How Canopy Lawn Care developed a training program

Ben Wright, director of operations at Canopy Lawn Care, oversees much of the company’s recruiting and training efforts. The company has been growing quickly – in 2017 alone it grew its field team 165 percent. Today, the company has about 70 employees between two locations in North Carolina and Owner Hunt Davis says the company has plans to grow further.

However, co-workers say Wright has gradually delegated some of the recruiting in recent years. “He still oversees (hiring), but he gives other guys the freedom to do it,” says Josh Nance, operations manager at Canopy.

Today, Wright is more focused on spearheading Canopy’s training and job development. One training program he helped to develop was Canopy University, a three-day training event. Everyone hired at Canopy – from the Canopy Pro field team members to account managers to marketing professionals – must receive Canopy University training. The event is hosted a few times a year for new hires.

With Canopy University, new hires go to the headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, for both classroom and hands-on training. Experts give them insights on different topics like maintenance and enhancements. Equipment vendors also come to share best practices when using different tools.

Although a marketing professional might not need to know all the technical details on how to start a mower per se and likewise a field team member might not need to know how certain software works, Nance says having an all-encompassing training event gives every employee a bigger picture of the company.

“It’s a lot like drinking water from a fire hose,” Nance says. “We cover everything, and for some people it’s probably overkill, but we just like to go through everything. We provide quality training from folks who know things best and really set up our guys for success.”