Second Profile: Employee Efforts

Brian Labrie, president, B.H. Labrie Landscaping Co., Hollis, N.H., raves
about his 75 to 80 percent employee retention rate.

He attributes this high number to his two foremen, who help him pull in additional workers. “These guys watch out for each other - they don’t want
to bring someone in who’s not going to work hard or bring the crew down,”
Labrie said, adding that his seven- to 14-person workforce is made up of
Hispanic workers. “So, when these two foremen help me bring people in, I can
count on them being hard workers because these foreman are proud workers and they wouldn’t want to bring someone in that would reflect poorly on them.”

Since Labrie works with mostly Hispanic labor, he said one of his personal
challenges is not being fluent in Spanish. “I’m learning it during the winter months,” he said. “My foreman can speak pretty good English, but I have one or two guys who can’t speak English at all.

He also helps them manage their funds over the winter. “Each employee can
set up a separate bank account and have a percentage of their check put in there if they choose to do so,” he said. “Then on Dec. 1, I give them their check and this way they have the extra money for the next four months to pay
rent or for food, etc.”

"Small, consistent raises - even 25 cents here or there - works much better than one big raise every year,” Labrie added.

The author is Managing Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at nwisniewski@lawnandlandscape.com.