090826 ~ The Struggle to Find and Retain Good Employees - Kristy Vanderpool

0:00Selene's ANH outdoor resource group was recently chosen as best landscape company in the Selene area chambers People's Choice Awards, sixth year in a row remarkable Starting pay at the local young company 18 to $20 an hour with team leaders making 20 to $24 an hour But that's not all ANH also offers workers health insurance a 401k plan paid time off and Sick time off and performance based profit sharing So why can't they find workers? Now the struggle to find and retain good employees. It's everywhere and Joining us this morning to talk about this is Kristi Vanderpool. She is director of administration at ANH outdoor Resource Group. That is incredible that you offer all of that to your company workers and Yet you're struggling to find people to join your staff. Why do you think that is? It is well if we knew the answer we would we would try to solve it

1:01I don't know I would say that the last few years in particular have been the worst I've been with ANH for it'll be 30 years in the spring and The last few years have definitely been the most difficult. I mean it's been on this trend for probably the last 10 years But specifically the last few years and we've tried to figure it out I mean we offer more benefits. We sit down. We talk with our team members to try to decide what Makes a company you know why they want to work for a company? What can help and that's how we've come up with you know The 401k match and health insurance a lot of people in our you know, it's the long and landscape industry Many companies don't offer benefits like that The thing with a long and landscape company that we've noticed over the last 30 years is that Some people just start a company they have a more in a truck kind of like Tim and Brandon did 35 years ago And then and then it's it makes it a very difficult market to compete in The newer companies like that starting out really struggle to find any then there are companies that unfortunately

2:03They don't offer the benefits, but then they there are companies that don't tax people you know that pay cash We can't compete with that you just can't compete with that Tim would know the numbers, but the the the dollars an hour you pay just in benefits alone for Taxes and toward work comp and unemployment insurance. It's a lot of money So someone who doesn't tax their employees can maybe afford to pay them $30 an hour Where we're paying ten of those dollars per hour in unemployment insurance and taxes and things and that's not it That's not a huge issue, but it does happen But we try I just I feel like the market is different than it used to be and I talk about that Yes, and what you're seeing out there, so it's interesting You wrote me a note about this and it's You said that there are way too many helicopter parents right now They're not doing their kids any favors when it comes to the young adult chapter of their lives We need to have a real discussion about the sweet spot that lies somewhere between how Gen X was parented and

3:07In parentheses you write did I even have parents and how Gen Z has been or is being parented? It's too late for some but maybe it could help some parents whose kids are still young enough to have not been Tainted by that. Yes, so when I sent you that email it full disclosure I was super frustrated with not being able to find employees like I just was really frustrated with it and that is what I think and I'm a I'm a Gen X mom and I have a Gen Gen Z son so I understand it I've been there with the helicoptering I will never live down the time he called me it texted me in second hour and said mom I need 25 Churros by 4th hour and I did it I raced all around in arbor and I ended up having to buy a hundred Churros So I get it. I know how we have done this But I think that is the problem Gen Z parent or Gen X parents and my parents were great But a lot of you know we were we were on our own we did our own thing we learned from our mistakes We made mistakes. We didn't get our homework done and our parents didn't bring it, you know I just feel like we are trying to correct those wrongs and we're maybe going a little overboard and I'm no expert by any means

4:08This is just my own experience But I think we're going a little overboard and we're not setting our children up to understand how it is So I will have moms reach out to me about how can my child apply? Their child being maybe 25 It's the child's The person the adult adult person contacting me and that's a red flag immediately It's just it's problematic and I think that there's a fine line between helping your child and Doing things for them. I was talking with a father last week and he told me his son just doesn't want to work He's and he's worried what's going to happen when the mom and dad are gone and His son has to be on his own and he should be on his own now He said I had to remove myself from the situation. He says I couldn't help anymore Yes, which might be the answer here and I think that is because I think what it is is that parents Are continuing to help in those situations and it doesn't then force the Adult child to go out and get a job and it's not

5:09They can't it's not practical for them to never work and I think that that is What the problem is that we're seeing and I have employees who will start young adults They start and we give them some grace. We know sometimes it's their first job out of high school even But the first time maybe they are disciplined and we don't discipline rough But the what I mean is maybe their team leader says oh, that's that's not the way you do it You want to do this they just immediately they can't handle it and they will sometimes quit leave that day They just can't you know or they come in and they don't they don't understand doing the beginning work You know everybody's new employee when you're new employee in law and landscaping you're digging holes You're pushing a wheelbarrow. They see their team leader using the skid loader They want to know why can't I use the skid loader? Well your team leader's been here for four years and they earned that It's just a different mentality and it is across the board And I actually did a lot of research before coming here because I didn't want to talk about things I don't understand So what I learned is there is a lot that employers need to change to be able to work with the new generation

