Have you tried cloning?
Seriously, the keepers are few and far between, and you have to expect to winnow plenty of chaff to get a little wheat. Once you got the good guys, then the focus must be on proper training and fostering a good company culture that will rub off on the less than stellar.
Too bad all that is easier said than done, and when we are wildly busy, like in May, all that falls by the wayside. Today I had two of my best guys working with some new hires and in spite of constant supervision, the inefficiencies abounded.
For instance, do you walk 50 yards to toss 1 piece of burlap in the garbage can, or do you drag a bucket along and cram that dawg to overflowing before taking your stroll along the sidewalk? Guess you can guess how my guys decided to answer that one today.
We've always paid really well, but I think the disconnect between high pay and profitablity is growing larger as these guys more and more expect the good life without the strife of busting your butt for it.
I still cant' wrap my mind around 5 guys taking 5 hours to plant 55 shrubs, with a supervisor. If you do the math, that's a shrub every half hour. Even my ground down butt can bust out a b&b shrub every 10 minutes, easy, all day.
I think the COMPASS system concept of making the employees benefit from effiencies is the solution, but getting there isn't so easy...