Hiring For a New Generation
In this episode of the Green Industry Perspectives Podcast, Ty Deemer welcomes Kaitlin Lutz, founder of NewCrew.
Kaitlin Lutz has some startling information, by 2031, 41% of the construction industry will be retired. Recruiting is way below the replacement rate. While this isn’t a stat about the green industry, the fact remains that we too will see a dramatic increase in retirements over the next decade. Company owners are already struggling to find new workers but are attempting to recruit employees the same way they always have been. Kaitlin points out that the new entrants to the labor force are from a very different generation than before. It’s not that Gen-Z isn’t motivated; they’re simply motivated by different values. She urges leaders in the Green Industry to change their approach towards recruiting. Gen-Z is out there and hungry for work. We just need to speak their language.
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IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:
- Why the 2008 financial crisis is still impacting us today
- Storytelling as a way to recruit
- You must relate to young employees before they’ll choose to work for you
- How NewCrew can help you become a better recruiter
LINKS TO LOVE:
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Ty Deemer:
You’re listening to the Green Industry Perspectives Podcast, presented by SingleOps, a podcast created for green industry professionals looking for best practices, tactics, and tips in running their tree care or landscape business. All right, everyone. Welcome back to Green Industry Perspectives. I’m your host, Ty Deemer. I’m on the marketing team at SingleOps and today we have a really fun episode for you. We’re welcoming Kaitlin Lutz to the show. Kaitlin is the founder of NewCrew. Kaitlin, welcome.
Kaitlin Lutz:
Thank you and it’s actually Kaitlin Lutz. So, I might just hop off this podcast right now. That was very disrespectful, but it’s fine.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. Well, my apologies. Probably should have asked.
Kaitlin Lutz:
[inaudible 00:00:55] Normally, if it’s Lutz or Lutz, it doesn’t matter.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. I love that. Thank you for calling me out, though. I definitely deserve it. Kaitlin, we ask our guests the same exact question to start off every show of Green Industry Perspectives, and it’s really straightforward. In your experience working with outdoor service or construction companies, what are the top two to three common threads that you see that make those companies successful?
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, the number one that I focus on in my business, but also that I see, is the ability to attract and retain workers. Good quality people. Because in skilled trades or in any outdoor service industry or the construction industry, your people are everything. They mow the lawns. They build the buildings. Without your people, you are nothing. You’re not doing anything. And so, number one is the ability to attract and retain good, good people.
Ty Deemer:
Awesome. Yeah, so we’re going to be talking a lot about what the work you and NewCrew do every single day, but I love for our guests to provide some type of background and just really your history so the audience knows why we had you on the show, so talk to me about your story and then how you came to found NewCrew and what you all do from a day-to-day basis.
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah. So, I grew up in the construction industry but I never thought that I would actually be doing it for my professional career, that I would start a business in it at all. I was a marketing major at UGA and I worked for a technology company called Terminus. We did B2B advertising and it was nothing, had nothing to do with construction. Construction was not in the forefront of my mind at all. But my parents run a construction company and during my junior year or senior year of college, they unfortunately had someone who worked for them show up to work drunk and it caused a bunch of issues in their business, and I took a step back from working at the technology company I was working at to help out my parents with their business and to help them find and hire good people, and it was really fricking hard. It was pretty much impossible, honestly, to find a good plumber, a good electrician who wasn’t charging them an arm and a leg and who would actually stick with them.
Kaitlin Lutz:
And so, I went on this journey of trying to understand why there weren’t enough people going into this industry, why it was so hard to find good people, and found obviously that we have this huge skilled trade gap. And part of that gap, or part of the problem is that there aren’t enough women in the industry. They make up about 2% of skilled trade workers in construction. And so, I started a nonprofit called Sparke Women that works to equip more women for skilled trades, particularly commercial electricians was the field that I was kind of pushing people into, and then eventually a little bit after that started NewCrew. But you know, just learned as much as I could in starting Sparke Women, and at the beginning of NewCrew I talked to 300 different construction companies about skilled trades, and how they found and retained good people, and just have really been learning as I’ve been moving forward in both of those organizations.
Ty Deemer:
Great. Great. That’s a really cool background and I didn’t realize that’s what led you to start it was that experience with your family’s business. So, as you’ve stepped into NewCrew, what do you view NewCrew’s mission or purpose, and what actually is it? What do you all do?
