How to Get the Most Out of Your Safety Committee

by Katie Petersen | Sep 13, 2022 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

How to GEt the Most Out of Your Safety Committee

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

As you know, having a safety committee is a great way to intentionally create the desired safety culture for your company. It gives your team members some control and input around safety concerns that they face each day all while building company morale and hopefully limiting injuries and accidents.

But are you really getting the most out of your committee? Here are my four tips to strengthen your safety committee.

Create Committee Goals and Responsibilities – Have you clearly defined what you want the safety committee to do for your organization? Was your committee established because you had an accident in the past or because you’re scared of an accident in the future, maybe both? Below are some core responsibilities your safety committee should take charge of:
- Reviewing your written safety program and implementation of safety policies.
- Regular job site and equipment inspections.
- Running safety meetings and analyzing incident/near miss data.
- Addressing potential risks when providing new services.
- Staying abreast of industry regulation and changes.

Involve The Right People – Making sure you have the right team is critical to ensuring the committee stays just that, committed. Diversity in your safety committee is paramount. Aim to have a committee that receives input from all aspects of your business. For example, you may have one foreman, one climber, one grounds crew member, one lift operator and one shop member all included.

Term Limits – Create a term limit for your committee and stick to it. Many times safety committees get stale because the same people have been on the committee for years and years. Establish a rule that each members will only be on the committee for a designated amount of time. This allows a committee member a certain amount of time to create action and provides the opportunity to involve more team members. Stagger the terms so that you always have fresh members joining the current committee. I recommend using two year terms. Two years is long enough to accomplish specific tasks, but short enough to keep it interesting for all members.

Rewards – Give incentives to the safety committee members. Everyone wants to feel rewarded for their hard work and being on a safety committee can add more responsibility and stress than their normal position. Set up a reward system that allows you to praise the committee for the procedural aspect of their role. This could be in a monetary bonus for every safety meeting held or additional time off for every job site inspection performed, get creative on what will motivate your safety committee members to do their absolute best. Remember that OSHA frowns upon safety programs that have an outcome-based incentive tied to them, meaning do not incentivize your team members based on the amount of injuries. Use concrete goals and procedures as your benchmark for the committee’s performance.

Remember that the ultimate goal of the safety committee is to strengthen the culture of safety within your organization so you can get every employee home safe each night. Empowering your team members with that goal is the surest way to succeed.

Since ArboRisk’s mission is to get every arborist home safe each night, we’ve designed a specific consulting package to work one-on-one with your organization. Visit our webpage for the Thrive Safety Package to learn more. In addition to the Thrive Safety Package, all ArboRisk clients receive a Safety Culture Assessment that allows you to peer into your safety culture and find areas that need improvement.

Q&A with Work Comp Loss Control Specialist

by Katie Petersen | Sep 8, 2022 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Q&A with Work Comp Loss Control Specialist

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

One of my favorite things about the tree care industry is meeting people who have dedicated their lives to bettering the industry. Recently I had the chance to speak with MIchael Schrand, Senior Risk Management Consultant for ICW Group Insurance Company and was encouraged to hear all of the things their work comp company is doing for the tree care industry. Michael and his team work daily to help minimize jobsite hazards and reduce accidents.

Our conversation was so powerful, I wanted to reconnect with him for a short Q&A session so I could share some of his expert insight with our readers. Check out the rest of this article to hear his perspective on safety within the tree care industry.

Q – What is the most common cause of injury that you’ve seen within the tree care industry?

A – Since I can’t really decide on the most common cause of injuries, I’ll give you three…

Lack of planning and execution when creating a safety culture. Many times a company’s safety culture is created on its own, versus intentionally being created by the leadership team.
Not having the expertise and/or training to recognize the potential hazards that you come across daily.
Employee selection is problematic. We all know the challenges the current labor force has, but hiring just to fill a spot on your team will cause problems and result in more injuries.

Q – Is there a common theme with all the severe injuries that you’ve seen within the tree care industry?

A – When we see serious injuries, they usually either come from a lack of training and/or experience or from not having the proper equipment. Unfortunately, many tree care operations don’t see safety culture as an important enough part of a successful business and don’t focus on it.

Q – What are 3 things that all tree care companies should make sure they do to prevent/minimize injuries within their company?

A – The top 3 things that I recommend tree care companies focus on to prevent/minimize injuries would be:

Maintain your equipment.
Implement planning and training around your safety efforts.
Eliminate climbing if possible.

Q – In your opinion, what is the most important component to have a culture of safety within a tree care company?

A – Safety is a people business and unfortunately, accidents are a people program. Safety must start within a person. A safety culture is created initially by the leadership individuals and then supported by every person throughout the organization. This combines with the DNA of the overall company operations and will have a direct affect on the success of the company.

If you ever had doubts that you are not doing everything you can to get your employees home safe each night, reach out to a member of the ArboRisk team today and discuss how becoming an insurance client will help you achieve your safety goals or enroll in our Thrive Safety Package to get one-on-one help.

What is Safe?

by Katie Petersen | Sep 6, 2022 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

What is Safe?

