Building A Home Service On Hard Mode

I'm not perfect at hiring, but I've hired hundreds of people, and I want to share 3 reasons why employees keep leaving your business. Whether it be technicians out in the field, whether it be managers, I'm going to outline the 3 different areas and where in each of those steps of the process you're losing employees. It is extremely difficult. It is like building a business on hard mode if every single 3, 6, 12 months, you're recycling through your entire team. And so if you're playing that game now, I wanna hopefully give you some ideas or strategies to ensure that as you hire people, as you onboard them, as you train them, as you try to retain them for the long term, that you can maintain your current team. And I would rather take B players, keep them for a very long time, and produce A players in the long run than hire A players. But because my standards are too low, my training is not good enough, the culture is not good enough, I don't do a good job, I keep churning and burning A players. And if you feel like you have a great team, but they just never stick around with you, I'm hoping something that'll be said will be helpful for you. And I by no means claim to be a perfect hirer, or— I don't know if that's the word— hirer, or a boss, or that I have nailed all 3 of these departments. But each of these I have made improvements on and seen great benefit to my business. So there's 3 parts. There's hiring, There's onboarding and then there's retention. And so when it comes to hiring, I think of a job ad just like I would a customer ad. When you think about a customer ad, you think about, okay, how is it going to be perceived? And I'm going to be trying to think about how do I differentiate myself from all the competition? So if in your market you have 20, 30 other contractors that do the exact same thing as you, to try to stand out and not be a commodity, you're trying to use your advertising, whether it be Facebook ad, Google ad, a flyer, a postcard, a yard sign, You're trying to use all of that to demonstrate why you're different than everyone else. And the same thing is true when it comes to a job ad, whether it be on Indeed or Facebook, or even if you're giving a postcard and doing a referral program for your current team to get their friends and their family to come work for you. It still is a marketing message. And that's why it's called a job ad. It's an advertisement to come work for you. And I think a lot of times if we just changed our mindset, around getting employees the same way that we try to go get customers, a lot of the way that we hire would be completely different, the way that we attract good talent. And so in that job ad, it needs to be really clear answering one question. What makes you different? Because as someone that is an A-player that has lots of opportunity to work at a whole bunch of different places, they have plenty of opportunities. So what they're quickly trying to scan inside your job ad is what makes this company different? Because if the only thing that makes you different is that you pay a dollar more per hour, you might get the best talent when they're in a rush to get a new job. But you're not going to get anyone to leave their other place of business for your place of business. As an A-player, they're moving up inside an organization. They're usually not going to stay at the same level for 5, 10, 15 years. And so if you're going after top-tier talent, you're trying to make your job offer, your job ad so good that they share it with people that aren't even looking for work, and that person's convinced to come work for you. And that takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of clarity around why am I different than everyone else? And when it comes to customers, a lot of us have gotten pretty clear on this. It's like, well, I show up in a professional uniform with my crew. I have wrapped trucks, I'm insured, I have a really good looking website, I have good Google reviews. But all of those things I just mentioned have something you could also say is the equivalent when it comes to hiring, whether it be like, have you talked to your current team and asked them to explain to a prospect what it's like working for you? Like, we have like 20 or 30 of these videos from our technicians that talk about what it's like to work at Augusta Lawn Care. That is an asset that I can use inside of a job ad that makes me look different than everyone else. And so regardless of what assets you do have, whether pictures, video testimonials, this is the exact same asset you would have in a customer ad. But I want to make sure I show this to a potential hire or an applicant or someone just even in my industry that might leave my competitor to come work for me. I want them to be very clear inside of my job ad what makes me different. And so this is where I'm cautious around even using AI to do your job ads. It's going to defer to the median. It's going to defer to what the average is. And if you are like everyone else inside of your industry, inside of your market, when it comes to your job ad, you're not going to attract the best talent. The only thing you'll be compared on is usually the hourly rate that you're offering, because that's the thing that they can actually compare. But you want to make your job ad so different than everyone else, they have to stop and like, okay, wait a second. Like, even if this was a couple of dollars less per hour, I would want to work here. Does it make it clear that you care for the team, the opportunities inside the business, the ability