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah. So, this is very funny that you asked me this, because I was just doing some work on kind of the purpose and the vision for the company earlier today. Our purpose is to lead people to fulfilling work and our vision is to be the most valuable hiring resource in construction. And so, the construction industry has such a negative and the green industry, and just kind of these outdoor service industries have kind of a negative connotation to them. It’s hard to recruit people to the space, especially young, ambitious people whose parents might say, “Yeah, you should go be a plumber. Definitely.” But there’s so much fulfillment in the work that everybody does in this industry and outdoor services, and you actually get to see the fruit of your literal labor, and that’s a very exciting and fulfilling thing that not a lot of other industries can say that they can do, or people in other industries or in other careers can say that they can do.
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah, so that’s our purpose and our vision, is to be the most valuable hiring resource in construction.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that’s really cool because I think if anyone’s listening to this podcast, I feel like if it’s not every episode, it’s at least every other episode, somehow the conversation about hiring and retaining good workers is something that gets brought up. It is really tough. Some would say like what you said, it’s close to impossible, or to feel really good about your hiring process. I talked to someone today on an interview that literally said like they’re doing well, and he’s like, “But we definitely don’t have the secret formula.” Not that many people feel confident or great about their hiring or retainment structure, so I think it’s really cool that that’s what you all are focusing on.
Ty Deemer:
I think as we go into some of the more topical conversations we have, I think one thing that you and I discussed beforehand was that really part of what you all do is you understand that there’s skill involved with this work, and I think that’s one thing that when we talk to green industry folks, it’s hard to get people that are excited about doing a skilled trade. And I guess there’s a gap there, so talk to me through how you have seen companies overcome that gap.
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah. Yeah. So, a couple, and I’m sure the facts kind of correlate with both the green industry and construction, but by 2030, over 40% of the construction industry will have retired.
Ty Deemer:
Wow.
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah. And I don’t know the exact numbers for the green industry but I’m sure that they fall on a similar line. And so, it’s not just that companies are having a hard time now, but it is going to get really, really, really hard over the next couple years, and it’s not a problem that is easily solved. It’s obviously a massive problem and there’s a lot of wonderful organizations that are doing really good work in the middle schools right now to excite more young kids about skilled trades, and the high schools to excite people about skilled trades, and so it’s a massive problem that there has to be a lot of different areas and points of focus.
Kaitlin Lutz:
And I’m really sorry, I forget actually what question you asked. What was the question?
Ty Deemer:
No, you’re fine. It’s more like there is a gap, and I guess we had talked kind of really a week or so ago about kind of a lot of that gap, and how companies are going to be able to address that gap is understanding who their new target market for new hires is. And just the fact that not only is there a gap in need of who they can hire, but generationally it’s just a different new employee that cares about different things. How can companies begin understanding the new generation that they’re hiring and what’s effective, like with whether it’s millennials or gen Z?
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah. Absolutely. So, the biggest thing that I’ve found is everybody is trying to recruit for the companies in the same ways that they have always been recruiting for their companies. And for a long time, that kind of worked. In 2008, a lot of people left the skilled trades and construction industry and green industry in order to pursue other careers because there wasn’t work available. So, that added to this problem, but the people, so a lot of people who were starting off their career or in kind of the beginning stages of their career, left the industry. And so, the folks who are speaking and recruiting these high schoolers or college-age people just don’t speak the same language and aren’t living in necessarily the same world that all of them are living in.
Kaitlin Lutz:
And so, the first thing that I would say is that if you have any young employees that would be able to relate to the people that you are trying to attract, put them at the forefront of your organization and think of your success stories and put them out in the world. Write a blog post about it. Film a video. But also, bring them in to help do the recruiting and to help show that there is someone, there are people who look like you, or sound like you, or act like you in positive ways, that are doing this kind of work and this kind of job, and are having a great time doing it, or really doing well for themselves, or their family. Putting the success stories out there so it’s not just, “Oh yeah, I have an idea of what working at a plumbing company is like and it’s not what I want to do with my life.” But actually putting real people in front of them can help show them, “Oh, I could do that too.”
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. Absolutely. And I think there’s a cool way of putting someone that’s in a similar place as them, or that they can relate to, it really shows them what their future might be, right? That they can say, “Oh, I can be that person.” And it paints that picture. And I guess that also shows them that like, hey, they could be the right person for the role. I think that might be a common misconception of maybe they could look down upon the work, or they don’t think it might be as fulfilling. How do you see companies show people the benefit of having a job where you get to see the results every day of your labor?
