Leaving labor alone

Chalet LandscapingThe goal at Chalet Landscaping was not to lay off a single person in 2009. Mission accomplished, thanks to adopting a four-day, 40-hour workweek and dressing down some expensive employee parties.

“We’ve thinned down,” says Kevin Marko, landscape division manager at the 92-year-old company. “Looked at our labor, our overtime, downtime, expenses and we’ve made cuts in a lot of areas, but not our people.

“We’ve always been a company that is heavy into overtime – the seasonal mentality is, let’s do the work while we have it,” he says.

Employees might work 60 to 70 hours a week in the spring and 50 to 60 hours a week the rest of the season. “So this is a drastic change,” Marko says. The company saved $100,000 in overtime the first month of the new schedule. In October 2009, the company saved 6,000 hours of overtime. “When you pay the guys time-and-a-half, that’s quite a bit of money,” he remarks.

That doesn’t count the investment in training employees, especially workers who have been with the business 10-plus years. “You make an investment in your people and grow that investment,” Marko relates.

While staff’s hours have been cut by one-third in some cases, employees have embraced the new schedule and understand it is necessary. In fact, Marko says with this and other changes the company has made concerning expenses, he notices greater camaraderie – a team approach from the top down.

For instance, Chalet Landscaping typically hosts an expensive holiday party, complete with sit-down dinner and live music. This year, the company decided to hold an employee appreciation bonfire where the managers cooked, served and cleaned up after the event. “I broiled brats in beer at my house, and the owner of the company made brownies and lemon bars,” Marko describes. “Managers did all the work and refused to let any of the employees do anything. The feedback I got was they enjoyed it more than the formal Christmas parties because of the message that was sent.”

Similarly, Chalet dressed down its annual Labor Day picnic by covering the cost of the venue, band and games, but asking employees to bring a picnic lunch. “They turned out in record numbers,” Marko says.

These big budget cuts actually improved employee morale, and altering the parties rather than cutting them completely showed workers that the company puts people first. Plus, the company could retain all employees because of the shift to a four-day workweek.

Still, business will be down significantly in the landscape division this year – the $18 million landscape division will lose an estimated $4 million. Marko says this recession is unlike others, where the company went unscathed. Because home values are down so much, residents struggle with the notion of investing more in their properties. Marko says the customer base has decreased by 20 percent because of this.

But when the market recovers, Chalet will have maintained its experienced, dedicated employees. And despite losses, the business is in better shape because of its labor and expense decisions. “Profitability is still down significantly, but it’s not down where it would be if we hadn’t made those large-scale changes,” he says.

“When we come out of this,” Marko adds, “we’ll be ready for the first opportunities for success because we haven’t had to let people go.” 
 
The author is a freelance writer based in Bay Village, Ohio.