Take a look at our February newsletter!
The Landscaper's Guide To Modern Sales and Marketing Newsletter
FEBRUARY 2022
The Recruiting and Retention Lesson You Need Right Now I OFFERED MY STAFF $7,000 TO QUIT, AND HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED …
Why, in the middle of The Great Resignation, when my employees could pick and choose any job … probably make more money … would I offer my staff money to leave? Because I am THAT nuts about having the Right People in the Right Seats to serve our Hell Yes Customers. Here at Ramblin Jackson, we recruit, hire — and retain — Ramblers based on three things that we learned from the book “Traction” by Gino Wickman called GWC: 1. Get it: Do they get our company’s mission? 2. Want it: Do they want the job? 3. Capacity: Do they have the capacity to do the job? That might sound pretty simple, but you’d be surprised how many employees I’ve met at other companies who totally fail question one. In fact, I ran into that when I hired an advertising agency to manage Facebook ads for me a couple years ago (prior to watching “The Social Dilemma” and quitting Facebook Ads altogether). I picked them because I was a fan of the owner’s book, and my own team and I didn’t have the capacity to manage my Facebook ads the way I knew they could be.
worst business experiences of my life. Then, the company literally went out of business and abruptly terminated their 125-person staff! That advertising agency failed in part because it recruited and hired the wrong people, one of the co-founders shared in an industry podcast months later. The account managers I worked with didn’t “get” the mission of the CEO, and the disconnect was so obvious that I could tell as a customer. That three-question hiring criteria isn’t just for marketing companies like ours. I highly recommend putting the same process in place at your landscaping company. Up until now, you probably grew your company through pure hard work and hired whomever so you could keep the lights on. But now, how can you build a company culture where you can afford to be picky? You don’t just need employees — you need the right employees: people who understand your company’s mission, want to be there, can do the work well, and will stick around for the long haul. So, how do you get them?
understand both the direction the business is headed and the role they’ll play in it. Turn to Pg. 3 for another retention strategy that will help with that. 2. Plan a bus tour. If an employee fits all three requirements, they’re “on the bus,” and if they don’t, they should have the opportunity to get “off the bus” for the good of the company. One Rambler got off the bus after I planned what I called a “bus tour” for my team. I asked them all to read my new book, “The Tree of Good Fortune,” and meet with me to talk about it and my vision for Ramblin Jackson, and offered a $7,000 payment if they decided to get off the bus.
Continued on Page 3 ...
Here are three steps you can take right now to make sure you hire and retain the right people.
“The Landscaper’s Ultimate Guide to Recruiting” Virtual Workshop and Course Launch Thursday, March 24 | 9–11 a.m. MDT RamblinJackson.com/Events
1. Create a clear vision, mission, and set of core values for your company. Write these things down and share them with your team and candidates. If you made annual goals for your company, share those, too! Your team needs to see you as a leader and clearly
Then, I found out that no one at the company had read the CEO’s book …
I had four different account managers over the course of five months. It was one of the
RamblinJackson.com • 1
Read It in Your Truck on a Rainy Day
Greetings from 12,313 feet! Ramblin Jackson clients from Texas, Colorado, and Massachusetts shred the gnar at Copper Mountain, Colorado, at our first Client Ski Trip!
How Does the NHL Manage Outdoor Games?
Since 2003, the National Hockey League (NHL) has hosted 33 outdoor regular season games with two more on the schedule for this year. From 2003–2013, the outdoor games were held in cities with colder climates at the beginning of the coldest month of the year. Chicago, Boston, and Edmonton were some of the cities to host during that time period. In 2014, the NHL began experimenting with playing outdoor games in warmer climates when they held the very first Stadium Series game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Since then, the NHL has not shied away from playing outdoor games in warmer climates. In fact, the 2016 Stadium Series game between the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche took place in temperatures of
65 degrees F. This year, the NHL plans to host an outdoor game in Nashville in late February when the temperature usually sits around 50 degrees F. It can be difficult to maintain ice in warmer climates, but the NHL has developed a foolproof method to ensure their players stay safe during any type of weather. To help the ice stay frozen, the NHL uses a revolutionary mobile refrigeration unit. Crews arrange aluminum trays across the football field or wherever the game is taking place. They then pump as much as 3,000 gallons of glycol coolant through the trays until they reach a temperature of 22 degrees F. After the ice reaches the ideal temperature, crews install rink boards. Lastly, they spray a fine mist of water across
the rink, which builds the ice sheet until it reaches a thickness of 2 inches. The ice at an indoor rink is usually only about an inch thick, but outdoor games require a thicker surface to handle the warmer temperature. The NHL also had to find ways to manage much larger crowds at outdoor games. The record for the largest crowd at an NHL game is 105,491 — which took place outdoors at Michigan Stadium in 2014. The average attendance for indoor games is around 20,000 for most teams. Luckily, they usually get an extra hand from volunteers and the staff that regularly works at these venues.
You can catch outdoor games this season on Feb. 22 and March 13.
