The Value of Employee Training

Blog by: Mike Fitzpatrick, Vice President of U.S. Lawns.

Operating With Efficiency Requires Well Trained Employees

Commercial grounds care is a routine, redundant, repetitive business. The best way to be efficient is to have well trained employees, and the only way to have well trained employees is to train them.

You shouldn’t assume that just because a new hire has experience, they will do things the way you want them done. The only way to make sure your crew members are doing their jobs properly is to train them on your systems and processes.

Disregard Those Irrational Arguments Against Training

Yes, we’ve all heard (and maybe even briefly entertained them ourselves) a few emotionally charged arguments like “I don’t have time to train,”. However, logic dictates that you don’t have time not to train.

The next one you’ll hear is, “I train them and they just leave.” Well, that’s certainly better than not training them and having them stay.

Training Demonstrates You Care

Now, beyond efficiency, training is integral to creating a “best place to work” culture, because it shows your employees you care about them. Besides that, how will you ever have people prepared to move to the next level as your business grows, if you don’t train them?

U.S. Lawns believes wholeheartedly in training, which is why we provide a multitude of training tools, topics, videos and testing so our franchisees have access to everything they need to help their employees become certified.

Training Ensures Safety

It’s also worth stating that in the landscape maintenance industry safety is paramount, especially with all the equipment our franchisees’ crews use to perform their jobs. Training is a key element to making sure every U.S. Lawns crew member goes home at the end of the day in the same condition as they arrived to work.

It’s Also About Fulfilling A Promise

Trained crews are also something that U.S. Lawns promises to our customers, so it’s vital that every franchise owner is fulfilling the promise to put well trained employees on the job site.

It’s A Key To Long Life

It’s been said that constant learning is the key to a long life, and this is true in business too. At the end of the day, you’ll never be efficient, you won’t be as profitable, and you won’t be able to retain your people if you don’t continually train them. It’s not a one and done thing, you may complete segments or levels of it but training is ongoing, it never ends. Good thing it keeps us all youthful.