Building a Winning Company Culture

Why discuss company culture at a landscaping conference?

The NALP’s Industry Growth Initiative is leading the industry’s efforts to attract 100,000 women and men to the profession by 2025. Jamie asked the audience the tough questions: How are you going to do that? What kind of people are you looking for? Why do you think they’d want to choose this industry over another? And the big one: Why would they want to work for your company?

We’re all faced with ongoing and ever-changing challenges associated with finding, hiring and retaining employees. In 2017, it’s estimated that 71,000 full-time jobs went unfilled in the industry, and NALP Foundation research shows that the industry is looking to fill 300,000 positions each year. Recruiting and hiring are the #1 concern for about 65% of NALP business leaders.

You have probably heard all kinds of things about Millennials, but guess what? Gen Z is here and they’re changing the rules of the game once again. Research shows that they’ll comprise about 36% of the workforce by the end of 2020, so it’s time to evolve and adapt as employers to make sure you gain and retain the top talent.

What do we know about Gen Z?

• 93% say a company’s impact on society affects their decision to work there
• 91% say technology would impact their interest in working at a company
• 77% say the diversity within a company affects their decision to work there
• 76% are willing to start at the bottom and work their way up
• Gen Z’s top three “must haves” for their first job are:
  • Health insurance (70%)
  • Competitive salary (63%)
  • A boss they respect (61%)
• 75% want their work to have meaning
• 67% are comfortable with having their manager check in with them for 5 minutes or less

What do you think after you read those statistics? Does any of that surprise you? Does what you’re offering in terms of company culture and career opportunities match up with those expectations?

How can you use company culture to attract the best talent and grow future leaders?

Businesses that can align their company culture to workforce expectations are going to attract the best talent, retain loyal employees, and end up with successful and dynamic future leaders for their companies and industry.

Look again at those Gen Z statistics and think about whether you are purposefully making your company a desirable place of employment. How much time do you spend on your company culture vs. the daily operations of your business?

Why is company culture so important?

Only 17% of companies feel they have a compelling and engaging employment brand. Company culture is contagious – it's a group phenomenon. It can’t exist solely within a single person, but it’s also not the average of individual characteristics. It’s a group of shared behaviors, values and assumptions that’s most commonly experienced through what we would call the unwritten rules – the norms and expectations of a group of people.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you know what your company culture is?
• What would your employees say about your business/brand? What would (or do) they tell others?
• What is it about your company culture that allows your business to succeed?
• If you left today, would your company continue to be successful?

At the Leaders Forum, Jamie touched on four components of company culture that he’s been able to trace through several life experiences – components that are so compelling that they become a part of peoples’ identities in the long run.

1. Common mission
2. High expectations, attitude, optimism
3. Extraordinary effort
4. Sense of community

Or, as Jamie put it, “Culture is that unifying something extra that compels people to rally to a common cause, do extraordinary things, put in the extra effort and try to recruit others to the community.” What’s needed to start that phenomenon is a leader, or leadership team, who will make cultural change a real priority within an organization. Leaders who can recruit and inspire. Leaders who can encourage, as well as roll up their sleeves, to create that sense of community.