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah. Yeah. A lot of it is just through storytelling and in these industries, we have such an opportunity to story tell really well. In banking, sorry to hate on all the bankers out there, there might not be such a big opportunity to story tell, but there are a lot of folks that I work with who are like, “Yeah, I love taking my grandkids and driving them around the city of Atlanta and just saying I worked on that project, or that project, or that project.” And it doesn’t matter what they did but they can show the fruits of their labor and of their work.
Kaitlin Lutz:
And part of this also is like you were saying, painting that vision for their future, and it’s hard for… Most people don’t know what they want to do and they just fall into something. I was talking to a company the other day who they had… I can’t remember their last name, but they had like 22 McWhite’s working for this organization, with the last name McWhite, because one McWhite started there and then just brought all of their family members into the business because that was the opportunity that was available. But most people don’t see, can’t paint that vision for themselves if they don’t know someone in the industry. So, if they’re not connected to it any way, you have to paint that vision for themselves. You have to say, and say like, “Okay, if you work here for this number of years, you could buy this house. You could invest this amount of money. What is your dream car? You could buy this car.” Just starting to paint the picture for them of what their future could look like and doing it in a meaningful way using storytelling and using the examples that you have at your organization or your own personal story is helpful in bringing people in.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. I love that too, because what you said about the example of driving around town and the person showing their kids or their grandkids the projects they had worked on, I feel like that definitely resonates with the green industry, for sure. Because one of the cool parts about this space is that the work is beautiful. When it’s done well, it makes properties valuable, like they’re nice to be on, and people take so much pride in their work and the ability to show a potential employee you can make beautiful things by working with this company, I think that’s a cool point.
Ty Deemer:
And I guess a follow-up question I have is, and it reminds me of a conversation I had earlier today, about typically great people surround themselves with other great people. It’s like the age-old adage when you were a kid and your mom said, “Show me your friends, I’ll show you your future.” Great people surround themselves with other great people, so if you have a rockstar employee, you’re probably… A good strategy could be like, “Hey, do you have any friends that want to come work for me?” But you talked about maybe that’s a success story within your business. How would you suggest someone listening to this podcast highlight that success story? What are some ways that they could not take advantage of their success, but show it, share it with others?
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah, absolutely. So, I know that it’s depending on the size of your company or if you have a marketing person or not, not everyone has that. But even just putting together if you have anyone who is relatively tech savvy in your company write a blog post, or film a video, and make a YouTube page, and then you show it everywhere you go. You make a simple video of a success story, of a great person who works for your organization, and you show that video everywhere you go if you can’t bring that person along with you. Or you say, “Hey, read this blog post about this person who works at our organization and hear their story.” And connect to them. You can say, “Hey, actually you can talk to them on the phone.”
Kaitlin Lutz:
Making your employees available is really important because once you get connected to a person, then you’re no longer… Your perspective of whatever the industry is is broken and now your new perspective is this rockstar employee that you’re talking to about how much they love their job. And so, breaking out of that perspective mold of like what the industry is going to be, or what your job is going to look like, or even what future you’re going to have here, what your career could look like. I know that there also, there’s a lot of excitement about entrepreneurship with young people, and a great way to recruit people into skilled trades or in these industries is by talking about entrepreneurship. You stay here long enough until you learn enough to run your own business, which will be a while, but exciting people about that kind of future, like you can build a future of freedom for yourself and this is how I did it, or this is how so-and-so did it.
Kaitlin Lutz:
But just connecting them to real examples, even through writing a blog post, getting on a phone call, watching a YouTube video, whatever is the easiest way for you to do that is… I would just showcase in any way that you can some sort of success story.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. And I like that mentioned having a marketing person on your staff, mainly just because even if you don’t have a marketing person, which a lot of businesses in the outdoor service space don’t, just because it’s not within the budget or the investment doesn’t make sense yet, but you really can do that with a pretty minimal investment. That’s the beauty of the iPhone. It shoots great, great videos. You could even just have the person talk into the front-facing camera for 30 seconds about their experience at work. And letting your employees be the megaphone for their experience, especially if you’re providing them with a good one, can be so powerful, so I love that point.
Ty Deemer:
The next topic I wanted to talk through with you is I think something that I hear a lot on this show, or I hear from people to listen to this show, are just like where to find entry-level employees. Where are they is the best point, like do people that are 18 to 22 even want to work these days? And with your experience and the research you’ve done, where do you suggest outdoor service companies look for new workers?
