Our Winning Team
What kinds of employees are you looking for and where do you get them?
Our staff of employee’s is composed a different kinds of people, the three S’s, who are with us for different times in the season, for different reasons.
The Springtimes
The Steadies
The Serious
____________________________________________________________
“The Springtimes”
“Ladies who lunch” or “men who golf!”
Their motto is:
“Get some exercise, then take the kids and grandkids to the lake place when it’s over”
This is an opportunity for them to get outside, lose a little weight, and interact with gardeners during the annual ritual of plant buying. Most have lived in the community and region for a long time and have built many relationships with other residents and groups. They will return season after season if the environment is positive and pleasurable. We will lose them if the workplace is uncomfortable and full of discourse. The karma has to be right.
They are:
Not really working for the money.
Motivated and self starters
Often, well educated and financially secure.
Fit, but may have some physical or stamina limitations that need to be addressed
Well dressed and well groomed.
Even tempered.
Just wanting to do a job and enjoy it with little responsibility
Good workers, often with leadership skills.
Eager for something interesting and meaningful to do.
They enjoy the camaraderie of other employees
They love a good joke and a positive workplace and or course a little gossip
They avoid the drama and the politics of the workplace
They will take any job when asked and finish the work properly.
Cautions:
They:
Will want to leave when all the excitement is over.
Often have obligations during the weekends
May have a tendency to have more fun than work
May be hiding or escaping from something, seeking a little “shelter from the storm” which may show up in the workplace
Where do you find them?
This group usually will voluntarily apply
Many have been customers of green garden gates
Some have had a friend who has worked at the store
Some have worked in a garden store years ago and liked the job
Some belong to a gardening club and want more experience
Some have a landscaping job at home. They want the education and the discount!
The Kid's
"The absolute best kids I ever had were from one of those “alternative” high schools. You know, they got sent there because the regular school kicked them out, kinda like a modern reform school. These kids were bright. I understand that they got bored or did not want to put up with the bullshit.
They were “street smart”; they knew how to go from A to B in the most efficient way. Oh yeah, you had to deal with their wide mood swings but their abilities and savvy paid off big time in the fast paced business that we had."
J Dennis
Retired garden store owner
They are generally in need of hourly managing and oversight but responsive to any assignment. If they are managed properly and treated with respect, they, too, will return season after season
“If you get a kid who has a girlfriend and a car payment, you got the kid for life!”
Old veteran garden store owner
Ohio
Their Motto;
“I want to have a lot of fun, meet a few new friends, and make a few bucks”
They:
Provide a youthful energy to the store
Will work most shifts and long hours
Have almost unlimited stamina, agility, and persistence
Are quick learners.
Have some valuable advanced technology skills
Cautions;
They:
Need to be rewarded often with compliments
Need activity. They get bored easily
Often have mercurial temperaments, running the range of excitement to disappointment
Will drift, losing sight of the task to be accomplished
Where do you find them?
Put up “help wanted” banners on your outside fences
Contact the local colleges and trade schools
Ask the kids working at the store if he or she has any friends who would like to work
From your customers, fathers and mothers
Don’t spend any money using want ads or employment agencies. They will show up for applications in flocks when the season begins.
The Retired’s
This group is motivated to work for two primary reasons; they are bored sitting around the house and/or they need extra income to supplement their retirement money. They generally are older. They will return each season if their physical ability and general health is good.
They;
Come with good job skills and sometimes special certifications
Have a good work ethic
Are reliable. They can be counted on to work their schedule
Available for custom scheduling, odd times and odd hours
Will work past the peak season into the slow times
Have good people skills
Are able to relate to older customers
Project the “voice of wisdom” to younger customers
Have experience, often, supervising other employees
Do, often, enjoy working alone on projects
Cautions:
They:
Have a tendency to perform a task their own way rather than an accepted way.
Can get frustrated and upset in the workplace
Often value their outside interests much more than the workplace
Do not tolerate fellow workers who are sloppy or slackers
Can be physically unable to perform some normal tasks in the workplace
They may have attitude problems with supervision
Can have limiting availability to work, days of the week and hours of the day
Where do you find them?
They respond to want ads and help wanted banners
They come from the customer base
They can be relatives of other employees
_________________________________________________________
“The Steadies”
They can be counted upon to get the tasks jobs completed, no matter what the hardship of the day. They can be relied upon to return season after season if the money and other benefits allow them to “make it”. They can tolerate a lot of issues in the workplace without frustration or complaint.
Their Motto;
“Just doin my job”
“The customers are gone and the employees are huddled inside waiting out the rainstorm. I peer through a window and there is Carl, all alone in his yellow rain jacket, with that big grin on his face, waiting to say “can I help ya?”