to be able to grow with the organization, the longevity of the organization? You're like, well, I can't attract anyone. You've been in business for 15 years. Why are you not leaning into that? Because everyone else inside that same job ad category that they're scrolling through has been in business for 6 months, a year, or 2 years. So lean into your unique selling proposition when it comes to your job ad. What makes you different? And if you can't clearly define what makes it different for your applicant, what makes— what's different about working at your place of business compared to all your competition, I would focus on that first. I would tell you the exact same thing when it comes to marketing and talking to customers. If you don't know what makes you different, we got to stop and we got to ask ourselves, what makes us different? Why are we different than the other 20 people that will market to this customer? And the same thing is true in your job ad. Why are you different? And I'm not even going to give you too many details here because I guess it could be comp, it could be benefits, it could be even your hours. Like if you work 4 10s versus 5 8s, that's a difference. Do you allow flexible start time? Do you allow them to take the truck home? These are all little things. And I just listed some of the comp and benefits stuff, but even culture, longevity, how long have you been in business? These are all things that can set you apart from everyone else when it comes to your job ad. And I say job ad, but remember, that could be A post on your social media, that could be an Indeed ad, that could be a flyer, that could be a text you send to someone that you know is looking for work. They are ultimately a prospect that you're trying to turn into a lead. And we know that verbiage when it comes to customers, but a prospect is someone that is capable of buying, they're interested in buying, but they haven't given me their information. I haven't like started the relationship. And the same thing is true with a job ad. I'm trying to initiate them applying to work at my business. All right, let's assume now we move on to number 2. We have hired them, they've gone through the onboarding process, and again, I'm always trying to answer that question: what makes this company different? In your interview process, do you feel like the other 10 interviews they just took? Are you using technology or a video submission process for them to submit interview questions to you? These are things that you can separate yourself apart from the other people that are going to have them show up For their first day of work, give them a 2-second interview, give them a uniform, and tell them to hop in the truck. Like, if that's your competition, you've got to set yourself apart from that and have reference checks, have the time to sit down with them and discuss what their goals are, the ability to be able to use video and technology to be able to ask them questions before you waste their time and they drive out 30, 40 minutes to come visit you for an interview. Alright, so now let's assume we've got past all that, alright? I could spend an hour on just Hiring, interviewing, all that. But we've now got them on the team. They have signed the job offer, which, by the way, just the job offer is a way to stand out. If you are even having a job offer, if it's a one-pager that you can't even make sense of, it's a bunch of legal jargon. Is it a 40-page document that you don't even know what's inside of there? It's a bunch of stuff you got off ChatGPT. Or is the job offer sent to them via DocuSign? It's very easy for them to understand. You highlight a quick video that's personalized to them so they can understand it. Okay. That's all stuff that's in the past. Let's now talk about They've accepted the job offer. They're showing up for work. This is the onboarding process. And I actually feel this is one of the biggest areas of improvement that all of us can make today. Because you might have just heard me talk about hiring and be like, well, I've not been in business for a long time. I don't have the nicest equipment. I don't really have a place for them to move up inside the organization because they're the second employee and we're just getting started. And I can only really sell them the dream of where this business is going. During the onboarding process, tomorrow you can change this. So from the hiring perspective, you're like, man, I lose out to my competition on the job ad. Okay, great. Whatever we now do get in the door, new employees joining, we want to be the best at onboarding. I believe this leads to the retention of the employee, especially when it comes to technicians, more than anything else. And that is how long do we spend with them? How much education and resources and time do we pour into the employee at the beginning? And I understand During the middle of spring rush, when you're way behind on jobs, that you feel like the last thing you should be doing is spending a bunch of time with a new hire when you're stacked up and way behind on jobs and 3 people just called out, 2 people just got fired, and 1 person just didn't show up for work. I understand the need to like, I just need to throw them in the vehicle. And even if they're 60% efficient today, I just need to get some work done. I understand that. And that might be where you're at now, but I want to put you on a trajectory towards where you can go. To be able to retain great talent. And it's not going to be throw them in a truck as fast as possible. It's going to spend time with them when it comes to