Recruitment & Retention – What Can Be Done?

This is the last of three short opinion pieces on matters concerning the amenity sector and I am grateful to Turf Pro for their publication. This one will address the crucial area of recruiting and retaining staff I hope that my opinions will create some reaction.

I have worked in the land-based sector throughout my career mainly in roles relating to education and training. Throughout that time, there has always been an issue of recruitment. In more recent years that challenge has become even greater and more acute, especially when related to the amenity sector. There are many reasons for this, but I principally focus on two in this piece.

The first goes back to the government of Tony Blair when he announced a commitment to at least 50% of young people going to university. This resulted in many of the colleges then providing technical education and training becoming HE providers. The polytechnics, which did an excellent job providing skills courses, became universities and it resulted in a great increase in graduates seeking jobs. The challenge arising from that was that the jobs they sought were less available and yet a real shortage existed for those with practical skills. In my earlier career, there were good apprenticeship opportunities. Over recent years, government have talked a good game on apprenticeships and the like but not really got to grips with it and we have had the blight of new initiatives. Do you remember the announcement of Technical Levels (T Levels). Much resource went into their development and then they fell out of favour, another initiative came along. We now have a Prime minister stating he recognises the issue and the mistakes made but will it change?

The second factor was the image of jobs in the land based and as a result, the amenity one. I recall some years ago, a bright 16-year-old who was really keen to work in horticulture and make his career in the sector. I was encouraging but not so his parents or indeed his school career advisor. Surely you don’t want to spend the rest of your life cutting grass was one comment. Why not stay, take A levels, go to university and get a job in the city! Some of the image issue is the responsibility of our sector. There are some excellent indicatives but too often not joined up as a whole sector approach.

This is a time of real financial pressures but unless we commit sector resources to really make a difference, the recruitment issue will not be solved but get worse. About a year or so ago I was asked to attend an event supported by Lantra to consider this challenge of recruitment. There was common cause expressed and willingness to do something. Yet sadly that whole sector approach has not materialised. It is time to bring together all the initiatives and resource of the sector and really focus on the recruitment issue. Who will make it happen?

Of course, having recruited we need to retain the best talent and give them opportunity to grow and advance. That means a commitment to continuing training and development. Again, I am aware of many excellent programmes provided by individual employers, but I urge a whole sector approach. In the first of these opinion pieces. I talked about my dream of a UK Amenity Standard where all organisations would demonstrate that they are operating at the very best practice and with their commitment to continuing professional development.

When I became chairman of the UK Amenity Forum in 2009, the sector was very disparate. It did not have a unified voice in the area of weed, pest and disease management. Over the years, we brought this together and the Forum became very much the national voice on such matters. I dream that a similar job can be done in terms of recruitment and retention. We all know how important the sector is, to use my well known phrase what is done in amenity impacts on everyone, producing safe and sustainable amenity and sports surfaces fit for purpose. However, it needs new entrants and talent to further develop and adapt. Who will make a whole sector approach happen? I stand ready to fully support.

Thank you for reading this opinion piece and hopefully the two before. I am immensely proud to have worked so closely with really excellent people in the amenity sector. I remain passionate to champion its work. There will always be challenge but also opportunity. Thank you.