BUSINESS OPERATIONS: A New Perspective on Labor

There is one consistent focus area I see in all successful landscape companies. And it’s one you should pay attention to in your organization. This focus is man-hours. You have heard it hear before but we address it again because of its importance. To be successful in this business everyone in the organization needs to understand man-hours and their importance. 
 
The cardinal rule is  you never instruct anyone to perform work in your field organization without giving them the budgeted man-hours to perform the task. The crews now have an established goal that enables us to create a performance score card. This tracks actual hours spent and compares it to the budget. This information should be regularly shared with the field crews, preferably once a week.
 
“Budgeted vs. Actual Man-Hours” is the single most important report in your office. You can develop an Excel spread sheet whereby the office inputs the actual hours spent on a specific job, by crew.  Formulate the cells to calculate the deficiency. In addition, calculate the percentage of efficiency. For example, if you are under the budgeted hours you are 100-plus percent efficient and if you are over the hours you are less than 100-percent efficient. You can obtain the program on my Web site (see address below).
 
Field crew support is another important item to focus on during the year. Support starts with administration. Let’s be sure we do what we say we will do. Do you have an orientation program for new employees? Do you provide them with information that might be found in an employee handbook? Do you ask them, “What can we do for you?” Do they have a designated area where they can fill out time sheets, look at schedule boards, etc. Is it as clean and neat as your other offices? If you employ Hispanic workers, a nice touch is to hang a map of Mexico and Central America and have them insert a pin locating their home town. And always print information in both English and Spanish.  
 
Another obvious support item is to provide them the tools and equipment needed to do the job. Purchase what you need and do whatever it takes to give them decent equipment. Problem equipment is a big morale breaker and costs you money.   Likewise, hold everyone accountable for the proper care and maintenance of the tools and equipment. I recommend  assigning each tool to a foreman who then signs that he/she is accountable for the equipment. If a tool is lost or abused the foreman authorizes you to deduct the value of the item from their paycheck.
 
The owner must hold people accountable and provide an environment whereby the employees feel comfortable holding the owner accountable. This is not easy and it takes time. Understand that a pleasant working environment with good morale starts when everyone is held accountable. We always feel we are working hard and we are not happy when we see someone else who is not being held accountable.
 
Try this next time you instruct someone to do something for you. Ask them, "When will you have that completed?” You are asking them to commit to you as opposed to you telling them. When someone commits to you they are much more likely to meet the date as they are the ones who set the date. Now you can hold them accountable much easier. If they mention a date that is not acceptable, you can now discuss the  matter and settle on a more mutually acceptable date.
 
In summary, support your field employees, give them what they need to perform the job, advise them of their performance relative to man-hours and hold them accountable.
 
And don’t forget to have fun!