6:12Well, I haven't talked to my bosses about it yet. So I have to be careful what I say But we have to we have to work think you know if you can look into a four-day work weight work week If you can which honestly we may be able to do in our business We may be able to we would have to structure it We would have to have some staff working Monday through Thursday and some working Tuesday through Friday because we have to work every day But maybe we could do that and offer 10 hour days that way instead although we work longer than 10 hour days But that is one basically work life balance is a huge thing for Gen Z What I've read is they are just they're not falling into the same What my parents is baby boomers did especially and then my generation is Gen X We let work kind of run our lives. That's right. And so I think that Gen Z is trying to Not live to work but work to live and so we need to find a place to Basically make it a happy place for the employers and the employees I love that you're addressing that too that you're coming up with solutions to try to attract and retain people

7:15speaking of retaining people One day you had four call ins and four tardies. Yes, that's 30% of your field staff. Yes Yep, it and that is difficult to that is the other thing I have a young employees that requests a to leave early to get a haircut Like these are things that I can't wrap my head around and I'm not that old But I just can't wrap my head around it and it's they weren't they haven't learned that so we need to help them learn You don't do that you you plan your haircut for usually there's evenings and weekends where that can be done And again, I understand in the law and landscape industry. We don't work a typical schedule You know people can't get to the bank on time or whatever, but They they take a full day off for doctors appointments So there are things that they're just different and I feel like employers need to find a plate at the balance But so do the employees to a degree but regarding banking it's become easier than ever If you wanted to struggle with having to get to the bank how about back when we didn't have computers and we weren't doing any of this stuff

8:19Electron absolutely will yes, we made a direct deposit mandatory a couple of years ago for that reason because we knew people couldn't get there We want them to get there, right? But yet that's the other thing I have read is Gen Z is the first generation and I I don't think I'm wrong on this but that has had the internet their entire lives. Wow Which also makes things different you know wanting that like media satisfaction When I was a kid you couldn't just look something up. I mean now I I'm very spoiled by I just grabbed my phone if I have a question I grabbed my phone and I Google it As a kid that wasn't I didn't have that option and as a young adult I didn't have that option So we also gained the skill set to understand how to find that Improving yes I think though that's where we maybe have to have a little bit of grace with our Gen Z and our young adults coming into the workplace who they've done it differently And it kind of like parents with children, you know, we've done it differently. They they're doing it differently We need to find that ground. Christy Vanderpool director of administration of a and age outdoor resource group

9:20So who are you looking for you need people to work you are Are ready to hire you've got great wages offering 401k health insurance time off holiday time Profit sharing is available a chance to move up and be a team leader. Yes, there is opportunity at an age Who are you looking for we are looking first and foremost people who want to work people who want to show up to work people who want to work hard People who like to make a difference people who like to finish their job and see what it looks like and they're they're happy with it I found that my best employees are the one who are happy they're happy with the way their job looks at the end of the day And they're proud of it. They show me pictures But most importantly someone who wants to be there wants to help their co-workers Law and landscape again, it's a little difficult because we're slightly seasonal We can't offer full-time employment during the winter months. We've worked with this though We offered an AHWPPP program. What is that? So that was the A&H Payment protection program we learned the A&H winter payment protection program. It was actually something that

10:26We kind of played off of the PPP program that was offered by the government during the COVID crisis because we the Unemployment wages in Michigan up until just recently were ridiculous It was like $362 a week gross that employee could get my employees could not survive on $362 a week during the winter and whenever there's snow we have work for them and we pay even better rates in the winter It's $28 an hour to $32 an hour for snow removal employees Nice, but you never know in Michigan when it's gonna snow so there are times where we have a very heavy winter and people make good money And they don't even have to worry about those unemployment benefits But it's not always the case so we offered this as a it was basically to fill the void So it was a $200 it almost worked as as a Advance a payroll advance because when they did have work and they had a paycheck it came off of that But we worked really hard to find a way it didn't affect unemployment It wasn't we were doing it the right legal channels like that It's like when teachers can decide you want your money all yes during the year or do you want it to be passed out

