If you run a horticultural business you will know only too well the difficulty in finding good staff. Certainly, at least before Covid-19, it just seemed as if there were not enough people available in the labour market, let alone trying to recruit employees with the relevant skills. It seems that they just do not exist or if they do, they don’t want to embark on a career in landscaping or horticulture. Faced with this growing recruitment crisis in our sector what should we do?
Perhaps we need to get back to basics and realise that an easy way to solve a recruitment crisis is to make sure that your employees do not leave in the first place. Naturally, some of them will leave to embark on a university course, or they might need to move from the area but if they leave because working for you is unfulfilling then there is something that can be done.
In essence perhaps a change of mind set is needed. Often we hear the mantra that “the customer is the most important person in the business” but let’s consider Richard Branson’s comments for a moment. Branson suggests that employees are the most important people in a business. Why? Simply if employees are happy, motivated and energised they will perform better which will result in an enhanced customer experience. And, if employees are happy, the chances are they will not leave your employment, therefore reducing your need to recruit new staff so frequently. By the way, going off at a slight tangent, if you feel that you have a high turnover of staff you could always measure it. Here’s how you do it …. you calculate the turnover rate by dividing the number of employees who left by the total number of employees at the beginning of the period. For example if you have 100 employees at the start of the year and during the year six employees leave voluntarily then the voluntary turnover rate for the year would be 6/100 or 6 percent. It’s worth calculating as the results might surprise you!
Helping your employees to be happy is paramount and it starts with an understanding of what employees want from the workplace. Many business owners wrongly assume that money is the primary motivator but how often is that true? Very rarely. According to the Guardian Careers blog the top three motivators at work are having a good work life balance, having stability within a job (which means working for a company that is still going to be around in the next few years) and the company location. Many people do not want to uproot and move to new parts of the country to work for a new organisation. Other important aspects that people want from work include being respected, getting recognised for a job well done, having flexibility so that domestic matters can be sorted, and an opportunity to grow, learn and even progress within a company. Whilst we think employees primary motivation for work is money how wrong we often are. True, the role needs to be well remunerated and perhaps equally important there must be fairness in your remuneration policies. The lesson here is talk to your employees, find out what they want from work (and it might be different for each one of them) and show them a way that they can get it. It’s going to be a challenge but they will be happier and will perform better, resulting in increased output.
None of what I have written is ‘rocket science’ as they say, but all too often companies pay lip service to the fact that their employees are their greatest assets. We still largely have a culture that values long hours, in fact we even celebrate it. I am as guilty as others, taking pride in the number of hours I sometime work in a week but recently I have started to challenge this received wisdom. No matter how important work is in our lives most of your employees yearn for a shorter working week. In his excellent book Utopia for Realists, the author, Rutger Bregman described as ”one of Europe’s most prominent young thinkers” says “when British researches asked employees if they would rather win the lottery or work less, twice as many chose the latter”. The reality might be that if your employees worked less even for the same pay then their productivity would increase. Surely that’s a win, win situation. Here’s a thought – if you became the sort of employer that really did give people what they want from work, and reduce the working week, then surely your business would attract new employees away from those that are less enlightened?
Perhaps then it is time to be more radical with your employment practices? After all, it works for others. Take for example Google who feeds it employees very well. If you work at the Googleplex, you can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner free of charge and there are several cafés located throughout the USA campus, which employees can eat at. Likewise, let’s consider another example from Richard Branson, who in 2014 said that 170 employees on his UK and US personal staff can take holidays when they like for as long as they like believe that it will increase productivity! Now that’s an interesting thought!
Neville Stein MBA
Horticultural Business Consultant
Tel: 0044 7778 005105
Email: info@nevillestein.com
www.nevillestein.com