onboarding. Until I had about 25 employees, I would spend half a day with them before they ever got into a truck, just getting to know them. So I'd take them out for dinner or lunch typically, and then I would go over the requirements of the job that they already have accepted. I would go over a lot of aspects of how they can make more money. I want to learn a lot about them. What makes them tick, what their goals are, so that I can align the goals of the business with their goals. And they can see how in the long run they will get closer to their goals by the business getting closer to its goals. And so the onboarding process is super key during this, this part. The big question they're asking, because remember we talked about hiring and it's like, what makes this business different than everyone else when it comes to onboarding? The one question you want to answer for the employee is, how do I win? Think of this like the rules of the game. If you're trying to win a volleyball game, you need to know certain rules. If you're trying to win a hockey game, you need to know what icing is. You need to know what all these different rules of the game are so that you can win the game and get more points. Same thing is true when it comes to onboarding. I want to be very clear what good looks like and demonstrate to them both through examples, case studies, as well as going over the rules of the game. For them to be able to win inside of my business. And so if you haven't clearly defined what the rules of your game and your business are, you gotta determine those first. Like, how do you determine who gets a raise? How do you determine whether someone gets a management position? How do you determine if there's an opportunity for advancement or a vehicle, going home with a— like, how do you determine who gets those things? And if there's not some sort of meritocracy or there's not some sort of rules, You're gonna be blamed for having favorites, you're gonna be blamed for being partial, you're gonna have double standards, and it's gonna get messy really fast. And so you wanna have clear rules of the game. This is where things like pay for performance is super useful because it makes it really clear that, hey, if you do these things, you make more money. And there's other things outside of just even efficiency or trying to get more budget hours done or produce as much revenue for the business as possible. Like, that's P4P. But what about profit sharing? What about— How do I get to the next stage of my career? How do I become a manager here? Like, okay, you're interviewing me, you're the manager of this business. How do I take your job? That's what they might be thinking. But if I don't ever give them the actual stories, the actual steps, the rules by which the game is played for them to be able to get ahead, then they're gonna feel like this is a dead-end job. And during the onboarding is also what I wanted to make it really clear, the stages of success inside of my business. So at Augusta, we have 21 stages of success. For the technician, there's 7. For the GM, there's 7. And for the owner, there's 7 stages of success. And the whole point of onboarding is simply making sure they understand what those 7 are so they realize that this is not a dead-end job. And the whole objective internally, outside of providing for our families and making money, is to get to the next stage of our career. And there's certain tasks or skills that are required for them to unlock the next stage. So for a technician, after the first few weeks, they can get past stage 1. Within a couple months, they get through stage 2, 3. They start to lead team meetings. They start to make consistent pay for performance and being efficient on their routes. They start unlocking different stages of success. And we try to stack those stages of success pretty early so in the first few months they can get through the first few stages so they can get some wins underneath their belt and get momentum. Whereas when you're talking about like a general manager be going from stage 5 to stage 6, That could very well take a year or 2 years to get to that next stage inside their career. But everyone, whether you're a first-day technician or you're a 5-year veteran owner, you're on the board. You're somewhere in the stages of success regardless of what stage of your career you're at. The whole objective, whether you're an owner, a new technician, a general manager that's been around for 5 years, our whole objective is to get to the next stage of our career and help the rest of the team get to their next stage. And so we celebrate every single stage of success. And when someone moves up, that's something to talk about in a team meeting. There's a certificate that's given, that's posted on social media. The objective is to make it really clear in onboarding though, how they win. And if winning to them is making more money, make it very clear how getting through these stages of success makes them more money. If they wanna have more of a management role in the business and they're tired of working 10, 15 years as a technician, they feel like they've kind of job hopped, but they wanna lock in and really move up inside the company, Make it very clear to them that doing these things, here's how you win and you get to your goal. And so I've got to know what their goals are. If I don't know what their goals are, how in the world can I expect them to stick around? How in the world do I expect them on a day when it's pouring down rain or it's 105 degrees outside to ever want to keep showing up for work if I have not made