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Winning the Tree Care Transfer Portal

by | Jan 3, 2025 | Employee Management | 0 comments

Winning the Tree Care Transfer Portal

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Like it or not, managing the transfer portal has become a large part of college sports programs in recent years. With the end of the college football transfer portal getting a lot of attention lately, I couldn’t help but think that a transfer portal exists today in the tree care industry. Of course there is no formal system in the tree care industry with rules and deadlines, but employers often find themselves battling over the same employees who are willing to jump from company to company. 

 So how can your tree company win the transfer portal issue affecting our industry?

  1. Admit it – Acknowledge that employees always are looking to improve their situation. No one likes to think this about their team, but if we hide in the sand and pretend it isn’t happening, that isn’t going to help you. Understand that it is human nature to always want to have a better work situation and do not blame your employees for that. Instead, embrace it so you can work with your team members proactively instead of seeing them flee to another company without you having a chance to keep them. 
  2. Create and develop your company’s identity – At ArboRisk, we talk a lot about developing your company’s brand and culture and for good reason. Everything that happens within your company comes down to who are you as a company and what you stand for. If you do not intentionally develop your company’s identity, it will be created on its own. Do you really want that happening? For help creating your desired company culture, check out this article from one of our Thrive consultants, Kevin Martlage. 
  3. Offer attractive compensation and benefits – Attracting and retaining top talent takes a significant financial investment from the company, however, it is not always about dollars and cents. Being creative with the benefits that you offer your team can more than make up a $.50 pay increase that another employer may give. To do this you need to know what your employees value. Vacation days, the opportunity to get overtime, equipment allowances, group outings, traditional benefits like health, dental, life and disability insurance, continuing education, travel to conferences, whatever it may be, make sure your employees value those perks and that you talk about them to continue to focus on how you appreciate them as employees on your team. 
  4. Focus on employee development – If you want better employees, then you need to help them get better. When you actively help your employees get better they talk to others about how awesome their employer is, which brings other great employees to your team. One of our Thrive consultants, Joseph Toppi, wrote an article on this exact topic a few years ago that gives great advice on how to develop your team. Here is the link to 5 Secrets to Better Employees. 

If you are struggling to find and retain top talent, reach out to an ArboRisk team member today to learn how the Thrive Hiring & Recruiting Package can help you win the transfer portal problem within the tree care industry.  

Buyer Beware! CG2144 or CG2136?

by | Dec 2, 2024 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Buyer Beware! CG2144 or CG2136?

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Understanding the nuances of your insurance policies may not be your top priority, but the fine print deep inside the language of your policy can make all the difference when it comes to a claim. 

Since we have been insuring tree care companies and analyzing their insurance coverage for over 20 years now, we’ve seen a lot of different policy forms and endorsements over the years. However, the two most common and dangerous endorsements we see on General Liability policies that tree care company owners are not aware of are…

CG2144 – Limitation of Coverage to Designated Premises or Project

CG2136 – Exclusion – Designated Work

Let’s dig into each of them below…

CG2144 – Limitation of Coverage to Designated Premises or Project

This endorsement changes your General Liability policy to ONLY cover certain locations and or operations that your company performs. If you have this endorsement on your policy, you will see a box showing what premises or projects (operations) that the General Liability will be providing coverage for. If your company offers any other services that are not listed here, there will not be General Liability coverage when you need it. 

We often see tree care companies that do some landscaping or snow/ice removal who do not have coverage for those services because they do not have those services listed on this limitation of coverage. 

CG2136 – Exclusion – Designated Work

This endorsement changes your General Liability policy to EXCLUDE coverage for certain operations/services that you may provide. Like the CG2144, if you have this endorsement on your policy, you will find a box with a number of services or operations included inside. These are operations that the insurance company will not cover you for.

The most common and perhaps problematic of the services that are listed in this endorsement would be for crane operations. Unfortunately, we see crane operations excluded from policies all of the time using this endorsement. So whether you own a crane or rent one or subcontract a company with a crane to assist in a large removal, please, please, please, make sure you do not have this on your policy!

