In-House Training
Turnover is next to none at Grayson South, and since employees are well-trained, they are prepared to deliver a high-service standard. “We’ve got people that are very familiar with the properties and know their ins and outs, so in turn, the customer never sees a drop in the service,” explained Michael Neese, president of the Charlotte-N.C.-based company.
Of course, assuming educational responsibilities keeps Neese in the field quite a bit. As the company adds new services to the mix, he heads up the new division and trains employees to perform necessary tasks. For example, when the company added irrigation, Neese learned installation necessities and then took the role as tutor, passing on this information to crews. When crews can manage the jobs without him, he pulls away.
Neese follows this comprehensive training process for each new employee and each new service, and so far it has not failed him. “I believe in promoting from within the company, and with our culture we’ve been fortunate that the majority of our employees have been with us for more than two years – all of them a minimum of a year,” he noted. “Last year we had no turnover on employees, so we don’t have to go through the learning curve often.”
The Fast Track
Time management played a key role in slimming down Grayson South’s workweek to only four days. Neese realized that before he could decrease employees’ hours – saving him overtime costs and nixing on-the-job inefficiencies – he had to get his timing down to a science.
Factors like windshield time, geographic location of accounts, filling trucks with gas, loading equipment on trailers – all these tasks take time and must be accounted for in the schedule, he pointed out.
Neese typically runs two-man crews, but three-man crews will handle larger jobs and he sends solo crews to accounts further away from the office.
“If it takes 25 minutes to drive to a small commercial property, we’ll send one man out so we don’t have two men riding around in the truck when the other could be on another crew working on a route that is more geographically dense,” he explained.
Besides planning crew size to increase productivity, Grayson builds in time for variables like traffic. He arranges schedules to go against rush hour so crews don’t spend unnecessary time behind the wheel. In addition, he timed tasks from mowing to pruning to irrigation installation so he knows how long crews need to be on each property. “That’s one of the keys – effectively using your time,” he pointed out.
The author is Managing Editor – Special Projects for Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at khampshire@gie.net.
