About one-third (32 percent) of PMPs said their companies had a formal transition plan, found the PCT-NPMA 2021 Workplace Survey. In follow-up interviews, PMPs said such plans involved selling the company or handing the reins to younger employees, who may or may not be family members.
Rose Pest Solutions is planning a leadership transition in the next five years. Russ Ives is 68; brother Jim Ives, president, is 64. The two have worked in the business for 40 years and side-by-side for more than 20. Three of their children currently work in the business.
“They comprise our cabinet both from the standpoint of responsibilities and also in terms of ownership,” said Ives of the fourth generation being groomed to lead.
Leadership transition also is a focus at Rottler Pest & Lawn Solutions, where Mike and Gary Rottler, 61 and 58, have worked together since taking over the company from their father.
They’re now preparing younger people, including third- generation family members, to step into these roles. “It’s been a process. I feel like we’ve got some good tools in place to help us navigate this,” said Mike Rottler. His executive team is comprised equally of baby boomer, Gen X and millennial employees. “I’ve got some folks in some fairly senior roles that are going to be around long after I leave so I feel good about that,” he said.
It’s a challenge knowing when to get out of the way and when to help new leaders stepping into these roles, said Rottler, who hopes to follow his father’s lead in exiting the business. “He really would let us make our own mistakes and let us fix them. I’m hoping I can pull that off,” he said.
Forty-two percent of PMPs said their companies had a formal exit strategy for employees. In follow-up interviews, they said it was essential to have strong process manuals, statements of work and organizational structure to prevent knowledge from being lost when employees leave the company. Only 12 percent of PMPs said their companies had re-hired retired employees for part-time or advisory roles.
The newest generation entering the workforce — Gen Z, or employees age 18 to 23 — was the cohort most likely to leave pest management companies, according to 44 percent of PMPs who took part in the PCT-NPMA 2021 Workplace Survey.
Of course, employees of any age will leave if they don’t buy into the company vision or feel their work isn’t contributing to something greater, said Vess Pearson, Aptive Environmental. Besides aspiring to be a growth and technology leader, Pearson says Aptive aims to be a premier service company like Ritz Carlton, Lexus and Chick-fil-A. “It’s those types of ideas that excite your employees and that keep them working with you,” he said.
Nor can leaders take a one-size-fits-all approach to managing people. “You can’t treat everybody exactly the same because they don’t all respond the same way,” said Adam Jones, Massey Services. Figuratively speaking, some employees need the occasional kick in the pants, others need a hug. “You’ve got to learn how to pull the right strings with people,” he said.
To minimize turnover, especially with younger workers, PMPs employ various strategies, discussed on the following pages.
1. Recognize Contributions
The top three ways companies made employees feel valued was to give them financial bonuses (74 percent), act on their comments and criticisms (74 percent), and recognize them in front of coworkers (60 percent), according to PMPs who participated in the PCT-NPMA 2021 Workplace Survey.
Petri Pest Control Services in Pompano Beach, Fla, distributes year-end bonuses. The company also hosts an employee holiday party (though not this year due to COVID-19), regularly updates its fleet so technicians have new vehicles to drive and holds quarterly recognition meetings where employees are served gourmet meals thanks to a chef in the family, said the company’s president, Brendan Cavanagh.
2. Give Back
In a 2019 study by the Great Place to Work Institute, people said they were 11 times more likely to work long term at companies that made a positive impact on the world.
Many pest control companies do this by giving back to their communities. Sixty- three percent of PMPs said their companies encourage employees to participate in community service programs, found the PCT-NPMA 2021 Workplace Survey.
“Community is one of our core values,” said Shay Runion, Arrow Exterminators, which gives team members and service centers the leeway to support the activities they care about. As such, Arrow may be seen supporting the local Little League park, March of Dimes walk, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta holiday parade, Red Cross blood drives and more.
3. Communicate Better
Workers want feedback and transparency when it comes to their progress and the company’s performance.
Chase Hazelwood, CEO, Go-Forth Pest Control, High Point, N.C., also learned to never assume with employees. “We have a phrase in the management team that goes, ‘They don’t know,’” and it’s brought up when managers need help reframing an employee issue, he said.
