Weighing the pros and cons of health care

Art courtesy of © Matt Collins

Several years ago, a valuable part-time employee came to Parkway Lawn Service CEO Bob Kroth with an ultimatum. The employee told Kroth he was putting in his two-weeks notice to leave the Minnesota company for another that was offering health insurance. Not wanting to lose this key employee, Kroth turned to his health insurance company to add the employee to the deal, only to find out that the coverage could only be applied to full-time workers. “I thought it was very strange, but I talked with our broker and he said that’s basically what any insurance company would tell us,” Kroth says.

Kroth ended up keeping the employee by giving him both full-time hours and insurance coverage. But, like so many other landscaping employees in the industry, the caveat is that 90 percent of his staff that are on call throughout the winter season remain ineligible.

Read the full story from the October issue here.