HR FAQ

Editor’s note: Welcome to the first installment of Ask HR, our new quarterly staffing advice column. Do you have questions about hiring, benefits, employee development and training or succession? Send them to pcoleman@gie.net. They will be anonymized and answered by the BEST Human Capital team.

2023 was quite the year for garden centers. Whether you were developing new programs to prevent sales from leveling off with your retail operation or overcoming a shrinking number of landscape projects with new marketing initiatives, it was a year of market transition for many of us. Many obstacles and workplace issues surfaced. Leaders were presented with challenges such as labor shortages and employee burnout resulting in increased turnover and decreased productivity, attempting to hire amidst a tight talent pool due to a lack of professionals and demographic limitations, employee retention and engagement, and exit and succession planning, all while attempting to maintain a positive company culture and run a business throughout.

So, what are independent garden center leaders to do in the wake of these issues? Well, they can send in questions to Ask HR. But considering this is our first column, I felt it would be best to address some frequently asked questions to establish a baseline focus on the health and happiness of your team, behavioral based hiring, enhanced onboarding programs, retention strategies and starting the process of succession planning in 2024.

How do I keep my IGC staff motivated?

It is difficult to feel motivated when you are dissatisfied or frustrated with your environment. Across various industries, leaders are experiencing a plummet in productivity from their employees attributed to a lack of drive and engagement. This happens for many reasons, whether it be a negative company culture, an inability to advance within the company, inadequate compensation or a lack of resources to perform the role optimally and effectively at hand. There is a direct correlation that productivity, engagement and overall team performance improve when companies offer thorough onboarding training, real-time employee coaching, training and development opportunities, incentives to motivate and reward strong performance and prioritize employee mental and physical well-being. Take care of your people, and your people will take care of you!

Do you have any tips for finding the perfect candidate?

Between a lack of talent both experience-wise and geographically, finding and securing talent has been especially difficult lately. Focusing on hiring for behaviors that fit the role and your company culture versus hiring for a litany of specific technical horticulture or retail experience will significantly increase your talent pool. While it is more expensive, talent experts still advise you to remain open to relocation and keep your search radius wide when searching for talent to find the best fit for the role. Even still, relocation has been increasingly challenging due to the housing market, particularly for those who own their homes. Training and development programs are a tremendous investment which will not only lower hiring and acquisition expenses but also allow your team members a career development runway and the opportunity to grow within the company. Professional growth has been a major focus and point of interest for candidates and employees in recent years, and while it can be difficult to accommodate in a smaller company, there are many ways to offer assistance to employees, such as supporting continued education through local educational institutions and the many industry associations that work hard at offering a wide range of education programs to all members.

What should I do when I need to retire as an owner?

There comes a time when every business owner must step away from the business and pass the torch. However, and all too often, their exit and succession are an afterthought — or a conversation avoided altogether. For as many family-owned businesses as our industry has, current owners and leaders must begin to develop a plan for what things will look like when they leave or in the unfortunate but very real circumstance that something happens to them. With that, it is imperative that at the very least you have a fully developed contingency plan in place for the sake of the team and the business, and it is never too early to begin the comprehensive process of your succession and exit.

I look forward to collaborating with Garden Center magazine readers with more detailed and specific questions in the future.