5 Secrets to Better Employees

by Katie Petersen | Dec 29, 2021 | Employee Management | 0 comments

5 Secrets to Better Employees

Written by Joseph Toppi

“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” – Richard Branson

Want better employees? Of course you do! Nearly every company – no matter what the industry they are in – is searching for better employees to add to their team, to grow and sustain their company. They seem to never be able to find employees that can last, so they end up in this constant state of churn.

Why? I think there are many reasons, but the underlying issue to all of the reasons is the employer. It is the hiring process, more specifically, the way the employer manages the hiring process when looking for employees. The system of hiring on skill and experience, then throwing monetary incentives to keep them is an archaic way that has lost its effectiveness some time ago. That is a system that has been proven to be nothing more than costly!

These 5 secrets saved my companies from utter employee disaster, and allowed me to start making better employee choices and retain them longer.

#1. Hire Based On Core Values

In 2013, I went through a major hiring time. I hired around 50 men and women, and only retained three or four. At that time, I didn’t know why I was having so much trouble. I was hiring the most skilled, paying them above normal, and treated them very well. Still, they were not performing, and I was losing money through hiring, training, poor workmanship, and replacing.

As I sat down to reflect on what was going on, I realized I was missing the important things I should have been hiring on – core values.

I was trying to hire based on skill in a time when all the skilled employees were already hired. The way I was filtering my potential hires was the issue. I was looking for skill, but putting no weight on honesty, reliable, integrity, etc. If you start your hiring process by looking for those that possess the core values of your company, you can train the skill. When hiring, we want to train them in our company’s way, anyway, so why hire based on something you are going to change in them?

#2. Set Clear Expectations

When employers fail to set clear expectations of their employees from day one, the employer is setting the employee up to fail.

Too many times, the employers will give a rough outline of what the company does, and sometimes even varying deadlines, but nothing that the employee can hold themselves accountable to. Nothing the employee can be weighed against to determine if they are doing a good job or not. The worst part is, the employer ends up getting frustrated and angry at the employee, because they are not living up to the expectations the employer has!

When hiring your employees, prepare a clear set of company rules and behavioral expectations, and go over them with the new employee on Day One. As well, at the start of any tasks or projects, make sure you have production, quality, and timeline expectations set. Employees prefer this, as it provides them structure and a way to know if they are doing a good job or not.

#3. Be Quick To Invest In Your Employees

Many times, employers are afraid to invest in developing their employees because of fear. Fear that the employees will leave them for another company. Fear that employees will leave and start their own company. Just a fear that they will waste their money. This holds so many companies back from having absolutely exceptional employees, and holds so many employees back from being truly invested and caring about the company.

When a company invests in their employees, the employees feel like they are valued, and in turn the employees will naturally want to work harder for that company. It is important to invest in training – company specific training, industry training, and personal development. Training employees goes a long way in their abilities on and off the job site.The opposite is also true – when a company refuses to invest in their employees, the employees feel unvalued, and this is when trouble starts.

Finally, trust in your employees. Ever feel like all you are doing is putting out fires, and most of them are little things that you think your employees are more than capable of handling? They probably are, but somewhere down the line, you showed them a lack of trust and it is coming to a head. Quit being the firefighter, and start being the fire chief!

Not investing into employees because of the fear of losing them holds so many companies back from having absolutely exceptional employees, and holds so many employees back from being truly invested and caring about the company.

#4. Recognize & Praise

Why is it that employers think that money is ALL that is important to employees? I have heard employers complain so many times how they were overpaying an employee and gave them so many bonuses and benefits, and the employee still moved on. They are confused as to why. When I ask how they treated the employee, they would answer in a monetary way – “I treated them good, I paid them well.”

What I have found is that employees – people – just want to feel appreciated. They want recognition and praise for the things they do and accomplish. Too many times, though, employers don’t recognize and praise, but rather criticize and belittle.

Start recognizing your employees – not with money, but recognize the things they do well – recognize their value, recognize their accomplishments (both at work and personally)! Do the little things – parties, BBQ, lunch, in-house awards. Praise should be given quickly after an accomplishment, it should be personal, outlined in detail, and relevant at the time.

#5. Be Quick To Nurture, Not Fire

How many times have you fired someone without giving them the opportunity to correct their attitude, behavior, or whatever it was that caused you to fire them in the first place? As well, how many times have you fired someone without at least showing them what it was that went wrong, and invested a bit of time with them to show them the right way?

Be quick to invest the time and energy into building up your employees. Don’t get me wrong, there are those people that you hire foolishly, and you know that no matter what you do, they are still going to be trouble. With the rest, you have the opportunity to not fire them, but nurture them into the best version of themselves.

Hiring the right way is just as important as hiring the right person. As an employer, you are responsible for the people you hire, the culture you create, and the community they are all a part of. When you hire and maintain employees as discussed above, you will create employees that will work for you, your vision, and towards your mission. If you struggle with the hiring process, contact an ArboRisk team member today! Our Thrive Risk Management Hiring & Recruiting Package can help address your hiring woes and take your company to new heights!

