Online landscaping training courses: Do they make a difference?

Training In The Workplace

This is not a trick question. And no, the answer isn’t obvious to most—but education and training makes a huge, measurable difference. In fact, training tied to Standard Operating Procedures is essential to all the inefficiencies a landscape owner experiences; down-time, turn-over, re-work, abuse to equipment from lack of understanding—to name a few. It all starts when you hire the new person. What is the first day of the job like? The new person is probably nervous, and excited. Most people want to make a good impression and do well... but without direction and proper instruction, costly mistakes and daily failures, can turn that new and excited recruit into a frustrated, disengaged—too often a “no show” employee.

Let’s face it, no matter the industry or job role, we all need training and coaching. It’s the only way we can understand our many tasks, with the goal to perform better and faster, with less mistakes along the way. It’s is highly measurable, the value of a 1-year employee versus the value of an employee in the first 3 months—arguably the 1-year employee is 50-100% better.

So how do you provide the best service to your customers without proper training? Here are a few reasons why landscaping training matters, and how it can be beneficial to your business.

Culture in the workplace - Culture is everything. Most of us spend more time on the job with our co-workers then we do at home with our families. A good culture affects every aspect of a company, from recruiting to providing and improving employee performance—higher performers tend to be more motivated. More motivation has a domino effect on the others.

Recruiting and Retaining Talent - Your employees want to learn and grow. A good training program provides career growth and development opportunities. Not only will it entice new employees to apply, but when people know that a company believes in their personal growth, it will encourage them to not consider this a J-O-B, but a career with a clear path.

Customer Satisfaction - Your customers have high expectations and want high quality work. When the workers are performing the tasks properly, with the right regard for the property and the safety of those around them—it's impressive. Who needs those phone calls? It's often the lack of understanding of procedures and equipment handling that cause the issues. Who needs to go back a second time to blow clippings off a patio/car, or repair a scalped lawn? And when you get a call-back it is rarely one person returning, it is the entire crew. Is that in the budget?

Safety/Equipment - Everyone wants to come home with the same number of fingers/toes as they left that morning . Proper training, and understanding hazards all have an impact from a risk management perspective—avoiding costly down-time due to comp claims using short-handed work crews—all of this amounts to the erosion of your bottom line.

Our Solution

Aspire business management software now integrates with Greenius . Greenius is a software company that provides online training for landscape crews. They have educated over 80,000 workers in over 1,800 companies in the USA and Canada. Aspire has over 30,000 users and is now the only software that can integrate with Greenius , allowing you to document and manage/regulate training programs, pay-rates, certifications, safety performance and equipment training history and proper records. When a supervisor logs into Aspire, they will be able to see who has training completed and who still needs training ensuring each employee is well versed to perform the job competently. The two systems provide you with a management tool to drive accountability and reward your most valuable resources—your foremen and crew talent.

And therein lies the key—training becomes a system. Systems deliver consistency and metrics—you can’t manage what you don’t measure. No one is concerned about their A-players—it's the B players (and sometimes C players), and what can you actively help them do to move the needle on their performance? A company dedicated to improving the people that form their culture, pays dividends for growth-driven companies.

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