it clear that them doing that and sacrificing the feeling of of working out in that kind of environment or dealing with a bad customer or a job that's gone south or equipment that's breaking down, how can I make sure that they stick with the business and continue to work up the stages of success when those low moments come? It's by making sure it's very clear that by doing these things, you unlock these things and these things are getting you closer to your goals. And so during onboarding, as much as you want, they are trying to understand How do I win this game? And you wanna make that very clear with your stages of success, how they can make more money, all those things. I am also personally asking, how do I make sure they win? I need to know what winning looks like for them. So often the times, again, the 1.0 version of this is they've gotta know how to win inside the business. I need to know what winning looks like to them. Because for your different technicians, your different managers, for some of them, winning means making more money. For others, and that one's pretty easy usually 'cause it's numbers, it's digits. For some of them, it is just the fact they want to have Fridays off or that they want evenings off. They don't want to be working past 5 o'clock. Or for some of them, it's that they would love to work on 4/10s instead of 5/8s. For some of them, it's like, hey, I don't want to have a governed start time. I want to be able to take the vehicle home and start from my house instead of showing up at the shop every single morning. Maybe 2 or 3 days a week I show up at the shop. Like every single person is going to have a different definition of what winning is for them. You've got to determine what the rules are of your game though, to determine whether or not some of those you can't Like, if you can't have your crew take the trucks home and that's what they see as winning, let's just X this. Like, let's make sure that this relationship is ended now or we get really clear that that's not happening. Because the number one reason why technicians and general managers leave is that there is a misalignment of expectations versus reality. And so if you're wondering why in the first 2, 3, 4 weeks of someone getting hired, they're leaving, it has almost never to do with the work that's being done or even the manager, it's almost always misaligned expectations. So they thought they were gonna be pulling weeds, trimming bushes, and enjoying gardening. And then they realize that 10, 12 hours in the blazing heat doesn't feel like them, like it was when they were gardening at their house. That's a misalignment of what they expected and what the reality was. And so during onboarding, I'm trying to make sure that expectations and reality are as close as possible. I'm going to go over because again, I'm trying even in onboarding, I'm trying to like weed people out. If their rules of winning don't match up with the rules of winning inside of the organization, let's get rid of them. Like let them go find a place where they can win. Also, if they have expectations of the job that you just know is not the reality, get rid of them right away. Right at the beginning of onboarding, 'cause you're setting them up for failure 'cause they expect the job to look very different. And be very careful to not set expectations that are way too high. For example, when it comes to pay for performance or profit sharing, if you're brand new and you don't have good route density, don't expect them to be making a bunch of P4P bonuses, pay for performance. Don't expect a whole bunch of profit sharing bonuses, and don't be talking a bunch about that in their onboarding when you know for a fact you're gonna be putting every dollar back in the business for 2 to 3 years. As you grow really fast. Don't be talking about profit sharing. Make it clear, here's what the system is, and you're not gonna make anything for probably a couple years because we're putting every dollar back into this business. And we're gonna have open book management to show exactly what the numbers are. That is aligning expectations with reality. So in their mind, they're not hearing one thing while you're saying another. You're saying you make $20 an hour base, but you can make up to $40 an hour on P4P. And Last year, we were able to put $2,000 per quarter in profit sharing for each employee. So in their mind, they heard they make— they're making $40 an hour and $8,000 per year in bonuses. And you just talked about the 1 or 2 top performers inside your organization. So they're going to be very disappointed when the reality of the situation on their first paycheck, their second paycheck, their third paycheck doesn't align with their expectations. And so even when something comes like, with pay for performance, we— I try to make it very clear. The first couple paychecks, you're probably not going to make a bonus because you're still getting efficient. I'm going to give you all the ways to be more efficient. I'm going to give you all the training and the video guides and everything possible to make sure you have all the tools at your disposal to make more money. But don't expect the first couple paychecks to make anything above base pay because you're just not efficient and you have not yet learned these skills. But we're going to do everything possible to I'll train you up to the point where— and then I point behind me. So-and-so made X amount per hour. So-and-so made X amount per hour. This is last paycheck. This is live. You can go talk to them. They just walked inside the office. This is the— this is