Another mantra — “Half instruction is worse than no instruction” — reminds Go-Forth managers that employee success requires more coaching, not less, even down to nitty-gritty details like where to the park their truck during a termite job.
According to the PCT-NPMA 2021 Workplace Survey, 89 percent of PMPs said company leadership typically communicates with employees face-to-face during company meetings.
Go-Forth managers also meet one-on-one with employees monthly, weekly and even daily to help them achieve professional and personal growth goals. “We get good responses to it,” said Hazelwood of employee participation.
Even GPS and remote vehicle cameras give managers an opportunity to provide positive feedback to employees. “They want you to catch them doing everything right,” explained Hazelwood.
4. Define Career PATHs
One third (33 percent) of PMPs said their companies had dedicated career advancement or individual development plans for employees, found the PCT-NPMA 2021 Workplace Survey.
“You need people to feel like there’s progression,” explained Chase Hazelwood, Go-Forth Pest Control. As such, he provides raises to employees who advance through three different account manager positions or acquire additional technical certifications.
Employees don’t want to wait 10 years for a promotion, said Hazelwood. “Ten years to someone who’s under 35 might as well be never,” he said. That’s why Go-Forth aims for 20 percent annual growth: By doubling in size every four years, the company has twice as many management opportunities to fill. “People can connect to that,” said Hazelwood.
Similarly, Aptive Environmental gives college-age employees the opportunity to manage seven digits of sales revenue. That is “pretty unique for someone who might be 24 or 25 years old or even younger than that,” said Vess Pearson.
5. Provide Mentorship
According to the PCT-NPMA 2021 Workplace Survey, 67 percent of PMPs said their companies offered internal mentoring programs for employees. These included manager-to-employee and peer-to-peer initiatives.
All-American Pest Control started a mentoring program three years ago. It helps less-tenured team members develop professionally while providing insight to their leadership potential. “We get to see how they handle tough situations, relate to others, and problem solve early in their career,” said Erin Richardson.
In addition, 31 percent of pest management professionals said their companies offered external mentoring opportunities, which included one-on-one instruction and participation in roundtable and industry peer-sharing groups.
Chase Hazelwood, Go-Forth Pest Control, has business and human resources coaches and also participates in Vistage, a peer advisory group for CEOs. “I’m trying to grow my company profitably and faster than the norm and so I need to learn from people running other businesses in other industries where people are exceptional at what they do,” he said.
6. Be Flexible
“Flexibility is important with today’s worker, especially,” said Mike Rottler, Rottler Pest & Lawn Solutions, noting the challenges of raising children when both spouses work.
In a typical workweek, service technicians worked 40.7 hours on average; office staff and customer service reps worked 39.6 hours; salespeople worked 39.7 hours; and managers worked 43 hours, reported PMPs in the PCT-NPMA 2021 Workplace Survey.
To give employees a breather, All-American Pest Control has a four-day work week for technicians and gives office staff paid “gift days” to use for extra time off or as cash at year end.
Petri Pest Control has adapted jobs to keep valued employees on the roster, whether that’s offering remote work to a new mom or creating a new training role for a technician with health issues. “We have very rarely lost people to quitting because they felt they weren’t being taking care of,” said Brendan Cavanagh.
COVID-19 forced some pest control companies to embrace remote work. More than one third (35 percent) of PMPs expected remote work for customer service reps, in particular, to continue post pandemic. In response to this shift, All-American Pest Control is converting its corporate office into a multi-functional, flexible, collaborative workspace.
Nearly half of PMPs (46 percent) said their companies provided internal leadership training for staff, found the PCT-NPMA 2021 Workplace Survey.
Orlando-based Massey Services develops people internally and promotes from within as much as possible. “When you’re our size, we couldn’t grow if we couldn’t promote from within. We couldn’t hire enough people from the outside to be successful,” explained Adam Jones, who joined the company 30 years ago as a general manager and now leads quality assurance initiatives for the company.
Massey’s leadership academy develops the skills of rising service center employees; the company also has several management training programs, including one geared to people without prior pest management experience.