I swear, when the nuclear blast hits and all is left are cockroaches, maraschino cherries, and the filters from cigarettes, there will be Carl, standing there with his hair all singed, waiting to sell a tree.”
John Naples
Garden store owner
They:
Have had experience and basic skills in any number of jobs
They often have worked a lot of retail
They are used to manual labor and physically demanding jobs
Like the stability of one job description. Many do not like change
Value their jobs, as a source of accomplishment and stability above almost anything in their lives
Respond to regular supervision
They understand their place in the organization and are content with that place
They are good team workers
They get excited and motivated by small changes or improvements in the workplace.
They will adapt to longer working hours and weekend work.
They have an eager desire to help the business grow through their work
They identify strongly with the company.
Cautions:
They;
May have, in many cases, limited education and technical skills
May be slightly impaired mentally or physically
May have financial issues or an unstable home environment
Can get easily upset if they feel that they are being “put upon”
Want real equality among their fellow workers
Where to you find them?
1. We, look first at other garden stores and outlets that sell plants and plant care products in the community and the area.
2. We look for employees in similar seasonal businesses, cousins to the garden store business; fruit stands, farming operations, fish markets, greenhouses, and growing operations.
3. We watch for employees in the apparel and cosmetic retail stores in the area. It has been our experience that these employees know how to present, display and move products seasonally and often.
____________________________________________________________
“The Serious”
Motto:
“This is my career”
They have:
Higher educations and training
A number of technical and human resource skills
Reasonable to fully financially secure
Been in a number of supervisory positions
The ability to learn and adapt quickly to any situation
High verbal and writing skills
A moderate to good home environment
A solid technical and professional work history
A professional presence about them
A self motivating personality
An ability to be both a team player and an lone entreunepural pathfinder
A can do spirit seeing a task from the beginning to the end
Great organizational skills
Empathy and understanding in supervising
An appetite for more learning and education in their fields
Cautions:
They:
Can be incessantly driven to upward mobility
Can be unbending in their leadership approach
Constantly will gauge their advancement in relationship to others
Can be unsatisfied with performing tasks “beneath them”
Will question the value of tasks to be performed or store policies and practices
Can get very discouraged with a career setback
Can have a tendency to “pass the buck” to others.
Require regular and consistent feedback and communication
Where do you find them?
Since this group is so important in directing the success of the company, we have to look very closely for these qualities. We take similar approach as we have done in choosing our store manager in Tulsa in entries #70 through #75
___________________________________________________________________________
Other Labor
Contract Employees
The owners of small garden stores are often face with a dilemma. What is the best way to use their small labor force as plants and products start to arrive in the early spring.
Some owners revert to the old “all hands on deck” practice of getting everybody out there to unload a huge load of heavy shrubs. So, the bookkeeper and the old retired guy jump on the truck and start hucking those plants. The problem always is that after unloading two or three of these big beasts in a day, everybody is shot.
The smart owners try hard to not use their employees for these jobs. They rely on contract labor to do that awful work. A temporary agency handles all the paperwork. The labor shows up and gets the job done. If you get a bad one, the temp agency pulls that person off and sends a new one. Yes, it costs a little more but killing off your staff costs a lot.
“Once I had this bright idea to get guys out of jail to help with this unloading. It worked great for a while. They sent the ones with minor stuff, like working off a drunk driving conviction. They all jumped at the chance and best of all, they could smoke!
One season, we had a particularly alluring group of young ladies working at the store. And like bees to honey, first thing you know, they were pairing up at lunch time and driving off to some secluded spot. We thought that it was best to end this labor practice. Those guys must have felt they had died and gone to heaven!
Felix Mindo
Garden store owner
Volunteer Groups
Gardening groups and organizations are an excellent source of extra labor during the busy spring weekends at green garden gates.
We make a financial arrangement with these groups by donating an amount of money to their organization for their work on these days. We use them as “greeters”, directing our customers to specific areas where they want to shop, we use them to help move the customer to the check-outs with their purchases, and of course, we tap into their knowledge of gardening in answering questions. We assign a member of the staff to act as a coordinator and “go to” person while they are working at our store.
These groups are eager to help at the store and they provide an extra positive spirit during those very busy days.
Interns
We welcome internship programs at green garden gates; students in all areas of study. We believe that a young person even in an unrelated business will benefit as much as a person studying horticulture.
As with all employees, the interns move through our regular new employee process and training. They are assigned “mentors” during their stay to monitor and guide them through the workweeks.
Some garden store owners don’t understand the potential liability of a volunteer or paid intern by some other program. They absolutely have to be under the umbrella of some workman’s compensation policy. If they were to get injured, it’s the garden store owner who will be hung out to dry if a policy is not in place
No comments:
Post a Comment