Turf, January 2018

TheBigRead The Mowing Issue Incentivizing crews Getting crews invested in the work theyre doing and how efficiently theyre performing is a hot topic says Brent Ayles president of Ayles Natural Landscaping Ltd in New Brunswick Canada He views himself as a coach and says other leaders should do the same If you look at it that way you can start to think about what it is that your team needs to win The first step is to define that win Ayles says Build a scoreboard Players need to be able to see how theyre doing They also need to know how much time is left Jason Wegiel director of services for Neave Group headquartered in Wappingers Falls New York agrees He says that transparency is vital in terms of getting crews to care Being transparent with numbers and where things stand is the only real way for them to know if theyre hitting the mark or if theyre falling short We provide crews with budgeted hours and then we post the actual hours for everyone to see Wegiel says Weve turned it into a friendly competition where they are incentivized to compete for their team All seven mowing crews are in competition against one another Wegiel says that teams earn points based on their productivity but they can lose points too Factors such as tardiness no shows or callbacks equate to point deductions It means that the actions of an individual can affect the whole team Wegiel says thats been a valuable lesson revealed through this competition The winning team gets gift cards Wegiel says Theyve really bought into the concept and weve noticed a difference in productivity since weve started doing it Its not just the gift card its the accountability They dont want to see their job marked in Turf Jan 2018 22 The Power of PRODUCTIVITY Landscape contractors and equipment manufacturers provide some of their best productivity boosting tips By Lindsey Getz P roductivity is key when it comes to running a profitable mowing business But boosting productivity can also be a big challenge particularly when it comes to getting the crews to care They want to get the work done but theyre often not committed to the bottom line and arent necessarily worried about how efficiently they are performing Turf spoke to some of the industrys mowing manufacturers as well as a variety of landscape contractors to find out what they recommend in terms of boosting productivity and getting crews to care