Of course with most insurance coverages, if you find that you have either or both of these forms on your policy talk with your insurance agent to have them edited or removed all together. 

If your current agent has never discussed either of these policy forms with you, click here to request an Insurance Coverage Review from an ArboRisk team member.

Near Misses

by | Sep 9, 2024 | Safety | 0 comments

Near Misses

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

One of my favorite parts of being a former arborist turned insurance agent is when I join tree care companies for their safety meetings. Seeing first hand how dedicated most tree care companies are to improving their safety culture and being a part of that is extremely rewarding for me. It also is great to see the variety of safety meeting formats, both in length and structure, but one common item almost everyone includes is a discussion on near misses. 

OSHA defines ‘near miss’ as a potential hazard or incident in which no property was damaged, and no personal injury was sustained, but the easier definition is that of a close call. Something happened whether it was intentional or not, that could have caused an injury or accident. 

Near misses are great learning opportunities for everyone within the company as it creates discussion around what could have or should have been done differently to avoid the close call.

Do you discuss near misses at your company? 

If you haven’t incorporated a discussion on near misses into your safety meetings yet, don’t fret, here are a few simple tips. 

  1. Establish the Purpose and Ground Rules – To be effective, a conversation about near misses needs a defined purpose and ground rules set by you, the leader of the organization. Make sure to explain that the purpose of this conversation is simply to help others avoid an injury or accident by learning from someone who had a close call. The ground rules are also simple but also very important. You must establish the trust within your team to let them know that they will not be punished for sharing a near miss and you will not tolerate anyone belittling someone for sharing details of a close call. Without an open trusting environment, your near miss discussion will not be effective. 
  2. Start with a Personal Example – As the leader of your organization, you may not be involved in the day-to-day production work anymore, but everyone of us has had a close call to recount or can think of one from their personal life. When the leader begins to share and makes him/herself vulnerable to their team, it sets the stage for anyone in the organization to be able to share a near miss situation. 
  3. Ensure Everyone has a Chance to Share – Without letting the meeting get too long, it’s important for everyone on the team has a chance to share their near miss. When someone feels like they didn’t have a chance to share when they were ready to, they are less likely to share the next time around. 

If you are struggling with what to include during your Safety meetings or how to begin discussing near misses with your team, reach out to an ArboRisk team member or sign up for our Thrive Safety Package today.

Job Briefing

by | Sep 9, 2024 | Safety | 0 comments

Job Briefing

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Job Briefing. Job Hazard Analysis (JHA). Job Safety Analysis (JSA). Pre-Work Checklist. 

There are many names that tree care companies use to describe the activity a crew goes through before they begin working at a jobsite but for the purpose of this article, I’m going to use the term Job Briefing. 

Before I get too far along, it is important to note that the technical function of a JHA is slightly different to a JSA or Job Briefing, but the concept I want to dive into is…

What should a tree crew discuss before working at a jobsite?

For starters, the Job Briefing may be the singular most important moment of each job. It is the time for all crew members to understand the work that will be done, the specific site hazards involved and create an emergency plan for an accident. 

Let there be no doubt, Job Briefings save lives. On top of that, the Job Briefing helps each job be completed in a more efficient and profitable manner than a job that didn’t have a briefing. 

So what should your crew be discussing during their Job Briefing? The Job Briefing doesn’t need to be a long drawn meeting, but it should address several key items including specifics about the work to be done at this location, and site specific hazards and special equipment needed along with a discussion about the work zone setup. The crew should also discuss emergency procedures, who will call 911, who is the backup caller, where is the nearest hospital or urgent care clinic, where is the first aid kit. 

