Over the past few years, you’ve seen your business grow—going from just you to having multiple employees, crew leaders and managers. And you know with more employees, communicating is essential to success.

To be efficient, you need to meet with your team at least once a week. Commit to holding weekly staff meetings to keep the team on the same page.

Gathering everyone at a weekly meeting is an excellent way to hear, first hand, any frustrations and company wins as well as reminding them of your company’s mission and goals. It also gives you an opportunity to update the team on what’s going on in the company and remind them about safety and other necessary processes and procedures.

Keys to Successful Weekly Meetings With Staff

There is a fine line between having productive weekly staff meetings and having ones with no purpose—or worse, an unresponsive team.

To get the most out of your weekly meetings, follow these essential tips:

• Schedule weekly meetings for the end of the week. Friday is a great time to review what happened during the week and discuss any concerns people may have. Also, consider having them in the early morning before everyone head to their job sites.
• Keep it short. You and your employees are busy. Your team wants to start working and arrive on time to their next service site – try to keep your weekly meetings timely and with purpose.
• Set an agenda before the meeting. Prepare an outline of points you want to cover in the meeting. Not only does this help you get organized, but it also prepares your employees for the scope of the discussion. Make sure you incorporate a question and answer time.
• Celebrate the end of the week with treats. Since most weekly meetings happen in the morning—especially during the busy season—celebrate your employees’ hard work and dedication to your company with treats—or even better, a light breakfast.

Items to Discuss at a Weekly Staff Meeting

Now that you know when you’ll have your weekly staff meetings, remember to focus on important points that affect your employees’ work day.

• Highlight employees who did a great job. Now’s the time to highlight people’s success. Use this time to motivate other team members to improve their work quality and performance.
• Review customer complaints and how to fix them. Every company has blind spots. When your customers complain, find the common thread and incorporate ways to correct the problem. Find solutions rather than blaming. During these meetings, it’s also a good time to ask your team how they’d solve a customer issue out in the field.
• Update your team with company news. If your company won an award, was quoted in the newspaper or is simply moving in a new direction, update your employees. Remember to add points on how it reflects on them or the job.
• Review Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Discuss your company’s efficiency by reviewing your company’s KPIs. Your KPIs can include job costs, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and planning for the next part of this year’s growing season.
• Get feedback, questions and concerns. Leave some time at the end of your meeting for Q&A. Once you finished a topic, you may want to field questions from your employees. Just keep track of time and keep everyone on topic to make the best use of your meeting.

Company meetings are productive means of connecting with your employees, proactively solving customer complaints and discussing how to provide quality work. Keep these points in mind, so your next weekly staff meeting is a success.

How Spring-Green Can Help

The Operations Team at Spring-Green understands that one of the hardest parts of owning a green industry business is hiring, training, and retaining the right employees. When you become a strategic partner, you’ll not only grow your existing customer base, but you’ll also have a team of experts walking beside you.

“We help business owners recruit and hire the right people to work in their business. We also discuss issues such as employee retention, payment options and training employees. We assist with help wanted ads, Craigslist, Indeed postings, etc.,” says Gary Brown, one of Spring-Green’s business consultants. “And the business owners learn how to conduct on-site field training as well as other educational opportunities,” he continues.

Spring-Green can help you grow and diversify with our 40 years of experience and our proven expertise in operations, marketing, and technology. Learn more about how Spring-Green can expand your lawn care services. Call 1-800-777-8608 or visit us at www.growmygreenindustrybusiness.com.