Kaitlin Lutz:
Well, NewCrew, obviously. You fed that straight to me. I can’t resist. But no, that’s a very difficult question and it’s one that we’re trying to answer constantly. Part of how we do it is, and I’ll speak to contractors, as well, but people can do this work on their own, but we partner with a bunch of different nonprofits. So, we’ll partner with veterans who are transitioning out of the military. We’ll partner with career readiness programs. We’ll partner with just a ton of different organizations that are already servicing people who are looking for a career but don’t know exactly where to go. And then we will feed them into different opportunities that our customers have.
Kaitlin Lutz:
But that’s the big issue, because a lot of folks right now just will post a job, or they’ll post on Craigslist, or they’ll ask their friends, or they ask their employees, or they’ll ask their family, and so there’s not the perfect resource out there. I think if you can reach more people through your employees, I think that is a great resource. You already have people that are connected to your organization. I know that everyone listening to this is probably already doing that. If you’re already doing that, there is also a way to amplify that message through creating those, like an employee testimonial video, or through creating some marketing content so that it’s not just, “Look at this opportunity. Tell your friend that they should come join our company.” And their friend’s like, “What? What does that even mean? What does that mean to work in this industry or work for your organization?”
Kaitlin Lutz:
But if you have some material out there, that will help amplify your message and actually get people to convert.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. That’s really cool. And so, kind of a spinoff question that I think you’ll have a really interesting answer to. You are bringing people into NewCrew. They don’t necessarily know what they want to do, but they want a career, and I think it’d be really interesting from your experience to share, like what do you see? What trends do you see in the wants of the people that you work with? What experience or what things do you see that people want? Because I think that’s something that would be really beneficial for the listeners of this podcast to hear because maybe they’re not, as a business owner, in tune with what the entry-level employee wants. Is it money? Is it a clear vision for their future? Is it a flexible work schedule? What do you find potential employees really want out of a career?
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah. One and two. One is money. Two is to be valued. And money is obviously really important to lots of different people, but if they are… That is something that brings people into these careers, is they’re like, “Oh, this is a good way to make money? Okay, sounds good.” And then when they’re at that company, they really want to feel valued. I think that a big issue and some issues that we have been dealing with is if we put someone somewhere, oftentimes even if there’s training provided or whatever once they get there, it’s often not fully dedicated training, because everyone’s so focused on productivity that sometimes the new people get kind of tossed to the side and they’re like, “Oh, you’re not being productive enough.”
Kaitlin Lutz:
And the people who are training them are measured off of their productivity, and if training is not a part of how they’re being measured at their job, then that will get tossed to the side and people will leave. So, the companies that I’ve seen retain entry-level workers the best are the ones that bring them in, that pay them well, and that value their time, that aren’t just abusing them, but also pay attention to them and make them feel valued, and make them feel seen, and known, and like they have a real opportunity at whatever that organization is. And that they actually want to invest in them by giving them training, by giving them a mentor, by being patient. And so, it’s money, but it’s also just feeling really valued by especially your direct supervisor.
Ty Deemer:
For sure. So, to follow up on the money conversation, I think anyone listening to this gets that. Even if you’re not the most money motivated person, money matters. It does. It’s how you live. It’s how you provide for a family or honestly take care of yourself, and I think with entry-level workers, I think sometimes there’s a stigma around what… Or not a stigma. That’s probably not the right word, but what to pay an entry-level worker, because there’s a certain level of risk on the entry level because it’s like, “Are they up for the work?” So, is there a level set of showing them what’s fair now versus what they could earn as they progress and gain more skills and grow? Or how do you see companies balance that? Because I think a lot of people would probably say, “Oh, I want this payment now,” but what’s the balance of getting someone in the door and then rewarding them for their work through promotions or bonuses, like a pay for performance model.
Ty Deemer:
Is that something that you see works or do you really just have to fork it up at the front?
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah. I think it works if you are really clear about it. I think that people do understand, “Oh, okay, you’re making X here. Don’t jump to the next place where you can make a dollar more. Stay here for another year, for another two years. Once you get to this place, you’ll be… If you kept jumping around, you wouldn’t be able to make as much as you would here.” And I think that we need to be really clear about what those outcomes are if you stay in one place, if you don’t jump to the competitor next door for an extra dollar an hour, because that is a huge problem.
