#122 TRAILBLAZES/ (revised 6/10) our employees "respect, invest, enable, reward"

Without our employees, green garden gates is a big pile of nailed together lumber and a bunch of plants and bug sprays. We will make every effort to nurture, enable and reward our employees.


Respect


We must always understand;

our hopes and dreams are not our employee’s hopes and dreams.


Sure, they want us to achieve our business goals. They will work hard for that goal. But they have lives and rarely will their lives include their burning desire for the success of green garden gates. When they walk to their car after a long day, their thoughts turn to a daughter’s soccer match, a new fender for the restored hot rod, or an ailing grandfather. It sure as hell is not the number of flats of petunias that were sold. We must know what makes them tick and nurture those interests.



Employees in our industry ask very little of their company. They want meaningful tasks that make a difference. They want us to listen to their ideas to improve the business. They want a work environment free of anger, pettiness and discourse. They want the cheerful camaraderie of fellow workers. They want appreciation and recognition for their performance. They want respect.


Invest


There is no more commitment that we can make than to our employees. In the workplace, we encourage and finance their efforts to educate themselves to gardening and to our industry. We welcome their involvement in garden related groups, locally, regionally and nationally. We encourage their participation in community activities.

Outside the workplace, we invest in their personal well being and obligations, their family ties, as well as their physical, emotional, and spiritual goals. We want to understand and support the balance between their personal and professional lives. We make investments in them such as offering scholarships for their children and providing a fund for employees in need.


Enable

Too often, garden store owners, in making changes and “improvements” ignore the very people; those employees who actually “turn the wheel” and who’s daily workday lives will be affected by these changes.

Even the smallest changes can make their jobs easier or much more difficult. It may be a bench that is moved that now prevents customers from shopping, a “no parking” sign cemented into the ground that was installed too high for the driver to see, or a new parking lot that creates more congestion than the original design. Those employees see the problems but are rarely asked.

Nick Hudson recalls an incident in his brown notebook when he was on a city committee that approved a new housing project in his town. The developers wanted to place a raised concrete curb in a circle in the middle of a cud de sac of a street. The developers wanted to plant flowers in the circle. Robert asked if the plows in the winter, unable to see the curb because of the snowfall, would hit the curb and destroy it. “No problem” they said.

Nick asked that the person who plowed the snow in the town be brought to the hearing to answer the question. Sure enough, he stood before the committee in his work overalls right beside all the developers in their suits.

“Will you hit the curb when you plow the snow, Robert?" asked Mr. Hudson.
Robert laughed heartily, "I will take that curb out on the first pass of my blade of the first snowfall”.

The request was denied.

Each change in procedure, each revision of policy, each purchase of inventory, each addition or re-design of the buildings and improvements must have “buy in” of the people whose working lives are affected by the changes. That is when the changes will be successful.



Reward


We want our employees to anticipate financial rewards beyond the weekly paycheck. It is only then when their efforts will be consistently re-doubled to offer more to our customers than the practice of “point and look away”. There is excitement in making a few extra dollars. We will offer those extra financial rewards in many ways at all times in the workplace.