2 • (303) 544-2125
Read It in Your Tru
Boost Retention With Insight From Monique of The Garden Continuum As Jack mentioned on Pg. 1, landscape company employees crave direction from their managers and CEOs just as much as teams at Fortune 500 companies do. One of the best ways to give them that direction and keep your retention rate up is with regular employee coaching meetings. In a recent episode of “The Landscaper’s Guide to Modern Sales & Marketing” podcast, Jack sat down with Monique Allen to talk about this retention strategy and her other tips for finding and keeping great landscaping employees. Monique runs The Garden Continuum (TGC), a landscaping company out in Massachusetts, and she also wrote the book, “Stop Landscaping, Start Life-Scaping.” In other words, she knows what she’s talking about! At TGC, Monique has built 30-, 60-, and 90-day employee coaching meetings into the company’s DNA. These meetings are an opportunity for her management team to connect with landscapers one-on-one, go over their key performance indicators (KPIs), and offer raises. This works as a retention strategy because it gives Monique’s employees what they crave: direction, feedback on how they’re doing, suggestions for improvement, and tips on how they can impress her. Monique’s employee-experience manager, Marsha, takes the reins on getting these monthly meetings on the calendar for every new hire at TGC. “They’re not only checking in on [the employee’s] emotional state. Nine times out of 10, [the employee is] walking out with a raise … I think when people know that it’s coming, they know that they have the opportunity to talk to somebody, and they know that they’re safe,” Monique told Jack. How often do you check in with your employees? Do you have 30-, 60-, and 90-day coaching meetings in place for new hires? What about quarterly meetings for current employees? If you don’t, putting those in motion could give your current retention rate a boost. From Jack’s talk with Monique, we know what’s working for her — but we’d love to know what’s working for you. How often do you meet with new hires and employees? What are your KPIs? Do you have a raise process in place? Email your thoughts to Jack@RamblinJackson.com with the subject line “What’s Working.” You and your tips might just end up in a future newsletter! What’s Working: Hot Tips From Fellow Landscapers
... continued from Cover
It was a lot of fun, and 99% of the team left the meeting 100% committed and on the bus, and only one person stepped off.
3. Attend our upcoming event: “The Landscaper’s Ultimate Guide to Recruiting,” virtual workshop and course launch webinar, on Thursday, March 24, from 9–11 a.m. MDT. This webinar will help you take your recruitment and retention process to the next level. Follow the QR code to sign up right now, and you could be one of the first five registrants to get personalized feedback on your recruiting from me during the webinar. I’ll see you there. Now, hopefully I’m not a doofus and keep all these great Ramblers On The Bus — I want and need them here! And phew! Glad the whole team didn’t jump ship!
JACK JOSTES, CEO RAMBLIN JACKSON
P.S. If this sounds “too good to be true for landscapers,” check out my podcast interview How To Have An Employee Waitlist At Your Landscaping Company to see why this type of leadership WORKS, especially for trades businesses. P.P.S. Could you imagine having the ultra-committed, On-The-Bus- For-Your-Landscape-Company-Success Ramblin Jackson team do your marketing for you? UPCOMING EVENTS “The Landscapers Ultimate Guide to Recruiting” Virtual Workshop and Course Launch Thursday, March 24 9–11 a.m. MDT “The Tree of Good Fortune” Book Club Thursday, April 21 9–11 a.m. MDT RamblinJackson.com/Events
RamblinJackson.com • 3
uck on a Rainy Day
PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
PO Box 1429 • Lyons, CO 80540 (303) 544-2125 • ramblinjackson.com
1 The Smart Way to Recruit — Starting Today 2 Greetings From 12,313 Feet! 2 How Does the NHL Manage Outdoor Games? 3 What’s Working? Retention Tips From an Expert 4 Should You Make Your Company a ‘Safe Space’? INSIDE
JUST TRY THIS HACK FROM LOCAL ROOTS LANDSCAPING Can you imagine how it would feel to have a wait list of qualified employees who are lining up to work at your landscaping company? Considering the hiring crisis we’re in, that probably sounds like a fairy tale, but one pair of entrepreneurs has made it happen: Pat and Kenn of Local Roots Landscaping. Qualified Candidates Will Line Up to Work for You
“Humans are humans. They are not machines, they’re not tools. Everyone has a heart, everyone has a brain that struggles,” Pat says. “[That’s] a core concept of the health of our company. And when you say at our place, ‘Have a good day! We so appreciate you being here,’ that’s sincere. And you’ll hear that back. All of our team members will say that same exact thing back to us and then share that with other hires, which then creates this funnel inward. Who doesn’t want to work for a company that has those vibes, right?”
Local Roots isn’t doing black magic to get their incredible recruiting numbers. Instead, they’re prioritizing something many other landscaping companies don’t: the mental health of their employees. Pat and Kenn allow their landscapers to share their worries, concerns, and struggles. Instead of brushing them under the rug, they listen closely and offer resources and support. As Pat puts it, “The employees who come to work know it’s a safe space, and we’re not just saying, ‘It’s a safe space. Now rub some dirt in it and get over it.’ We’re saying, ‘It’s a safe space. What do you need from us?’”
Pat and Kenn’s “safe space” ideology has ensured they
never have a problem recruiting. For more
recruitment tips, check out the articles on Pgs. 1 and 3. To hear more from Pat and Kenn, follow the QR code to listen to their episode of “The Landscaper’s Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing” podcast.
According to the partners, this approach works wonders for both recruitment and retention.
4 • (303) 544-2125
Get a Free, Personal Video Review Of Your Website! • ramblinjackson.com/webreview
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator