Craig McBryde, owner of Greenville, S.C.-based McBryde Landscape, recognized daily meetings with his entire staff were unproductive. His company does mostly commercial maintenance work and brings in $1.3 million per year.
“We were wasting people’s time having these big meetings in the morning because so much of what was discussed didn’t pertain to each individual crew,” McBryde says. “If crew one brings up a valid topic, you might spend 15 minutes working through it, but now you didn’t get to touch on every other crew’s information.”
Instead, the company implemented on-site meetings with each individual crew. They cost each crew 15-20 minutes of productivity once a week, rather than up to an hour a day for full-staff meetings.
With the crew and a manager walking through each task at the job site, problems arise sooner and work is more exact. Customer service and satisfaction has improved, too. Some customers even sit in on the meetings.
Most importantly, lines of communication open with this technique. The meetings ensure each crew member understands exactly what’s going on. Plus, crew members feel more comfortable asking questions in the intimate setting.
“You’ll get more feedback,” McBryde says. “With a huge group of people, it’s hard to get up and ask a question. You might be afraid to get laughed at in front of a huge group.”
