FIELD TRIP

Steven Cesare, Ph.D.

A business owner from California called me the other day to talk about improving her company culture. The conversation was not remedial in that many of her company culture indices are favorable: low turnover, infrequent absenteeism, solid attendance at company-wide meetings, no employment-based litigation, positive employee training certifications, strong safety measurements, positive demeanor in the yard before and after daily work shifts, and ongoing visibility by the business owners to the field employees. Nice job!

As such, we focused our creative attention onto identifying potential initiatives capable of taking the already-strong company culture to the next level. Recommendations of this nature typically center on increasing the degree and depth of communication throughout the entire organization, enhancing the quality of the work environment (e.g., upgrading office infrastructure and décor, better quality tools and newer field equipment, and making repairs to the yard, like better fencing, security, and blacktop), and more scheduled employee-centered social events (e.g., taco parties on every Friday before a three-day holiday weekend).

Always conscious of the real and imagined psychological distance between “field” employees and “office” staff, I suggested she consider having each office employee spend one day in the field every six months. Naturally, due to potential liability of a work-related injury, lack of operational training, and deficient bilingual speaking skills, this time in the field would not be spent working on a crew. Instead, the time would be spent observing the activities of those employees who actually sweat every day enduring the day’s heat, doing work for customers who pay the company, which in turn becomes a paycheck for the office employees who normally work in a carpeted, air-conditioned office space seated at a desk with a refrigerator close by.

I have long been an advocate of building the team by flattening the organizational relationships between all employees. Understanding the actions conducted by field employees can initiate, appreciate, if not, renew the partnership roles that office staff have for their field co-workers. As a capitalist, I explained to the business owner, this recommendation is not meant to be frivolous, episodic, or titular. It is substantively intended to create better awareness of the company’s actual business operation, field employees’ daily routines, and stimulate a more heartfelt service model toward our internal customers (i.e., co-workers).

I’m sure you’ve heard these claims many times before:

We are not in the horticulture business we are in the people business.
Our employees are our greatest asset.
Welcome to our team!

Are those claims true or just rhetorical? Wouldn’t you agree that a strong company culture should proudly personify them?

Procedurally speaking, each office employee would spend a semi-annual day with a Field Supervisor, Account Manager, or Department Manager, beginning with the office employee viewing the employees entering the yard at 6:30 am and loading up their trucks and trailers, attending the Tailgate Safety Training session, and then observing the controlled chaos of morning departure. Wearing flat shoes and proper eye protection throughout the day, the office employees would watch and learn, not yawn and judge, how their fellow team members fill-up their daily work time: unloading equipment from a trailer (“so that’s how it’s done”), mowing lawns (“that’s what a ride-on mower looks like?”), using a high-pitch blower (“that’s really loud; thanks for the ear protection”), pruning shrubs (“that’s a lopper, huh?”), installing a retaining wall footer or irrigation line (“that ground looks hard to dig”), trimming trees (“are you sure those knots are strong enough?”), applying chemicals (“isn’t he hot inside that outfit?”), watching someone operate a skid steer or backhoe (“wow!”), and loading and carrying burlaps to the truck (“does it always take two guys to do that?”). Of course, they would then be back at the yard in time to witness the daily miracle called yard arrival, to watch their field co-workers prepare for the next workday, when the office employee shows up at 7:59 am.

By implementing these field trips, the company will not have an office culture and a field culture. Instead, the company will begin to really have an organizational culture.

Or is our company culture just rhetorical?

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