Kaitlin Lutz:
And so, continuously painting that vision for their future and showing them that there is opportunity. I think that people want opportunity. They don’t just want to stick in the same job all the time. That’s kind of stressful, honestly. But if they don’t see opportunity, they’re not going to stick around. They’re going to go to where they think the next best thing is.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. I think that’s such a point because my mind’s going to a LinkedIn post that kind of blew up in the green industry space a month ago. It was a local landscape company, not Atlanta local. I forget exactly where it was. That basically went on a full-blown rant on LinkedIn, but posting one of the top five landscape companies, one of their recruiter’s business cards, who had basically gone out, saw one of the crews working, and tried to recruit them to go to the bigger company strictly based off of money like you said. Like, “Hey, we’ll pay you $2 an hour extra.” And the guy was basically saying that’s so wrong that they would do that.
Ty Deemer:
But that’s just going to be a problem because the bigger companies can afford it and the only way, whether you’re a small, or medium, or even a big company, you just don’t feel you can afford it, is doing exactly what you just said. You have to paint that picture for the employee that says, “Hey, if you stick with us, I can’t always guarantee you we’ll pay you as much as Company X or Company Y, but you will have a path to grow.” And that’s really what you have to sell them, I think, because the big guys are always going to be able to pay more. It’s just within their budget.
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah. Yeah. Also the big guys, and this isn’t true for everyone, but a lot of the big guys might just want them to stay in that one position. There might not be that same opportunity for leadership experience or growth that there might be at the smaller company. And so, and that goes back to there’s money, but there’s also valuing employees and making them feel really valued, and just generally it doesn’t matter if you’re in the green industry, or construction, or banking, you need to feel valued at work in order to stay. And I think so often, the work that… Skilled trades, there’s a lot of pride in the skilled trades, and so it’s not just that you are not feeling valued at work, like you didn’t do a good job on your Excel spreadsheets today, but it’s like your actual sweat, and skill, and hard work going into your job, and if it that’s not feeling valued it’s almost a part of your identity.
Kaitlin Lutz:
So, you’re saying your work isn’t valued and you are not valuable. And so, there’s just so much pride in these spaces and people need to feel valued in order to stay, especially for a lower salary.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. I agree completely. I think it goes back to just knowing your business and knowing what you offer. I think the grass is always greener on the other side. You wish you could be the big company and just throw money at people and it work, but at the same time, you just have to acknowledge that hey, that’s not us, but what we can offer you might even be better. And that’s kind of what you were touching on.
Ty Deemer:
We talked a lot about the hiring side of things and what it looks like to bring people in, but then retaining them is a huge part of it, as well. It’s a whole lot more efficient to keep employees and keeping them productive and happy than it is finding new ones and then doing it all over again. What do you see are some of the best practices for training employees but also helping them take those next steps or upskilling?
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah. The retention is a big issue. I think in certain states, it’s the average can be like 60 to 70% turnover for entry-level employees, which is just insane. And so, you might not even be thinking that you’re spending that much money on retaining people, or you don’t think about, “Oh, we need to really invest in retaining our workers.” You’re spending probably a lot more money than you’re even noticing on the turnover of entry-level employees or just employees in general. Because it costs a lot of money to bring someone in, and train them, and then they leave, and then you bring someone in, and train them, and then they leave.
Kaitlin Lutz:
But kind of a call back to what I said a little while ago is having someone whose performance is not just measured on their productivity but also their training of new employees is so important. Because if I’m just measured off of my performance, or many jobs I get done, or the efficiency of the projects that I’m working on, and it has nothing to do, and I’m in charge of training Mark, but if my performance is just measured off of the productivity of my work and it has nothing to do with Mark, then I’m not really going to pay attention to Mark because he’s not going to help me get a promotion. He’s not going to help me get a raise. He’s not going to. So, putting that, if you’re running the organization, making training and mentoring an integral part of your organization and practice of retaining employees I think is just super, super important.
