A Guide to Off-Season Landscape Training

At the beginning of this year, there were approximately 144,400 people employed
or self-employed as gardeners and landscapers in the UK, compared with 136,800 in 2010.

This incremental growth does little to relay the complexity of the sector or the challenges
faced by landscapers, of course, who must embrace the industries seasonal nature if they’re to enjoy long-term success.

This may mean scheduling off-season landscape training for staff members in the cold
weather winter months. We’ll explore this in more detail below, while asking how you can
prepare for winter training.

Ways to Prepare for Next Spring and Summer

We’ll start by looking at how you can best prepare for the busy summer period in 2023,
outside of conducting relevant and comprehensive training. Here are some ideas to keep in
mind:

#1. Consider Your Recruitment and Labour Needs: Finding good labour can be
incredibly challenging, especially in manual industries such as landscaping (which are
no longer as popular as they once were). By recruiting during the winter, you afford
yourself time to get the process right and identify the best talent, while giving
applicants the requisite time to come forward. This can also help you to augment your
team and offer more services, from horticultural tasks and erecting fence panels .

#2. Create an Enriching Work Environment: This is a key consideration when
hiring younger workers such as Millennials, who place a great emphasis on their
work-life balance. So, you could use the winter months to enrich your job roles and
wider working environment, with training a key consideration here (we’ll touch more
on this below).

#3. Provide Opportunities for Training and Development: Through the course of
training, you can also develop the skills and individual value of your employees. This
also creates further opportunities for training and development, while establishing a
structure in which the most talented employees can be rewarded. This also empowers
your workers, while creating a much greater sense of loyalty and purpose over time.

The Last Word – The Wider Benefits of Training

On a fundamental level, training helps you to bring new staff members up to speed with
technical skills and company standards, while ensuring that existing employees learn the new
skills required for business expansion.

This also creates a positive cycle of growth and expansion, as your firm is much more likely
to attract and retain top industry talent in instances where you’re able to teach new skills and
provide opportunities for individual career development.

Also, regularly training every winter helps to teach safe and complaint working practices,
which safeguards employees from the risk of injury and may even avoid pesky lawsuits over
time.

Training is a great way of sustaining and growing your seasonal business during the winter
months, ensuring it’s optimised for the spring and summer seasons!