Written by Travis Vickerson

In the tree care industry, we speak a lot about safe work practices, safety first and working safely. Yet if we truly stop to think about it, what is safe?

It’s a rather hard thing to define without using the word safe somehow which then brings us back to attempting to define it as well as each derivative of the word. I would like to challenge you that safe is a construct that we have placed as an overarching objective in tasks and work we do. Yet safety is ultimately the outcome from those tasks. Whether or not something was done safely can only be assessed after the event is over and no negative outcome has occurred or had the potential to occur. Just because you don’t have an incident doesn’t mean you worked safely; you could have just gotten fortunate to avoid a mistake that might have had potential for an incident.

What we really mean when we talk about safe work practices and safety first is that we are wanting people to perform tasks in a manner that avoids incident and potential for incident.

This means doing things in the correct sequence or within the procedure prescribed for that task. That said, the hardest thing for most employers is to know what skill level workers have in doing things in the correct sequence or as prescribed in a procedure of a task. At Noble Oak Safety and Training, we feel the best tool any employer can have is data on the abilities, proficiency and lack thereof with employees. Far too often we see incidents occurring that are not really about lack of safety, but rather about lack of ability or trying to work beyond a person’s actual ability. We place workers on job sites and are given tasks that may or may not fit their abilities to perform work in the correct sequence or with the correct understanding of a procedure or just simply are outside of their skill level.

So how does one define an individual’s skill level? I believe in using a scoring system derived from jobsite observation of skills. This skill evaluation of employees performing tasks allows the employer to get actual data on the individuals abilities, proficiencies and needed areas of improvement. This means the right workers can be placed in the right job sites that fit their skills and employees can be given a clear and concise pathway for improvement.

Remember, employee retention is based on employee happiness and satisfaction and often we find the most satisfied employees are ones that feel they are being invested into. Training is one of the most common ways to invest in someone. Even though it may be hard to see a return on training, having a pathway of improvement can provide tailored training options that speeds up your return rather than simply providing broad training that may or may not meet the needs of your people.

To summarize we must start treating all the work we do as steps in the process to achieve safe outcomes rather than just an objective to accomplish. Stop saying have a safe day and begin making safety an outcome of everyday by infusing proper procedures for tasks, correct sequence of actions and right skills for the right job.

ArboRisk is pleased to partner with Travis Vickerson and the team at Noble Oak Safety and Training to provide Arborist Skill Validation Assessments as well as direct team or individual skills training for our clients. If you have any safety training questions, please reach out to an ArboRisk team member directly and we can get you started on our Thrive Safety Package or connected with Travis.

Sales Compensation Discussion with Paul Filary of Kramer Tree

by Katie Petersen | Aug 11, 2022 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Sales Compensation Discussion with Paul Filary of Kramer Tree

Written by Tom Dunn

Paul Filary is the Director of Operations and ISA Certified Arborist with Kramer Tree Specialists (KTS), based out of West Chicago, Illinois. Before becoming the Operations Manager at KTS, Paul was the Sales Manager at KTS and holds a degree in Forestry from Michigan State University. Kramer Tree provides a wide range of services to its client base including Tree Care, Mulch Products, Plant Health Care, Tree Planting, Urban Wood Products, Safety Training, Consulting and Holiday Lighting.

We wanted to get Paul’s take on important considerations when establishing a Sales Compensation structure for a sales arborist team.

What are some of the key factors to consider when establishing a sales compensation package?

The first step before even setting up a compensation package is to do some market research on what competitive annual salaries are in your sales territory. Use this information to determine if the annual salaries are attainable for your sales team and this will help in how you structure the compensation.

Another important step that is often overlooked is to have a grasp on job costs for the different services your company provides. This will establish what a profitable hourly rate is and will help determine where your commission levels should be set. Job costs can be based on an individual job or a collection of jobs.

A tiered commission structure based on the volume of business sold versus a flat rate has proven to be a successful motivating factor. If the sales arborists know they can earn a higher commission rate once they reach and exceed a targeted commissionable sales amount, they will not become complacent.

Determine if you want to have a draw versus commission or a salary plus commission structure is the next tough decision. There are pros and cons to both, but a salary plus commission structure provides more predictability of costs, allows for the sales arborist to establish a customer base and can help smooth out the cyclical nature of tree care business. You may also lose some control over what the sales arborist is doing under a draw versus commission structure which may hinder any training you want to implement.

How often do you review sales results with your team?

I have tried different intervals with our team and have found that quarterly sales review works best just because there is a little more time to accumulate and analyze the sales data. The key is be able to show the sales arborist how they are doing in simple, understandable reports that identify where their sales are coming from, if they are hitting established sales rations and whether their estimates have been accurate.

A regular meeting time also provides for consistent two-way input on the types of jobs or maybe particular crews that are causing problems for the sales arborist problems, so they can be addressed in a timely manner and sales tactics can be revised.

What type of backgrounds or requirements do you look for when hiring or promoting someone to a sales position?

