[Nathaniel Carr]

We have two weeks until the guys come off unemployment and they tell me they aren't coming back.

They told me to keep it fun. Easy for them to say.

Any pointers for finding good help in a hurry?

[mrusk]

If you have a community college or any college local that has a good landscaping/horticulture program, i'd look there first. You might get someone with some promise there.

Matt

[Nathaniel Carr]

They only work july to sept. But I won't rule it out!

[Stonehenge]

Try your local fire house and police station - lots of guys with odd shifts that usually have a few days to work.

[Dale Wiley]

If you told them they would be working in 2 weeks, and they said they are not returning, then in our state the unemployment stop's, and your account is no longer charged for that unemployment compensation.

[Nathaniel Carr]

Yeah, I'm sure that explains the timing of their declaration. I'm calling the Unemployment office right now.

[Stonehenge]

Originally posted by Dale Wiley
If you told them they would be working in 2 weeks, and they said they are not returning, then in our state the unemployment stop's, and your account is no longer charged for that unemployment compensation.

Good point.

[Nebraska]

Definitely contact the unemployment.

I would also echo Stonehenge about the Firefighters. I use Air Force firefighters for our part timers as well as any last minute help and they are incredible hard working honest guys. They're also fun to be around!

[Nathaniel Carr]

So I'm looking back at the Labor budget and what was 5400 billable hours is now 3500 billable hours. I wonder how that is going to change our season?

I have a couple of signigicant jobs already sold using those guys experience to create my estimates. I wonder if the pay difference between the experienced guys and the, as yet unknown, rate of the new guys, will even out against he loss of productivity between the experienced and the (presumably) new inexperienced guys.

If that makes any sense to you...

[Rob Shauger]

ANy idea why they are not wanting to come back?

[Nathaniel Carr]

And another thing...

(Forgive me, I'm just feeling a little bit burned)

Using "Pricing for the Green Industry" by Frank Ross, as a guide, I made up my budget, and rates, using a ratio of hours to installed product. Like, we can install about 9 dollars in hardscape material in a hour. 12 dollars of plant material, etc. To figure out what my gross should be for the next season I extend those ratios but the labor budget to get to my cost structure. Not to get too deep in to it but I am going to have to figure out if I can still operate at the same level as I was planning on.

I was planning on a growth stratgety by adding equipment and personel. I was planning on growing my gross 10% and increasing profit from 8% to 12% of gross.

Has any one got experience with employee attrition and how that has affected the next seasons profitability?

[Nathaniel Carr]

Rob,
Yeah I know why. But they said that they are going to work with a budddy from High school.

The real reason may have something to do with our season last year.

There were some interpersonal conflicts between us. They are brothers also, so I always knew that one would take the other with him if he left.

I think I have changed the causes of the rift. It gets into personal issues and you know how those can be.

[Dale Wiley]

Nathinial:

Did I send you the budget sheet / hourly calculator ?

Losing that many hours is going to increase your billable rate and avaliable production capacity A LOT !!!

I would think you would like to replace those hours or your rate is going to go up about 30% or more ....

[Nathaniel Carr]

I expect that if I keep my overhead and profit requirements the same that my pricing would need to go up, if I did not replace those hours. But the more interesting question is how do I get my estimates to jive with my new and as yet undetermined productivity numbers?

(As an interesting aside... One way that I am going to increase my profitability is to make the estimated hours known to the workers and require that they keep track of their progress. As it was they were determined to turn every thing they touched into an art project irrespective of the budget. Mostly my fault for sure but their tendency was to use what ever tools were at their disposal to create the best product possible. Like using an angle grinder to cut all of their natural wall stone so it fit together perfectly, and then deciding to use a cup grinder to flatten imperfection in those same natural stones so when placed on top of one another you couldn't get a playing card between them. Failure of management for sure, and it all happened because I didn't know my numbers and I went with WAG square foot numbers. So to answer Rob's question more fully... they didn't like it when I put a stop to that.)

But what parts of my overhead will be reduced if I have lost two skilled laborers? Their medical stipend, their week of paid vacation, um... maybe other items too, like, the administrative salary I was taking to keep work coming in at our previous productivity rate. (maybe that one is bogus) I won't have to give them a company vehicle, but I wasn't going to anyway.

I know I will come up smelling like roses after this, but all I smell right now is manure.

[John T]

You may want to send these guys a certified letter informing them of the return date for work. And keep a copy of the letter This will give you proof of offer to work. I had a situation where one of my guys didn't come back and told unemployment I never called him. It was his word against mine. Guess who won? Not me!