Who Is Your Recruiting Champion?

by Katie Petersen | Dec 20, 2021 | Employee Management | 0 comments

Who Is Your Recruiting Champion?

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Almost every tree service owner has a difficult time finding new employees, yet most don’t actually do anything to improve their recruiting situation. But that’s not because they are lazy, no, it’s quite the opposite, something always comes up that takes the owner’s time and attention away from recruiting efforts. Because of this, every tree care company needs to designate a Recruiting Champion within their organization.

What is a Recruiting Champion? This is the person who takes responsibility for recruiting new employees to your company. They have the authority and dedicated budget to spend a certain amount of their time on recruiting activities. This position can be filled by anyone within the organization, however for the position to be successful there has to be clear expectations of what the specific roles that the Recruiting Champion must fulfill.

There are three main roles the Recruiting Champion must accomplish within your tree care company.

Understands the staffing needs – The Recruiting Champion must be involved in strategic planning of the company to understand where the company is headed and therefore anticipate what the staffing needs will be in the future. Planning for the upcoming busy season is the most immediate need that the Recruiting Champion should consider. How many people do we need in the next 6 months to hit our growth goals? You also should paint a broader picture for the Recruiting Champion as to what the company will look like in 3 – 5 years so they can help with the potential development of current employees or the need to hire for different skill sets in the future.
Creates and executes the recruitment strategy – Creating a recruitment strategy consists of identifying what your target employee looks like (the profile of characteristics, not physical looks) and learning where they interact so you can be present and offer career opportunities to them. Developing a visual Career Path is an essential part of the recruitment strategy so when you do get an interested employee you can show them how they are able to have a lengthy career within your organization. The Recruiting Champion is also responsible for attending the career fairs and hiring events that were identified in the strategy.
Screens and helps on interviews – The Recruiting Champion should not be responsible for all of the hiring activities, but they should be involved in the screening and initial interviews for potential employees. This will help them gain a better understanding of the recruiting efforts that they have embarked upon and how they can adjust the strategy to improve their results. You have to be careful of bias that the Recruiting Champion may impose upon their preferred candidates and therefore be part of the hiring team and not the only one performing the hiring process.

Remember that recruiting activities do not produce immediate results, however, we all know what you’ll get if you don’t start doing it. After you identify a Recruiting Champion within your company, start by dedicating just 5% of their time to recruiting activities. That equates to ½ of a day for every two weeks worked. Trust me, even that small amount of time will return great dividends in your recruiting efforts.

If you are struggling with recruiting new employees and want help creating a Recruiting Champion within your company, sign up for our Thrive Hiring & Recruiting package today or contact an ArboRisk team member to learn more!

Hiring During Times of High Unemployment

by | May 22, 2020 | Employee Management | 0 comments

Hiring during high times of unemployment

Hopefully, like me, many of you are trying to find the positives during this on-going pandemic. One of the positives is with the record high number of unemployed people, your recruiting efforts may have gotten a lot easier. I know that may seem counter-intuitive, however, the longer this pandemic carries on, the more willing people will be to search out a career change. If your tree service is like many that I’ve talked to in the last two months and continuing to thrive, now could be a great time to get new employees.

That said, times of high unemployment does not necessarily mean that hiring will be easier. With so many people out of work, you will be getting more applicants for an open position that you have, many of which will not be qualified to do the work. Sorting through the additional applications will obviously add extra cost to the hiring process, so if you haven’t established a hiring procedure within your tree care company, now is the time to do it.

Job Descriptions – Putting together a solid hiring process starts with having written job descriptions for every position within the company. There are many different places that you can find job description templates to get you started. Use the template and customize them to your organization.

Career Path – Once you have the job descriptions done, create a logical path that an employee could progress within your company. Make this a visual document that is easy to understand and read. We have an entire article here on career paths.

Paperwork – What forms and paperwork do you need to bring a new employee onto your team? What background checks require a signature from the prospective employee. How will you accept applications? These are all questions you need answer and prepare yourself for before opening up a position.

Interview Process – How will you be handling interviews, via phone, Zoom, in-person? There are a lot of different ways you can set up your interview process, the main concern however, is that you follow the same process. You do not want one candidate to get a perceived advantage or disadvantage because you had a variable interview process. For more ideas on the interview process read our article here.

Who Do You Want – Especially with the potential to receive many more applications than before you need to be laser focused on who you want as an employee. This could be personality characteristics, physical qualities, tree care experience, etc. Hone in on what that perfect team member will look like within your organization and write this down.

Having the right employees on your team is one of the fundamental building blocks of a tree service’s risk management program. That’s why we have been helping tree services with their hiring and recruiting efforts for years now. If you would like any more help on your hiring and recruiting efforts, reach out to an ArboRisk team member today.

Written by: Eric Petersen

Will You Watch Out for My Safety?

by | May 7, 2019 | Risk Management | 0 comments

Will You Watch Out For My Safety?

“You don’t have to tell me that, I know what I’m doing.”

How many times have you caught yourself saying that to someone who is just trying to help?

