the very
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basic example of a lawn mowing crew
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technician and crew leader imagine we
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have a two-person crew doesn’t really
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matter the size but i want to use on how
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we can lay this into play so if we’re
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hiring for a lawn care technician
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we may have some clear defined levels of
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the technician a technician in training
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a
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regular technician and then an advanced
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technician so you’ve actually got three
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different levels of a technician
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technically they’re doing the same job
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but as their pay goes up and their skill
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level goes up we can actually have
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basically micro levels of that same
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position so now we can go in and
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actually show three levels of
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progression in a technician with
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different skill sets and then that
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advanced technician is actually starting
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to take some responsibility in training
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to become a crew leader what we did at
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my company callahan’s lawn care is we
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had a crew leader a head crew leader and
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then above that we basically had an
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advanced crew leader that basically was
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trained to either become a manager for
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quality control and training or actually
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become an estimator so my suggestion
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today no matter the size of your
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business especially in today’s labor
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market we need to go out and create
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different levels of advancement within
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the same position so even if you’re only
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having two or three employees in your
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team the technician example is a great
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example technician training
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regular technician advanced technician
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and we’re not just going to in in
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drive them into each position based on
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seniority or tenure how long they’re
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with the company we need clearly defined
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um skill set and things they need to be
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able to achieve to get to each level and
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i’m also going to recommend especially
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with the labor market right now
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certification it doesn’t have to be
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something really crazy but certification
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that they have actually passed
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either a physical or written test or
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both based on each level now what this
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is going to do is help you standardize
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your operating procedures your sops for
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onboarding and training and quality
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control once we can go in and create two
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to three sub micro um
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levels of each position now when we go
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out to recruit and actually retain those
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employees we have room for advancement
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and obviously we want our employees to
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continue to advance and within the
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organization eventually if you’re doing
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a job right they’re probably going to
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advance past your organization somewhere
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depending on the size of it
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but wouldn’t it be nice instead of
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keeping on to a crew leader or
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technician for half or full season two
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to three seasons um and that learning
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curve and then the ability to advance
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through those so those need to be
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clearly defined with no motion based on
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kpis key performance indicators and i’m
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suggesting a physical um if it’s in the
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field with possibly a written test and
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certification so not just everybody can
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go from
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technician to training to technician to
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advanced technician it’s the people that
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are putting in the the time and the work
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and understand those levels um and this
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is going to require you to
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frame out some onboarding and really
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create a standardized process but in
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today’s labor market that’s going to be
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the key to success no matter the size of
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your business micro positions within the
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position
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crew leader
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um head crew leader
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and then advanced crew leader going into
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training for management herself but
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would it be really cool to have a
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technician that’s been trained through
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three different levels that understands
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everything behind time become a crew
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leader and if you imagine a crew leader
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now getting to the top of their level
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ready to get out of the truck and
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understanding what it takes to be a
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technician a certified advanced crew
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leader and a head crew leader and then
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eventually having them going into
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marketing
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sales
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so you understand they understand all
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the pain points and the things that need
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to be done or going into quality coral
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katrina because they’ve actually done it
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and lived it um but when we do advance
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in the training i also recommend that
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the training is also going to have micro
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levels in it because not everybody who
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can do the job correctly can be a good
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trainer so that’s a certain skill set we
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need to look for and set some
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expectations um and you kind of use the
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analogy too so um don’t just throw
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somebody out there to watch somebody
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model it for two weeks so it’s kind of
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like uh if you’ve got a kid going out to
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learn how to drive i mean
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the equivalent of having them sit in the
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passengers and watch you watch you drive
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for two weeks and then saying okay cool
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take the wheel you’re ready to go take
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your driver’s test that’s not going to
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happen you’re going to set them up for
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failures you’ve invested so much time
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and money on the onboarding and
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screening and interviewing make sure
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that the onboarding and training is
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specific and relevant and very clean cut
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first impressions the only impression
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but if you take the the idea of that
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base technician we’re not just going to
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say here’s how to start the weed whacker
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go out and use it we’ve got different
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levels of training so weed whacking
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blowing mowing
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possibly driving the truck truck and
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trailer backing it up certain things we
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need to be able to check the checkboxes
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to go to the next level doesn’t long
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doesn’t matter how long you’ve been with
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the with the business
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so we have somebody who hasn’t met those
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criteria they just they don’t get it and
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the cool thing is not everybody has to
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pass these different levels of micro
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commitments from
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uh
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crew leader in training to crew leader
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to advanced crew leader um or technician
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so it’s good if some people don’t hit
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that because they understand it has to
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be done so micro levels in there if
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you’re starting out in lawn care home
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cleaning i’m going to recommend
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technician is going to be technician to
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training regular technician advanced
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technician and then your crew leader is
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going to be your crew leader head crew
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leader and advanced crew leader that
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crew leader is now training for that
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next position and you need to set some
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expectations of the timeline that they
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may be in these positions they are not
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set in stone but it could be from six to
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12 months two to three months
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but that’s just a benchmark we need to
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be transparent about that up front
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because the worst thing you could do is
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say hey you’re going to join us and as
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soon as possible we’re going to blast
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you off to this next position because it
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may not happen a they may not have set
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the qualifications to advance through
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the micro positions and b uh we may just
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not have a spot from yet in the in the
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company so we need to set that up front
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so comments or questions drop below want
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to say what’s up to aaron um hopefully
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you’ve got some micro positions in your
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business and creating room for growth uh
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for those people to scale without a
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glass ceiling within the position and
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then a clear path to the next position
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callahan’s corner you asked questions we
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had some live right here on facebook