what onboarding looks like to ensure that you don't have churn in the first few weeks. If you're having churn in the first few weeks, if you get anything from this video, if you have churn in the first few weeks, it's because what they thought they were getting versus what they got, 2 different things. They feel jilted and they leave. All right, long-term. We've talked about hiring, we've talked about onboarding. Now let's talk about retention. How do we make sure we keep people after they've gone through the hiring process, they've been onboarded, they signed everything? What's the question that every employee is now asking? Why should I stay? Employees are like, okay, great. I understand how to win. I'm on. I've been here for 2 years. Why should I keep working for you? That's what they're asking every single day, potentially every single job. And this is why it's so important to have one-on-one meetings with your technicians, with your managers, at least on a monthly basis to connect and go over their goals, go over their performance, ask them what you can do to help them get to the next stage of their career. How can I help you get closer to your goals? And then by knowing their goals, And knowing the next stage of success, I'm able to align those things and say, okay, you want to make an extra couple dollars more per hour because you have these things that in your personal life that you would like to pay off. Great. Here's how to do that. Here's the things that the business needs and the performance requirements that you have to have in order to meet your goals. But make it all about them. Everyone talks about one-on-ones like they're performance reviews and audits and these mean words. Instead of just saying like, hey, I want to sit down. I want to make sure we're on the same page. I want to make sure that I understand your goals and make sure you have a roadmap to get to the next stage of your career, make more money, have more flexibility, get promoted, whatever your goals are. I'm trying to make sure we work towards that. And I'm also trying to make sure that this is a great place to work. So I need to know if there's anything that's going on in the truck, on a job site, in the office that would make you want to go home and say, I don't want to go back and work there. I want to know about that. And so now a one-on-one meeting is looked at as a way for them to make more money, them to get closer to their goals, them to get promoted, and to make a better workplace for them. Instead of performance reviews, let's pull out the numbers, and last month you were this and this, you're $5 above this, and you need to improve here, and you stopped doing this, you have 4 yellow slips, and all the damage cases, that's another day. A one-on-one meeting is a time for me to get alignment, 'cause again, that's why people leave. They do not have alignment with the company. And if you wanna retain great employees, you align the goals of the organization with the goals of the employee. If you do that, you'll keep people forever because most businesses don't care about their people at all. So they're always asking, why should I stay? You've got to give them a reason why. When you did onboarding, did you give them a 30, 60, and 90 days? Which means after 30 days, here's your expectations. After 90 days, here's what we expect from you. And then that way in your monthly one-on-ones for the first 3 months, They know that new requirements and new skills should have been trained to them, and they should be knowing how to do new things inside the organization. By the way, this really helps during onboarding, them knowing that they're actually going to gain skills, which can be very valuable to them if they come from a smaller company or from a place of business where they felt like they plateaued in their skill set. Another thing when it comes to retention is, as they stay with you, do they make more money, get ahead in their career, Or get closer to their goals? If not, we've got to create rules inside the organization, whether it be comp, whether it be bonuses, whether it be perks, whether it be benefits, whether it be base pay, whether it be whatever it is. The longer they stay with you and the more efficient they are for you and for the organization, they should make more money. They should get closer to their goals. And if you don't know what those are, we're like, we've already lost the game. If you don't know what their goals are and you have not aligned those with the business, we've already lost. But we have to ensure that every day when they ask, why should I stay? Why should I keep working here? They have a reason. And that could be that in 3 months, I get an extra base pay bump. It could be next year, I get promoted to lead tech. Next year, I am able to get this. In 6 weeks, I get this. They're looking forward to something. It's the same, like in your business, you're doing this already. You're looking forward to the next time you have an extra crew, you're able to get off the truck, you're able to get a second location, you're able to get an and a salesperson so you don't have to do sales. You're looking forward to things every single year, and that's what keeps you going through the muck and mire of building a business. The same thing is true for your technician or for your manager. They need something to look forward to so that when they have this question of, why should I stay? There's actual real reasons they can give themselves as evidence as to why they should keep working for you. One thing that I've always thought about that really challenged