Your ideal employer...

[JonnyRFT]

Whatcha,

So, it looks like finding some new employees might prove difficult. Last year and the year before was pretty easy finding staff but from chatting with a few company owners, this year is a struggle.

I wonder if you could help me out here.

 

Imagine you’ve gone back in time and you’ve just finished your climbing course.

What would you expect from a potential employer? What would make you stay with them?

 

 

 

 

[Mick Dempsey]

Good question.

 

I guess a reasonable balance between letting you climb to gain experience and not making you drive a van with stone heads as groundies into central London to reduce a spready hardwood over 4 gardens and three greenhouses.

 

I understand how commercial pressure makes that a difficult proposition.

[aspenarb]

We are only up the road from a  factory that makes climbers, they unfortunately churn them out with bigger egos and attitudes than ability so I won’t employ them. I prefer the ones that have already done a few years at someone else’s expense.

 

Bob.

[JonnyRFT]

12 minutes ago, aspenarb said:

We are only up the road from a  factory that makes climbers, they unfortunately churn them out with bigger egos and attitudes than ability so I won’t employ them. I prefer the ones that have already done a few years at someone else’s expense.

 

Bob.

This is very true and I’ve suffered from this situation before. It’s tough to manage such an ego and they seem to bruise easily when you point out their bad habits. I certainly don’t want to go down that road again. 
 

I’m hopeful there’s still some good, laid back people out there that need the work. 

[JonnyRFT]

2 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Good question.

 

I guess a reasonable balance between letting you climb to gain experience and not making you drive a van with stone heads as groundies into central London to reduce a spready hardwood over 4 gardens and three greenhouses.

 

I understand how commercial pressure makes that a difficult proposition.

Our teams must share the climbing responsibilities. I’m just trying to keep fatigue at a minimum and labour equally shared.
 

Our contract involves pretty low impact work with the exception of some. Driving distances can be pretty huge sometimes though so I would consider that the worst part of the job. 
 

Due to the company I run being owned by a parent housing association (of which the contract is for), the pressure is minimal. They‘ve set me a scope of service instead of target figures therefor we have no time constraints per job.