By Phil Harwood

While every position in a company is important, there is one position that stands above the rest as being critical for success, especially today. In my opinion, the crew leader position is the most important position. Let me explain.

Service businesses with work crews, like landscaping and snow contractors, find that a large majority of a company’s employees are working on a crew. Think about it. A company of 5 employees probably has all 5 people working in the field, with the owner being the crew leader.

A company of 20 employees probably has 15 people working in the field and a company of 100 employees probably has 85 people working in the field. You get the picture. Most of the people are working in the field on a crew.

The crew leader is the front-line supervisor responsible for the crew’s performance. The crew leader’s job is to lead the crew in a way that achieves goals for safety, quality, productivity, and efficiency. But that’s not all. A more important role of the crew leader is to lead the people on the crew in a way that engages each person, achieving goals for employee development and retention.

Crew leaders not only have a direct impact on performance of jobs, they have a direct impact on employee retention. They say that people don’t quit companies, they quit their supervisors. The supervisor being referred to is the crew leader. In today’s tight labor market, what could be more important than this?

So, if the crew leader is such an important position, wouldn’t it make sense to invest in the development of crew leaders to help them become better crew leaders? I think so. What do you think?

I believe with all my heart that every crew leader has the potential to become a great crew leader. This is an important point because, if true, it means that you don’t need to find great crew leaders; all you need to do is turn your existing crew leaders into great crew leaders by developing them.

Gallup issued a 2018 labor report which stated that the number one reason people leave a company is because they aren’t being developed. Crew leaders who are not being developed are not only likely to leave for a better opportunity, they are actually damaging your company by causing higher rates of employee turnover.

If you truly want to develop your crew leaders into great crew leaders, I highly recommend taking our online course, “Developing Great Crew Leaders.” It contains everything you need to know about developing any type of crew leader into a great crew leader.

Wouldn’t it be nice if every one of your crew leaders was a great crew leader?

Now go forth.