Ask virtually any lawn maintenance contractor in the country what his or her major challenge is and the answer will be... labor? With nearly every state having the lowest unemployment rate in decades, and the call for landscaping and maintenance on the rise, contractors large and small are looking for innovative ways to solve their labor dilemma.
Without enough qualified employees, the road to growth is all but blocked. Training is becoming more expensive and time-consuming. And when new employees are found, they often leave before owners can reap the benefits of this training.
What is a contractor to do? The industry is pooling ideas. Among them are:
- Suggestions for revamping immigration laws to allow access to more Hispanic workers
- Increasing the hourly job rate so employees can be paid more
- Exploring other labor resources, i.e. retired workers.
No doubt all will be needed to bring the labor market back to landscaping. But even if it comes back and laborers become plentiful, the challenge will still be there. Labor is the most expensive component of any landscape or maintenance company.
Making The Most Of It
By and large, the most successful (and profitable) operators are those who find ways to use labor to their advantage. Employees are trained for specific jobs so they can be as productive as possible. Expensive employee downtime is kept to a minimum. And employee hours are meticulously tracked to ensure 1) workers are making the best use of their time and that 2) customers are being billed for this time.
Successful companies are also finding ways to substitute equipment for muscle power. That doesn't necessarily mean they're buying bigger mowers so operators can mow faster, or jumping into the rider market because riding is easier than walking. No, successful companies are making sure the equipment they have matches the application so employees make the best use of their time and jobs get completed well within budget.
In these pages, we've often discussed the advantages of using a Walker Mower, many of which relate directly or indirectly to the labor issue. Walker Mowers are compact and maneuverable (reduced trimming time), they're rugged (less downtime), and they're comfortable and easy to operate (employees like to use them).
But rarely do we put a pencil to the actual number of hours a Walker can save an operator. And time saved is not only money earned; it's also employee hours saved. That means owners with a new Walker can generate the same amount of work as before with fewer employees, or generate more work with the same number. Either way, they're using employees to their best advantage. And that spells success.
Putting The Walker To The Test
Last year, we asked an Illinois landscape contractor to compare mowing times using five lawn mowers on an identical test plot. He was to mow the 18,195.4-square-foot area on five successive Thursdays.
It took the contractor 52 minutes, 51 seconds to mow the area with a brand name garden tractor equipped with a 48-inch deck and grass collection system. It took him 50 minutes, 22 seconds to mow it with a popular 48-inch zero-turn rider, again equipped with a collection system. And it took him 47 minutes, 43 seconds to complete the job with a 48-inch intermediate walk-behind with a collection system.
A Walker Mower equipped with a 42-inch Grass Handling System mowed the test plot in 43 minutes, 10 seconds. A Walker Mower equipped with a 48-inch G H S system did the same plot in 30 minutes, 50 seconds.
The test time did not account for the additional trimming required by the other three mowers.
Now this may seem like a promotional stunt, but it wasn't. The test plot was configured to reflect a typical mowing scenario, with a fair amount of both open space and landscaping obstacles.
After talking with literally thousands of customers over the years, we know that Walker Mowers save on mowing time. We just didn't realize how dramatic these savings were until we conducted the test.
The point is this: In the right application - when you have a lot of ground to cover and a lot of landscape elements to mow around - Walker Mowers will get the job done faster, up to 20 minutes or more per job faster according to the study. In the bigger picture, the comparison showed the Walker could save the landscaper up to three hours mowing time in an eight-hour work day. Again, this time doesn't reflect trimming time.
That's at least three additional man-hours per day, and probably more to be put to use any way you see fit. At a minimum, that's saving money and labor, with an emphasis on labor.
Today's labor shortage may be putting the spotlight on creative ways to find and retain workers. But it's also bringing to light the importance of matching your equipment to the application.
Contractors who use the most efficient equipment for the job will not only get the job done faster, they will be making the best use of their labor at a time when labor has truly become a driving force behind both profitability and growth.
Five Ways A Walker Brightens Your Employee Outlook
- Reduces mowing time - reduces labor requirements
- Eliminates trimming - eliminates need for a trimmer operator
- Comfortable, easy to operate - broadens the range of prospective operators
- Rugged construction, less downtime- more employee uptime
- Easy to maintain - reduces maintenance time
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