Though Second Nature has had a training manual in place since they hired their first employee in 1995 when they had 700 customers and $280,000 in revenue, they still continually tweak their systems. One thing they learned through the process has been improving their measuring of what technicians have learned, and altering training steps to speed up their learning pace. For instance, instead of going over how to calibrate a spreader on the first of a three-day training session, they focus on safety on day one – putting material out responsibly and using the right methodology. “Then we cover how to fill out paperwork correctly on day two,” Walden says. “Then by the third day, we can focus more on the details after they have these fundamentals mastered. The reason we did this is because we realized that what comes second nature to us may not come second nature to others. Making it less technical from day one helps us ease in employees new to this line of work and retain them vs. lose them because they didn’t understand or were intimidated by the technical aspects of the job.”
One example of a time-saving tactic they try to get employees to learn is spreading granular fertilizer on a residential property. “We start in the back yard instead of the front to save time because when you run out of product and have to refill your spreader, you are closer to the truck and have less distance to walk to the truck and get your product and then back to the spot you left off,” Walden says.
This year, Second Nature is incorporating a test after each training section so that they can measure whether or not the technician is learning the tasks on which they are being trained. “If a technician isn’t up to par on the information,” Walden says, “we’ll go back to square one until he learns it vs. moving ahead.”