More than likely they will have some type of background in the tree care industry, but it is not an absolute done deal if they don’t have a tree care background. If they are passionate about the industry, can gain the respect of the crews they will be working with, are personable and have excellent communication skills that is usually a recipe for success.

What is also important is that they understand being a sales arborist is not a 9-5 job. They have to make it a part of their lifestyle and be available any time they are needed by their clients.

What do you see as your role as a sales manager?

Develop and refine a sales compensation structure that is flexible and attainable for the sales arborists. Providing regular analysis and feedback that is understandable and has relevant information for the sales arborists. Find opportunities for the sales arborists to attend industry events and meet potential clients.

Final Thoughts?

Establish a tiered commission structure based on the services offered.
Do the sales data analysis required to help the sales arborists develop
Be flexible with sales structure as new services are added

If you need further assistance with Sales & Marketing, please reach out to a member of our ArboRisk team. We have many resources that can help you with this, in addition to our Thrive Sales & Marketing Package: https://arboriskinsurance.com/thrive-sales/ which provides one on one help developing the right marketing message to land the right customer.

Knowing Your Numbers for Estimating

by Katie Petersen | Aug 2, 2022 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Knowing Your Numbers for Estimating

Written by Joseph Toppi

Business is a game of numbers! It doesn’t matter the industry, this universal law is true. As a business owner, it is vital to the success of your business to know, with clarity, certain business numbers.

In a recent release from the US Department of Commerce, it stated that up to 96% of construction and contracting companies fail in the first 10 years. The top four reasons they noted for this failure rate were: insufficient cash flow, charging too little, lack of agreed upon payment schedule, and insufficient number of profitable sales.

These top four reasons can be avoided at the estimating stage… if the one doing the estimating knows their numbers!

For this week, we are going to first start by looking at the purpose and outcomes of estimating, then look at the numbers to know during estimating so that you don’t become one of the statistics.

What is the purpose of estimating?

Many people think that the purpose of estimating is to get a job. Unfortunately, that is not the purpose of estimating, and the reason so many experience one – or all – of those four issues listed above. The outcome of estimating is getting, or not getting, a job. But the purpose is to recover the costs (the materials, labor, equipment, and job specific costs), recover the expenses (the company’s overhead), and get paid (make a profit) to do the work.

One of the biggest reasons businesses fail to be profitable is because they don’t know what, or how much to recover. We are going to look at the five numbers that every business owner MUST know to be profitable in their estimating:

Employee Costs

How much are the employees costing the company? There are many costs associated with employees that are far above their base wage. These costs are divided into three categories: payroll contributions, employee liabilities, and employee benefits. If a business owner doesn’t know what their employees are costing the company, how do they know what they are charging is enough? Knowing the exact costs of employees is the difference between profitability and insolvency!

Crew Costs

This plays a different role than just knowing individual employee costs. When looking at a crew, there are other costs that come into play, such as: project management and downtime. Generally there is a project manager that is associated with a crew. How is the project manager’s cost to the company recovered? The best way is to recover it proportionately with the time they spend with that crew. The second is downtime. Every crew experiences downtime – time that they are being paid for, but not billable to the client. How are these costs recovered? Typically there will be a percentage that will be added into the crew costs.

Equipment Costs

Equipment is essentially for most companies, but most companies are not recovering the costs that come with equipment. If you are running a business with at least one piece of equipment, you are actually running two businesses: an operating business and a rental business. Think of it this way – if you did not have the equipment, you would have to rent it. If you rented the equipment, you would charge the customer the rental fee. So why are most businesses not charging the customer the “rental fee” on their own equipment? If the customer is not paying for it, then who is? Knowing what equipment is costing a company per hour and per day allows the company to start recovering those costs.

Job Costs

With every job, there are other costs that the company incurs. They might be dumpsters, permits, dump fees, porta-potties, travel, or a whole number of other items. When estimating, it is important to ensure that these costs are accounted for.

Mark up

I want to start this section by addressing three things: 1- mark up is not the same as margin! They are two totally separate things, and they affect the numbers very differently. 2- mark up is not a random number that is added to costs to cover “uh-ohs”, contingencies, overruns, and hopefully profit. Mark up is intended to recover overhead expenses and include profit. 3- mark up is not the same for every company. It is unique to each company, based on their overhead expenses and the profit the shareholders want to make.

It is important for companies to have an overhead budget figured out, so they know how much it takes for them to essentially “break even”. Much like we talked about with employee costs, if a business does not know their overhead, how will they know if they are going to recover it, or better yet, how do they know if they are going to be solvent? Once a company knows what their overhead is, and the amount of profit they want to make, they can easily figure out what the mark up needs to be (to add to the costs of the job) to ensure they are recovering these items.

Knowledge is power! If a company takes the time to figure out these numbers, and starts to implement the formula of recovery in their estimating, they can ensure their future is profitable. It will be the difference between being part of the 94% or the 6%.

If you would like any more help with your sales team, our Thrive Sales & Marketing Package includes four hours of direct one-on-one sales training. For more information, reach out to an ArboRisk team member today!