The other day, a business owner from Florida contacted me to discuss a problem employee. The employee in question is a well-paid Account Manager who oversees multiple landscape maintenance and […]
Category: The Harvest Blog
Harvester Fred Haskett is talking with the COO of David J. Frank Landscape, John Joestgen. He attended Harvester Fred’s Breakfast of Champion table where he picked up one idea that […]
With the extremely tight labor market, the last thing we want to lose is our good people but it does happen. There is no point in having a strong recruiting […]
The Harvesters are at the Verizon Connect booth in Louisville, KY at LANDSCAPES-2019 with Rebecca Anderson, Sr. Business Development Manager and Kevin Schwartz, Fleet Management Consultant. Watch as they share […]
Most landscape contractors use sub-contractors in their business. They are necessary for most operations because of limited expertise and equipment. In most cases, the relationship between contractor and subs are […]
Top 10 Most Important Human Resources Documents It is common knowledge that human resources is becoming increasingly bureaucratic, well beyond its original overwhelming level of paperwork, regulations, and guidelines. While […]
Improve the Legal Defensibility of your Time Sheet A business owner in California contacted me recently because one of his non-exempt employees complained that he had not received his legally-mandated […]
Owning a landscaping business brings on stress, you can’t help it. People deal with stress in different ways but one thing for sure sustained stress is very unhealthy. So what […]
The Harvesters visit numerous companies and one of the common problems they find is owners don’t delegate enough. They are so used to doing it, doing it, doing it, it’s […]
Performance Management Documentation A business owner from California contacted me the other day to discuss a disciplinary matter regarding one of his non-exempt field employees who refused to complete a […]
No matter how hard we try we are going to lose jobs, and that hurts. If we sense there is a problem with a job we need to jump on […]
ABCD Coaching Model A business owner from Massachusetts called me the other day, and requested guidance about how to handle a problem employee. The owner told me that one of […]
Last week Harvesters Bill & Ed toured the Headquarters of Corona Tools, in Corona, California. Wow, were they in for a surprise. Before the tour they thought Corona was a […]
Employee Handbooks: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Part 3 – The Ugly Some employee handbooks represent more risk than reward to a company. Extreme carelessness, lack of legal […]
Business is not easy, it never was. Competition is tough, finding good people to do the work is even more difficult. And then the customers. Most are great but there […]
Employee Handbooks: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Part 2 – The Bad Most companies have an employee handbook. Unfortunately, many of those employee handbooks lack professional quality, legal […]
You might have seen information about these tours in Lawn & Landscape magazine or maybe from the Harvesters but if you haven’t check it out. The tours are called, Backstage Pass. […]
Employee Handbooks: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Part 1 – The Good An employee handbook is the administrative cornerstone of an organization’s communication strategy with its employees, the […]
Don’t you love the signs that say, “We guarantee fast service, no matter how long it takes”. That’s too funny. But guarantees, real guarantees do matter. Companies that guarantee their work […]
Investigate Before You Terminate A business owner from Maryland called me the other day for approval to terminate an employee who allegedly used drugs on company time. The owner was […]
Without realizing it we negotiate quite a bit in our personal and business life. Our children, especially teenagers test our negotiation skills, as well as our mates, vendors, subcontractors, clients, […]
Tracking Workers’ Compensation Claims A business owner from Colorado called me the other day and asked me to help his Office Manager get her arms around the workers’ compensation claims […]
A business owner from Illinois called me the other day and told me that she just received a No Match Letter from the Social Security Administration (SSA). Given the potential […]
The Harvesters have found over the years that most companies don’t produce accurate estimates. After all, estimates are what prices are based on, so if they’re not correct how could […]
A business owner from Massachusetts called me the other day, and told me that one of his key employees has made various comments about suicide as an end to his […]