To help your crew remember to discuss all of these topics, utilize a paper or digital form that each employee signs to acknowledge that they understood the specifics of that job. You can include more than this, but in my opinion, the bare minimum information that should be on your Job Briefing form should be:

  • Date
  • Jobsite address
  • Start time
  • End time
  • Crew Leader
  • Physical Hazards/Obstacles specific to this location
  • Simple description of Work Plan including a sketch of work zone
  • Questions/Comments from the crew
  • Signature lines for each crew member 
  • First Aid kit location
  • Who will call 911 and who is the backup caller?
  • Specific equipment necessary for the job
  • Specific PPE requirement necessary for the job

A copy of the Job Briefing should be kept on file in case an accident does occur as this can be a key piece of defense that your tree care company will want to have if being sued by someone after a job-site incident. 

Lastly, don’t over complicate this process for your team. Make it easy enough for them to do before each job, yet detailed enough to get the right information to everyone. 

If you are struggling with what to include during the Job Briefing or how to improve your pre-job meetings, reach out to an ArboRisk team member or sign up for our Thrive Safety Package today.

Effective Sales Meetings

by | Aug 5, 2024 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Effective Sales Meetings

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Raise your hand if you love sales meetings.

I bet not many readers of this article actually raised their hand and I don’t blame them for that. Most sales meetings are not an effective use of the sales person’s time. Sales people do not want to be stuck in a meeting, they want to be out seeing their customers and prospects and their frustration with meetings compounds when they don’t feel that they get any value out of the meeting itself. 

What is the objective of a Sales Meeting? 

It is simply to help your sales team sell more.That’s it. Don’t overcomplicate this during your meetings. 

So how do you make sure you are having effective sales meetings? Here are my six tips to getting the most out of your sales meetings:

  1. Define purpose to all involved – The “Why” – Make sure everyone knows why you are holding sales meetings; to help them sell more! This sounds elementary, but this simple purpose must be stated fairly regularly to keep sales people engaged before, during and after the meeting. When they feel that they have your support, salespeople perform better and are more likely to help offer suggestions for improvement. 
  2. Set an agenda and stick to it – Without an agenda, sales meetings meander around hoping to help someone in the meeting while undoubtedly wasting most people’s time. No one wants to sit in a meeting and not know what is going to be talked about next or worse yet, not know how long the meeting will last. An agenda that is sent out in advance of the meeting also allows the participants a chance to prepare beforehand to be more effective during the time spent together. For a few sample meeting agenda types, check out this article. 
  3. Start AND end on time – This also is pretty basic, but when you ask a sales person to take time out of their day to spend in a meeting versus with their customers/prospects, you need to start the meeting on time and end on time. Respecting your sales people’s time should be a foundational part of any organization. Most tree companies are good at starting on time, but need to work at ending on time. To properly end a meeting on time, your agenda must keep you focused and have a built-in option to table certain items until the next meeting.
  4. Celebrate wins – Everyone likes to feel victorious and sharing success stories with your sales team are a great way to do this. Not only does the individual salesperson get recognition for a job well done, the others may learn a thing or two on what went into closing that sale and be able to apply that the next time they have a similar situation. 
  5. Ensure collaborative environment – It is easy for a sales meeting to turn into a competitive bragging session between your sales people, especially when you are celebrating individual wins. Ensure that you create a collaborative environment by focusing on team goals throughout the meeting and building in time for everyone to contribute something that they’ve learned/experienced. It’s amazing to hear the sales ideas you get from your team when you foster a team environment in your sales meetings.  
  6. Keep meeting minutes – This last tip is probably the hardest for every sales manager, but it is so critical to keep your meetings as effective as possible. Before the meeting starts, someone should be assigned to take the meeting minutes. They do not have to be an entire log of everything that was said, but they should reflect; who was in attendance, summary of each agenda item, goal updates and most importantly who will do what by when. The last part is the crucial accountability part that is often missed with sales meetings. Remember, the purpose of the sales meeting is to help your salespeople sell more, so build this into your meeting structure so there is more accountability for everyone involved.


If you are struggling creating a sales meeting format that works for your team or need help developing a better sales process, reach out to an ArboRisk team member today to get started in our Thrive Sales & Marketing Package.