11:30So oversummer you also yes exactly so we were we try to do these things now unemployment has come Far since then so I don't know that we're gonna do it this year because it is difficult But so we we work with that or sometimes we don't have people who want to come on because they want 12 months a year steady employment But we offer I mean we have nine months of very steady employment and We pay well we it's like a family environment too I have employees who I mean I've been there 30 years, but I have employees who have been there 18 22 I would say more of my employees than not have been there at least five it's wonderful It's the later generation now that's coming up the ranks that you're worried about yes exactly I I fear I spoke to Gentlemen the other day who does pools and we were talking that we're worried in the next 10 to 15 years what The workforce looks like primarily in manual labor like ours We just we can't find people who want to do it and it's it's getting scary a recent M live article Address this it was written by Chris pew and he writes a growing share of young men are neither working nor actively seeking jobs

12:33While the national unemployment rate stood at 4.1% in July labor force Participation continued to drift lower raising new questions about why some young adults are disconnecting from work altogether Researcher say mental health may be an important part of the story a growing body of evidence suggests that depression anxiety loneliness Social isolation can create barriers to entering and staying in the workforce particularly for young adults making that transition from school to employment I would like to argue get a job And and you will find power in your life. I mean that could change the trajectory of where you're headed I if you are suffering like yes I do agree I think it's I think it's complicated because I've read about that too And I do think it's a complex situation. I think that 10 15 20 years ago We didn't talk about mental health so it's different and it's good that we are talking about it But I do think there's a bit of a domino effect In a similarly like I will have someone who's struggling to afford a car So they take a day off to go find a car

13:33Well now your the domino effect is in place because now you've taken a day off either you weren't paid or you used a PTO day that now maybe you won't have when you're sick and you need it or when you want to take vacation It's a domino effect so if you are if you're struggling and I I don't understand every situation absolutely I'm sure there are some where it is very difficult to work But if you're struggling with loneliness isolation money Try to get out there and find yourself a job you will likely meet friends at your job Right you will end up having you know co-workers that you can confide in about things having the finances to then do things You know entertainment anything like that is going to help again There's all kinds of situations so I will not pretend to understand them all But I do think in some situations it's Is that Exasperating the problem when someone is not working well, you know for people that don't Understand this this report out said that labor force participation on men ages 16 to 24 It dropped from 69% in 2000 to just 57% in 2020

14:38There's something wrong there and I know there are a lot of people They're still coming out of COVID and you know we ruined a generation of kids with COVID But we need to figure out a way to encourage them yes, and I think this is where my frustration was coming in and I again I'm I'm the mom of of a Gen Z or so I understand it and I see it all from my friend groups everyone I see different we all raise our children differently But I think a big thing to think about with your children is we want to set them up for success We want them to be more successful than we were I think that's part of why we end up helicoptering or in some case There's even the term lawnmower parenting where you're you take out every obstacle could be more of them Yeah, yeah, right And and we we need to think where's the line between doing that and and maybe hindering our children Christy Vanderpool director of administration a and H outdoor research group I want to mention to you're just a fun place to work I mean this is this is hard work, but you know how to have fun you do a lot of dinners and fun things and games and You really support your employees at a

15:40We do we try we try so hard we have company breakfast my mechanic Jeremy makes thing makes a huge spread on the blackstone You know, we try to do these things and Because we also we enjoy it we enjoy being a team and I mean we don't like to micromanage You know I I've only I've only had one job before this one so I'll confess that I've been here 30 years I'm not that old What I didn't like is how my bosses and people were always in my business and we're not like that at a an inch unless You require us to be that way, but we were prefer prefer not to I mean my irrigation form and we never even know What he's doing we just know that he's doing his job and he's taking care of it That's what we like and I think the employees appreciate that like they just they do their thing you can visit a H outdoor dot com right on the front there You're gonna see the information on how to apply and I you know, we're serious about this great pay 401k health insurance Profit sharing time off holiday pay It's an incredible organization. You just have to want to work you have to want to work hard and

16:46Do your best you can and if anyone has any suggestions on how to get people to work and to stay there and want the job Let me know I am absolutely open to it Underpull at houtdoor.com's and me an email. I love it and you know, it's It's interesting because you're not just complaining about workers You're thinking of novel ways to encourage them to work and to enjoy the environment. So I love that about you Thank you. Thank you so much, Christie again AH outdoor dot com for more information. They're hiring right now if you're looking for a job apply today AH outdoor dot com you're listening to Ann Arbor's talk station 1290 WLBY