Kaitlin Lutz:
And even just putting thought into why are employees leaving and is it for reasons that we can control or is it for reasons that we can’t control. If it’s for reasons that we can’t control, is there thread in there and can we stop attracting those people or can we stop hiring those people who keep coming to us and then leaving for the same kind of reasons? If we’re not retaining people and we could have done something differently, what could we have done differently and how could we implement? Every organization is different, but even just asking that question and then investing some time, some money into whatever the answer to that question is will save you a lot of time and money in the future.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. I really appreciate that point because a lot of it does have to go back towards the investment that you put into it and really that investment can be like time, talents, whatever it looks like. Maybe you have a person fully dedicated towards training, maybe you don’t, but I’m curious. When it comes to training, we’re definitely in a digital age where every… Especially the entry-level worker is probably a digital consumer to the max. That’s just the environment we grew up in. Most 20-year-olds now have had phones their entire life. Not just phones, but an iPhone or an iPad. So, should that reflect how these companies start training people? Should it be more of a digital training that can be view on your own through videos, or through… There’s a ton of training softwares that you can go through and work. Or in your experience, does it help to be more hands on and actually have someone dedicated towards almost more of an apprenticeship where they walk alongside someone? Can both work or what is your opinion there in your experience?
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah. So, my opinion is right now, I think the model is some sort of apprenticeship model where they are actually learning from a person. And this is even part of what I do, is we do online trainings, but I think that there’s a way to make them engaging and exciting, but you learn the most and you can stay the most engaged when you are in person I think still. But there’s tons of opportunities to do online training. I know that there’s a lot of… Everyone has kind of their own specific way of training and of doing things, and you have the Lutz way of doing things.
Kaitlin Lutz:
But there are a lot of things probably that are repetitive that every other contractor has to do, or every other X person has to do, and so there’s a lot of content out there. I’m actually working on building an aggregation site for entry-level education. But there’s a lot of content out there that definitely exists. I’m not as familiar with the green industry and the type of training that you guys would do, but if there is a way to make the repetitive training that you do over, and over, and over, and over again not in person, and something that they can look at, watch a video, download, fill out when they’re at home, I think that that would save you from being like, “Oh, we have to do this training again. Oh, we have to do this training again.” And if there’s a way for them to do it digitally or just on their own, that can save definitely time.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. For sure. And I think that’s kind of why I asked the question because I think in my mind, there’s stuff. It’s like meetings, right? There’s meetings that could definitely be emails and they should always be emails instead of meetings. I think COVID has taught any of us that have joined millions of Zoom calls that that’s so true. But I think the same can be said for training. It’s the idea that, okay, this webinar or seminar that we just did with the entire company, could this have been a 15-minute video that everyone has to watch on their own time, at their own convenience? But there’s also stuff I agree that just needs to be really hands on.
Ty Deemer:
I’m curious. Lots of times when I think we think of training, especially in the green space, it’s saying, “Hey, we’re going to teach John how to use this wood chipper, or we’re going to teach Jessica what it looks like to be great at edging at our landscape company.” But there’s an element of training that I think truly investing in your employees could be giving them skills not only for the professionalism of the work they do, but also outside of work. So, do you see any companies ever practice like, “Hey, it’s not mandatory, but if you wanted a professionalism class where we teach you how to talk to customers, or we practice what it might look like to even have financial literacy in your own life.” Do you know of any companies that do anything like that and do you think it’s a worthwhile investment?
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah. I think that the best companies that I know do things like that, but it’s not necessarily even the training that I think is what is really helpful, but it’s the fact that they’re doing it at all. The fact that they are taking the time, taking the energy, taking the money to invest in their employees is noticed by their employees. And not everybody does that. And so, even if they don’t, even if the one thing that they remember from a professionalism class is you shake someone’s hand all the way, or whatever it is, or even if somebody doesn’t really get a ton out of it, hopefully they would be important and people would learn things from them, but it goes back to feeling valued. When you take care of your employees, when you go the extra mile, when you show them that you care about not just their skill development that will help only you, but their professional development, their career development, helping them with their finances, understand their finances, what does it mean to put money into a 401(k)? Why is that important? A lot of young people have no idea what that means and why it’s important.
Kaitlin Lutz:
And so, even if you advertise it to them, they’re like, “Whatever. I can go over here for an extra $1 an hour. I don’t know what a 401(k) match is.” And so, taking the time to actually invest in them, sit with them, bring in a speaker to talk about whatever it is, it just shows that you value them. And the best companies that I’ve seen retain workers the best do that.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. I think that’s so cool because one of the parts that sometimes might be missed in training is that we focus a lot of times on what’s necessary for the success of the business. And you know, that’s what we were talking about. The skills that strictly drive productivity. But there’s things that you might not be able to trace immediate value to your business for them that could pay dividends in the future. Part of that, the first thing that comes to mind with green industry companies, and I don’t even have a specific company that I have that I know that they do this, but like training even your regular crew workers how to handle if a customer comes up to them on a property and asks them questions or is angry about something, or talks to them. That’s not why John decided to work at your landscape company. He decided to work there because he probably has experience and he wants to cut grass, and he enjoys the work.
