Celebrating the core of the company

At Western Landscape, James Berry, president of West Sacramento, Calif.-based company, says he and his team work hard to create a supportive, inclusive and respectful environment that fosters a sense of fulfillment and purpose.

While post-work barbecues and Christmas parties seem to be the norm in the industry — Western Landscape takes it a step further and achieves its culture by incentivizing crews with quarterly parties that celebrate everything from holidays, birthdays, work anniversaries and more with a fun-filled atmosphere of team camaraderie and awards.

“When I first started, the green industry had a very bad habit of treating the front-line workers as disposable or indispensable people,” Berry says. “I didn’t want that to be a part of our culture.”

Berry started his own green industry company 20 years ago as what was once “Berry’s Landscaping” before it transformed into Western Landscape.

“I started the company in 2005 with just a truck and another guy,” he recalls. “I was doing construction with my dad at the time and just knew it wasn’t for me. I loved landscaping and did landscaping as a kid — I took the family lawn mower down the street and just started mowing lawns at an early age.”

Berry says it was those years out in the field working as one of the company’s very few employees that inspired him to lead with an appreciation for those out on the front lines every day.

“For me, being in the field and having worked hand-in-hand with guys for a long period of time has given me a real heart for the front-line workers,” he explains. “That was very important to me as we grew — that we found management with similar beliefs because they — the front-line workers — are the driving force of the company. We can bid all the work we want, but if we don’t have the people to perform, and perform at a high level, we really don’t have anything.”

That’s why at these soirees, the company is shelling out $25 checks for every employee’s birthday and for work anniversaries — they get $100 for each year they’ve been with the company.

“It all starts with the culture,” Berry says. “If these guys feel respected, loved, cared for and protected, then it’s going to translate out into the properties that they maintain. It costs a lot of money to try and get people in the door, so giving it back to the employee seems like a pretty good return on investment.”

Real easy recruitment

Daniel Varges, an irrigation technician with Western, says he’s felt truly appreciated ever since starting with the company eight months ago. While he may be relatively new to this crew, Varges has been in the industry for over 20 years.

“This is what I love to do, and I love the company — I’m very comfortable here,” he says. “It just feels like the right fit.”

Before starting at Western, Varges says he worked for three different large landscaping companies in California, and they all felt the same — very corporate. He adds that Western Landscape being a family-owned business is evident in the way they treat employees.

“My friends recommended me to Western,” Varges explains. “I noticed right away, with them being family-owned, that I could see a clear difference between a small company and a big corporation. They treat me like a person and not like a number.”

Berry says Varges is just one of the multitude of employees they’ve recruited through the years from seasoned staff members.

Those big, annual celebrations he feels has something to do with it.

“You see them recording other team members getting awards with their cell phones and then sending it to other friends that work at other companies and showing their kids and families and stuff — it brings a lot of joy to me,” Berry says.

“When we have an opening, we have not had a lack of applicants. Our team members have shared these videos with their friends and families who see these and think, ‘We want to be a part of that. That looks like fun.’ All those pieces create a culture that these guys want to be a part of and grow with.”

Happy crews equal happy customers

Jodi Sweeting, account manager with Western, says the culture permeates through the business even outside of the field staff level.

“It really is a great culture here,” she says. “We really value our employees and that trickles down from management all the way down to the field guys. We want everyone to feel valued and heard here, which is really nice because that’s not always as valued in some companies.”

Sweeting says she does her best to promote the culture by being a source of support for all her staff.

“As an account manager, all my crew leaders and irrigation techs know that they can come to me if they have any issues or anything like that,” she says. “I talk to them on a regular basis and am always checking in with them and asking them about their families and just making sure everybody is good at home.

“We want them to know we appreciate them being here and that they’re more than just workers to us. They’re humans and we try to make sure we have that human connection with them.”

Varges says Sweeting has supported him through several tough times so far in his short tenure at the company.

Recently, after letting his supervisor know he wasn’t feeling well, his supervisor gave him the option to go home, while also bringing him Gatorade and other items to help him feel better. He was able to finish out the day.

Sweeting says having that supportive relationship between crews and management makes it better for everyone — customers included.

“I really do enjoy the crews I work with,” she says. “They make my job easy. They make our properties look great and because of that our customers don’t have many complaints. And if there is something that we need to address, we address it quickly so they’re happy about that. Usually, we just don’t have many complaints and that’s in huge part due to our crews and how much pride they take in their jobs and want to do a good job.”

Julie Davis, who has been a customer of Western’s for nearly a decade, says Western being a Best Place to Work is reflective in their work on the properties she maintains.

“They’re very dedicated and they respond immediately,” she says. “James and everyone else I’ve worked with will pick up the phone anytime, or if not, call me back immediately. Each employee has their own area of expertise whether that’s irrigation or the daily maintenance or what not. It’s not just someone coming in and mowing and blowing and we never saw them again. They really were like part of our team.”

Davis says finding Western as a partner was a happy accident — and one she’s still very grateful for 10 years later.

“When I met them, we were going out to bid for our landscaping at a very large outdoor, commercial retail center and hadn’t been happy with a couple of our landscapers up to that point. I had not even heard of Western before, but I happened to be driving when I saw one of their trucks up in Sacramento. So, I called him up and told him we were going out to bid and invited him to participate in our bidding process,” she recalls.

“I really like not only James in particular but his philosophy as well. We were really open to new ideas, and I felt very confident with their approach. I really pushed for them,” she adds. “We were going back and forth between Western and another company, but I just really felt that this was the right fit — and it was. And James and their whole staff are great to work with.”

Growing for the good of the group

Because of the company’s continued success, Berry says he knew it was time to focus on growth —not necessarily to improve his own life, but the lives of those working alongside him.

“When I first started, I was just OK with this being a niche little company,” he says. “But I saw that, at that size, it was hard to retain people because the people who are very skilled and ambitious want to move up and expand their career, and at that size there’s nowhere for them to go. That’s when I made the decision to grow this to try and provide opportunities for people to move up and excel.” Now, Western’s culture also includes plenty of continued education and career advancement.

“We always try to promote within,” Sweeting says. “I’m constantly having conversations with our field guys if we have an opening for an irrigation tech or a spot on the enhancement crew. I want to know who may enjoy that or may enjoy learning something new and wanting to move up.”

And the party won’t stop any time soon for Western. Berry and others share grand goals for the company — including reaching the $10 million mark in the next five years and hopefully opening a second branch location.

“Culture never stops, and you’ve always got to keep building on that because you don’t want to become complacent,” Berry says.

The author is Senior Editor with Lawn & Landscape.