Work continues to pile up, but hardscaping businesses don’t have enough people to say “yes” to the extra work. When the answer is “no” to the work, hardscaping businesses lose revenue to their competitors. It makes it all the more important to understand the value of having top talent.
In fact, retaining top-tier talent translates into success. However, there is a caveat to retaining top talent – it comes at a price that not every business can afford. The truth is that running a competitive hardscaping business can be equally challenging and rewarding. But when workload accumulates – it puts hardscaping businesses in a difficult position.
In this article...
- Why Retaining Top Talent Pays Off
- Addressing a Labor Shortage
- Solutions for Retaining Top Talent
- Solutions when Workforce is Short
In this article, you’ll learn about how to attract hardscaping talent in a struggling workforce, and the most effective strategies to resolve common challenges that usually hold back hardscaping businesses from retaining top talent.
Why Retaining Top Talent Pays Off
According to a McKinsey study, high performers are 400% more likely to be productive than the usual employees. This shows that it’s not just crucial to retain employees – you have to retain top talent.
After all, hardscaping entities thrive on the dedication and skills of a talented landscaping workforce. And a highly motivated and well-trained team can heighten the quality of projects and boost productivity. This, in turn, improves your market reputation and your credibility.
With the labor shortage getting out of control, it makes perfect sense to retain highly skilled workers. But it takes strategic efforts to retain top talent in such a competitive age. Not to mention, companies that manage to retain top talent for a long time are able to save valuable resources and time.
Addressing a Labor Shortage
Dwindling workforce numbers are real, and you have to take measures before this void gets difficult to fill. Let’s address a labor shortage in the changing hardscaping sector, highlight solutions to retain top talent, and what your strategy should be when you’re short on the workforce.
Key Factors Affecting Talent Acquisition and Retention
Significant decline in skilled workers
One of the major issues that haunt hardscaping businesses is a lower count of skilled workers. In fact, a lot of experienced workers are either in the process of retiring or plan to retire. This leads to a bigger void for hardscaping businesses that is quite difficult to fill. Simultaneously, not a lot of new talent is entering the hardscaping field, creating new talent even scarcer and making the labor shortage situation worse.
Physical Demands
The reality of the situation is that most people don’t want to get a job that requires a lot of work. Operations managers, however, point out that if someone decides to stick with a labor-intensive position, he can’t just make a good living out of it, but work his way up to the top of a company.
However, not many people can achieve that threshold because they’re not dedicated to putting in extensive labor. And to become a leader of a crew, you have to stick to your job for a few years, which is getting rarer.
Since hardscaping is, in fact, a physically demanding role – it deters many potential employees. Consequently, it creates more challenges to find and retain talent who can take care of such a job with the utmost professionalism. For hardscaping businesses, the best way to move forward is to emphasize the significance of maintaining a healthy and safe environment.
For starters, invest in continuous safety training and offer relevant equipment and tools. Part of the process to retain skilled workers is to showcase “your” commitment and caring for their well-being. And when skilled workers feel supported and safe, they’re bound to stick around and become loyal to your hardscaping business.
Competitive Job Market
Hardscaping business heads understand that their competitors are vying for the same skilled workers that they are, and this leads to a stiff competition. And unlike other sectors, hardscaping businesses face continuous competition.
In fact, it is the main reason hardscaping companies offer attractive job perks and compensation packages. When it comes to operating in a highly competitive market with a labor shortage, offering great salaries and benefits is part of the solution.
This propels hardscaping businesses to build a solid organizational culture, boosts job satisfaction, and garners workforce loyalty at the same time. It goes a long way when project leads show appreciation and camaraderie. This is a direct effort to make a difference and helps hardscaping businesses retain top talent.
Solutions for Retaining Top Talent
Recognize and Appreciate Employees
It sounds so simple, but it goes a long way to help hardscaping companies retain employees. In fact, appreciating and recognizing employees’ efforts makes them feel highly valued, which influences them to work harder.
On the other hand, your hardscaping business can also extend heartfelt gratitude, acknowledge top performers, and organize events for entire teams. Once you regularly express your appreciation to workers – they’ll want to contribute more.
Besides, a simple shout to top performers in a meeting doesn’t take much time and effort and comes with a lot of benefits. You can also create a dedicated wall of fame so that all workers can see top performers’ achievements.
In most industries, there is a recognition and reward program. You can also implement this program for your hardscaping business and reap the short-term and long-term benefits. With a reward and recognition program, you can incentivize top performers to bring more to the table.
Invest in Employees
When it comes to finding and keeping hardscaping workers in a tough labor market, you’ll need to make some investments. In fact, you should first invest in “your” workers so that they can grow and work towards the success of your hardscaping business.
You should also invest in the professional development of your workers. This will also show that you care about their career and are committed to helping them become successful for years to come. You can offer multifaceted and diverse on-site job training and create intuitive workshops.
You can also invest in your workers’ education so that they can improve their expertise and skills. And continue to offer great career opportunities within your company that motivate workers to be part of your business for an extended period.
You should make proactive efforts to offer safety training. Your goal shouldn’t solely be to improve the skills and expertise of your staff – you also need to prioritize their on-site job safety.
Now, when it comes to safety training, you can hold weekly or monthly training sessions to create a safe work environment and minimize potential work-related injuries and accidents.
Your hardscaping business should encourage workers to pursue different accreditations and certifications. As a result, this will give your workers a great boost of confidence and allow them to perform better in their predefined roles. Remember that in the pursuit of certifications, employees usually add more value to their skills.
Create a positive and dedicated company culture where employees can hone their skills and thrive on teamwork. A progressive company culture supports open communication and teamwork without compromising on work-life balance.
Opt for positive engagement in your hardscaping company’s work environment. This allows you to gain more loyalty from employees and encourages them to remain committed to your goals.
Having a fleet of reliable equipment
Have a Fleet of Reliable Equipment: Imagine trying to build a beautiful hardscape with faulty tools – not a pretty picture, right? Providing your workers with reliable equipment not only enhances their productivity but also showcases your commitment to their success.
Having top-quality equipment
When you have well-maintained and modern equipment – it reduces the potential risk of incidents and injuries and saves time. In fact, having top-quality equipment essentially cuts out the stress of dealing with faulty machinery.
So, consider having a regular maintenance schedule to ensure your equipment and tools are functional and ready to use. It also works to proactively get some feedback from your employees about the current condition of the equipment.
After all, they’re the ones using the equipment regularly and likely have an objective take on whether or not the equipment warrants upgrades. But make sure to create a work atmosphere where workers can speak freely without repercussions.
Solutions when Workforce is Short
Work Smarter, Not Harder
It’s all about maintaining efficient work. This means streamlining processes, optimizing tasks, eliminating bottlenecks, and making your resources available to your workers. Also, optimize your project management so that employees don’t have to deal with a slow process and work smarter.
Get Equipment You Can Rely On
Having top-notch equipment quality works in favor of your workers and your company. It ultimately raises the quality of your diverse hardscaping projects. So, invest in quality equipment to not just get better results, but to minimize the strain on your workers.
Besides, when you invest in high-quality equipment, you’re already setting up your hardscaping projects to be successful and communicating to your employees that you want nothing but the best for your business. And that’s because high-quality equipment improves the morale and confidence of workers and instills a sense of workmanship.
If you want the financing process to be flexible, straightforward, and lightning-fast, opt for Beacon Funding which caters to hardscaping businesses. Whether you run small or large-scale hardscaping operations, you can count on Beacon Funding as your best financing option. If you want to see your hardscaping business climb to the top of the ladder and achieve success, leverage landscape equipment financing options through Beacon Funding.