me is I was in a mastermind. It was called SaaS Academy. And I paid $5,000 a month to be in a room of other entrepreneurs that are doing over $3 million in annual revenue, specifically in my industry of software. And I still remember Dan Martell getting up to the front of the room and talking about Gary Vee, Gary Vaynerchuk. And if you're under 25, you might not know as much about him. But if you're over 30, you definitely know Gary Vee. And you probably also know that his goal, his mission is to by the New York Jets. And that's what he wants to do in his long-term career. And he's said in some interviews, if he doesn't do that, that's fine, like, just the chase of the game. But realistically, we all know he wants to buy the New York Jets. What's crazy to me is almost none of us have ever met GaryVee, let alone know him well or text him occasionally. We don't see him every day, but yet we know what his goal is. We know why he keeps grinding and hustling every single day. And yet the people that work for us and show up to our offices every single day, drive our trucks, text us every single day, we're with them all the time. We know all their family. We've worked with them for 3, 4, 5 years. And yet they still don't know why does this business even exist? What makes this business like, why are we doing this? Why do we keep growing? Why do we keep building? What's the objective here? Because now retention long term goes beyond just making more money. There's got to be a purpose. There's got to be a reason. And in the short term, a few years, many times money, monetary, is very beneficial. But if you talk to people who've worked at a company for 20, 30 years, money rarely comes up. It's the vision. It's the mission. It's why we do what we do. It's the— it's the North Star they're all striving towards. And they have bought into that dream. And if you don't have one yet, Do whatever it takes to get really clear on why your business exists. Because if you don't know why the business exists and you don't have this vision, this goal that you're pushing towards, how do we expect our employees to keep their head down, working, grinding, and hustling through the inevitable pains of doing work in the home service industry? It's not easy. And there's gonna be plenty of times they doubt whether or not they should do it. They're gonna have that ant in their mind the same way you have people that doubted you and said you should do something different. They're gonna have their mom, so-and-so said they should have done this other industry, so-and-so should have said they should have taken this other job. So-and-so should have said they should have gone back to school. They're thinking those same thoughts. And so if we don't have a vision that constantly gets them back focused on the exact same thing, the same way that Gary Vee, we all just know his vision. We know the dream. We know what he's pushing for. And we can articulate that without ever meeting him, without talking to him on a daily basis. Can our team do that? And so like the mission for Augusta Lawn Care is to change the level of professionalism in the industry. And I've got to tell that every single day, whether it be an agent answering the phone at command center, whether it be a technician that's just learning how to mow, whether it be a manager that's been there for 5 or 6 years trying to start a second location, whether it be an owner that just came to training, the whole mission is to change the level of professionalism in the industry. And whether that we use software, whether we use media, whether we use robotics, whether we use technology, regardless of what we use, that's the mission, that's the vision, and that's what we must stay focused on. Because I'm tired of landscaping specifically in my industry being looked down on as, oh, well, you know, you didn't go to school, you go be a landscaper for the summer. I'm tired of that notion. So what am I going to do? That's what the 7 stages of success are for technicians, is to give them a path the same way that a diploma or certificate or going to college gives them a path to make more money. I'm going to do the same thing for the landscape industry. And so when we talk about at Command Center answering the phone and saying the 10 out of 10 question, which is what can we do to make sure your experience with Augusta Lawn Care is a 10 out of 10? What is that? That is ensuring that we change the level of professionalism in the landscape industry where most landscapers don't care about your day. They don't care about a 10 out of 10 experience. They don't even answer your phone call. And so everything has to revolve back to that North Star. And in the long run, that's really where retention comes from. Having something worth fighting for, a common vision that everyone on the team can rally around individually. They know how getting to that goal makes them win. In their own personal life, their own personal goals. But they also know that as a collective, as a team, we all know the direction we're going. Because if you don't have this common unifying theme, you're going to have a lot of motion without any progress. Meaning people are going to be going all sorts of different directions. But if you can just channel all of that energy towards one common goal and one direction that we're going, that's where real progress is made. So I hope those 3 things allow you to not just hire more people, but retain them for the long term, because the biggest unlock in business is keeping team members for the long term. And to do that, you've got to nail all 3.