Ryan Schuette, SiteOne™ Landscape Supply, recognizes that finding and keeping employees is the top industry challenge. He says, “My heart aches when I see our customers without enough good people.”

Employees, says Schuette, are in the habit of moving on for a few more dollars and the challenge for green industry companies is “what are we doing to stop that trend? If you get a new employee and act the same as their previous employers, how are you stopping that trend of poor decision making?”

Schuette believes many people have been waiting their whole lives for someone to care about them. “Rather than companies enabling people to move on for a few dollars more, someone can become their life coach and ask the right questions,” he says. “You can break old habits and create success both for the employee and for your company.”

When he learns a team member is being recruited by another firm, one of the first questions Schuette asks is, “What inputs are you taking into account to make this decision?" Then he asks questions about lifestyle and other factors that reveal the individual’s personal priorities and their thought process about the career move. He asks questions such as the following:

• What do you want in life and how will this job help you get there?
• If you move on, what career opportunities will you gain to move up or explore other positions?
• Have you added up all the intangible benefits that you have where you work now?
• Did you factor all the other financial benefits beyond your base earnings into your calculations? Whether it’s a shorter commute or the cost of health insurance, these are factors to consider.
• How will this new job impact other priorities in your life? For example, when someone was considering a job with irregular and weekend hours, he asked the individual how the new job would help him nurture the strong family life he already said was a top priority.

“These are the questions people aren’t trained to ask but will give them the information they need to help direct the future of others,” says Schuette. “The conversation starts out talking about pay, but it ends up talking about life.”

Read more in this issue:
The people have spoken: Designscapes knows color
Rain barrels to become legal in Colorado
Keep using expired Form I-9
Kelly Gouge named John Garvey Person of the Year