Ty Deemer:
But you know, he might still have to interact with that customer one day, and if you’re giving him the tools and he can feel confident to deal with that situation even though it’s not what he signed up for, not only is it going to help that experience with the customer go a little bit smoother, but also it gives John a new set of tools he can use that can level up his career, because maybe one day when he’s older he gets tired of mowing, and it’s harder on his body, but he goes, “Hey, I’ve got 10 years of customer training experience. I can go be a salesman now. I know what the services are. I’ve got this professionalism about me and I know how to talk to these people. I can go door to door now and sell our lawn care service to people.”
Ty Deemer:
And I don’t think people think through what that training could look like sometimes and the benefit long term it could be not only to your employees, but also as a business owner you want to know the money you’re spending is creating value for your business. In this case, I think it is.
Kaitlin Lutz:
Continuous soft skills training is I think really important. People remember them.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. Absolutely. So, Kaitlin, as we transition towards the end of the show, one of the questions I always like to ask guests is really forward thinking, and it can be in terms of NewCrew, it can be in terms of labor in general, but what kind of comes next for you and your business, or what excites you the most about what’s to come over the next year or so?
Kaitlin Lutz:
I am doing anything that I’m doing here because I’m so excited about the opportunities that there are in the construction industry and skilled trades. There’s so many career opportunities that no one knows about unless you have an uncle in it, or dad in it, or mom, and unless you have some sort of connection to it. And there’s such a lack of knowledge about those opportunities with everyone else who is not connected. And so, finding new ways to connect people online, to do… Whether that’s through online community and engagement, whether it’s through creating aggregated resources to help people funnel into their first job in construction, or their first job in skilled trades to start their career in it, it’s very confusing to figure out how to get into this industry. It’s kind of like, “Oh, you have to be in the know.” But nobody knows. As an 18-year old it’s like, “I don’t know what it means to be in a union or not. What? What are you saying. That’s kind of scary and I’m just going to go to college.”
Kaitlin Lutz:
Which is great, too. There’s tons of opportunities to enter these industries if you go to a college. But it’s just very confusing to figure out how to enter into it, and how to get into it, and I think making a more efficient route to do that, that’s what I’m really excited about is just spreading these opportunities to people who would be amazing fits for them, but have no idea that they exist because they’re just not a part of the industry. And I think that there’s a really exciting way to use technology and to use community to do that.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. That’s awesome. We’ve covered a ton of really interesting topics today and I think this episode is hopefully interesting to the people that are listening because really, I think the whole point of our conversation is to just like, “Hey, rethink or question what you’re doing in terms of recruiting and retaining employees right now.” We know it’s hard. Everybody knows that. But maybe you just have to begin asking yourself some questions about like do I understand who my worker is, or who my worker will be from five years from now, and I really appreciate all of the topics that you were able to touch on today.
Ty Deemer:
If someone was listening to this podcast and is curious what NewCrew’s model looks like, what all you do, and maybe want to learn more, how could they interact with you or interact with NewCrew?
Kaitlin Lutz:
Yeah, so you can go to my website. It’s NewCrew.io. N-E-W-C-R-E-W, or you can email me. You’re welcome to put my email in the description. My email is Kaitlin, K-A-I-T-L-I-N.Lutz, L-U-T-Z, at NewCrew.io. And would love to connect with you and talk to you. Even if you just want to talk about skilled trades and your struggle to find workers and just vent, that’s okay too. But yes, happy to connect with all. Finding employees, finding good entry-level people, all of the above.
Ty Deemer:
Yeah. Be careful with that offer. You might be having to offer… Charge for therapy sessions, especially this time of year when it’s the busy season and everybody’s grinding for work, but Kaitlin, can’t thank you enough for joining us for the show. I think it provided a ton of great information for our audience and we look forward to seeing how NewCrew begins helping solve this major issue for companies across the construction and the green industry.
Kaitlin Lutz:
Thank you so much for having me. I feel very blessed to be here.
Ty Deemer:
Absolutely. Thanks, Kaitlin. Talk again soon.
Kaitlin Lutz:
Bye.
Ty Deemer:
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