I know I have done that more often than I’d like to admit. Especially when you are in a leadership position, it can be challenging to accept advice from one of your subordinates. However, this is the exact opposite reaction you should have if you want to promote a culture of trust and open communication within your company.

At TCIA’s 2019 Winter Management Conference, John Drebinger spoke on how safety is a benefit for your employees and how the owner or crew leader’s attitude plays the largest factor in the success of building a safety culture. For a company to truly build a great culture, all employees must feel comfortable to speak up when they see something that doesn’t seem right. If the owner or crew leader shuts down an employee by saying that they know what they should be doing, the chances of that employee ever saying something again are slim. As soon as that communication breaks down, your culture of mutual respect within your company takes a major hit and preventable accidents may occur.

There are many reasons, why people don’t say something including:

They don’t think something will happen.
They are uncomfortable speaking up.
They do not know how to point out an unsafe situation.
So what is the best way to avoid this breakdown in communication? Train yourself and your team members on how to bring up a safety concern as well as how to accept safety criticism from anyone on the team.

At your next safety meeting, start by asking individuals directly if they will look out for your safety. Speak directly at 3 or 4 of your team members to drive home the point that everyone should be looking out for each other. “John, will you look out for my safety? Bob, will you look out for my safety?”. And so on.

Giving your employees the authority to say something that could prevent an accident from happening will dramatically change the safety culture of your organization.

After you have given the authority to look out for everyone’s safety, provide your team with a few simple ways that employees can point out safety concerns comfortably.

“As you know” – One of the easiest ways for any team member to address another is to begin with this phrase. This technique doesn’t threaten the intelligence of the worker, but reminds them that they are working unsafely. Ex: As you know, you should be wearing your chaps, even for one small cut.

“I’m new, why are you doing it that way?” – Asking for advice is actually a great, innocent way of getting your point across to a veteran employee that their work practice is unsafe. It will stop them enough to realize they are setting a bad example and allow for a small moment of training between the two. Ex: Since I’m new to your crew, why did you set up the chipper in that manner?

“This one time, I…” – State how you had a close call by doing a similar unsafe act. Relating to your team member by stating that you have done the same unsafe act, but were lucky enough to not have an accident is a powerful way of helping that individual. Ex: This one time, I didn’t put on the chain break when bucking a log and my chain got caught in my chaps as I moved to the next limb.

After you have given a few examples of how to point out an unsafe act, you have to talk about the proper way to accept criticism regardless of who is giving it to you. Remember, the main reason you want a safe workplace is so everyone will make it home each night. Explain that checking your ego and saying thank you is much easier than taking an ambulance ride to the emergency room. Also, acknowledging that it may have been difficult for that team member to say something goes a long way to ensure they feel comfortable to say something again in the future.

Foster a culture of gratitude within your company by setting a great example for your team and training everyone on how to address and accept the advice instead of shutting it down.

For help building the best safety culture possible, contact the ArboRisk team today!

Written by: Eric Petersen

The Most Important Aspect of Hiring

by | Apr 30, 2019 | Safety | 0 comments

The Most Important Aspect of Hiring

As a business-owner, I’ve felt the hiring pressure that you feel. Your company is growing and you need more people to continue the momentum, however, you don’t know how to find that person.

In my opinion, the most important aspect to hiring is being prepared before you need to hire someone.

Many tree service owners struggle with bad hires because they are not prepared before they need a new person. Hiring someone just because you need more help usually causes more problems than it solves. You’re probably nodding your head in agreement right now, because we all have been there; the good news is that there’s hope to better hiring. This article outlines a few ideas for you to have in place to be better prepared before you hire your next employee.

Job Descriptions – Do you have written job descriptions for each position? If not, now is the time to create them. Having a written job description will help you understand the specific needs for your organization and thereby give you direction for hiring and recruiting of new employees.

Career Path – Create an easy to follow diagram to show employees how they can progress through your company. Creating levels or tier to certain positions (like Climber I and Climber II) can help a prospective employee see that there is a structured growth potential within your organization. To learn more about career paths, read this article: Are You in Danger of Losing Your Best Employee?

Hiring Strategy – Having a standard hiring process is a crucial part of a successful business. Create a list of all of the paperwork necessary for someone to apply for the job. Then formulate an interview process that will allow you to best qualify the potential employee. This can be a series of phone and in-person meetings. I suggest involving some of the potential employee’s team members as well to make sure their personalities fit well together.

Who Do You Want – Do you know what characteristics you want in an employee? What traits fit with your company’s culture and will help build everyone up around them. Are there physical requirements that you need the individual to possess?

Where Should You Be Recruiting – While finding new employees is difficult, having everything else in place before you go looking for them will help tremendously. It will also point you to the places (both in person and online) that your ideal employee is at. For a few of my favorite recruiting tips, check out this article: 5 Hiring Hotspots.

Being prepared to hire the best will be your surest way to actually hiring the best. Take some time to develop your hiring procedure, I promise you won’t regret it.

If you would like help creating a hiring and recruiting structure, contact ArboRisk to learn how to sign up for our Thrive services.

Written by: Eric Petersen