Twenty-one percent of PMPs said their companies provided managers with specific training to lead different generations of employees.
When deciding whether to promote employees to management positions, PMPs said they considered the employee’s skill set (88 percent), relationship with coworkers (82 percent) and manager feedback (79 percent). Most companies (68 percent) had no formal talent review process to fill leadership positions.
In follow-up interviews, PMPs said one-on-one discussions are held regularly with managers and employees to review career plans and emerging leadership opportunities. “We spend time with each leader to look at ways to streamline their work, simplify and delegate,” said Erin Richardson, All-American Pest Control. “Delegation opens up new leadership opportunities for others in the organization and frees up the leadership team’s time for more strategic thinking and bigger, more impactful contributions,” she explained.
PMPs encourage key employees to become active in industry groups and associations to gain leadership experience. Some require next-generation family members to get experience working outside the industry or to work their way up through the company.
Mike Rottler, president of Rottler Pest & Lawn Solutions, St. Louis, put son Daniel (who eventually will succeed him) though a “deliberate process” for more than a decade that has involved working as a termite technician, bed bug technician, salesperson, branch manager and now business development director to learn what employees experience at every level of the organization.
According to the PCT-NPMA 2021 Workplace Survey, the average age of most (59.6 percent) executive leadership teams at pest control companies was 50 years and older.
Non-executive leadership teams —namely managers, supervisors and team leaders — were considerably younger. Nearly half (46.7 percent) were less than 40 years old and 29.4 percent had fewer than five years of pest management experience, found the survey.
Aptive Environmental CEO Vess Pearson, 36, is young for the C-suite but his executive team members are an age expected of senior professionals. Pearson sought out people who had experience managing billion-dollar companies. He predicts the Provo, Utah, company will grow to the No. 3 spot on the PCT 100 list by 2025.
By comparison, Aptive’s management and sales teams are younger than those at most pest control companies, which has definite benefits. Young people, Pearson said, “are hungry and willing to push” and tech savvy. “I think that every company today needs to be a technology company and I think that the younger generation tends to have a better grasp and understanding of technology,” he said.
At Arrow Exterminators in Atlanta, members of the executive team are 46 years old on average and collectively have more than 450 years of experience in the pest industry and their areas of specialty. The company’s larger management team comprises 186 service center managers, corporate support leaders, regional managers and executives of diverse experience, ages and backgrounds. In all, the larger Arrow Exterminators management team has 2,300 years of service at the company.
When multiple generations work together, misunderstandings may happen. “But the advantages far outweigh the challenges,” said Shay Runion, who heads human resources and professional development at Arrow Exterminators.
PMPs said the top three reasons new hires chose to work for their companies were the team culture (59 percent), pay (49 percent) and the independence of running routes (43 percent), found the PCT-NPMA 2021 Workplace Survey.
To attract the newest generation entering the workforce, PMPs said their companies offered flexible work schedules (41 percent) and attractive/competitive benefits (37 percent).
Thirty percent said they modified benefit packages in the last 12 months to accommodate the needs or requests of potential hires.
Companies need something to recruit new hires to, reminded Vess Pearson, Aptive Environmental. He said Aptive’s modern office building, after-hours social events and motivational speaker lineup appeals to candidates. “We’ve really tried to take a blue-collar industry and make it white collar through amenities, through technology, through beautiful branding and marketing, and that attracts young people,” said Pearson.
New hires also want to be part of a winning team. “We’ve consistently been able to show that we grow rapidly,” he said, and since employees own 20 percent of the company, they are personally connected to this mission of growth.
In the survey, most PMPs said they preferred to hire experienced people for management (56 percent), sales (46 percent) and office/customer service (42 percent) positions. More than half (53 percent) preferred to hire a mix of both experienced and inexperienced service technicians.
Russ Ives, CEO of Rose Pest Solutions, Troy, Mich., said candidate values trump experience. “I’ve seen some old souls in young bodies and that often can be a really neat hire. And I’ve seen some young souls in old bodies that have challenges making commitments to the kinds of things that are important to us,” he explained.
All-American Pest Control in Nashville has a similar hiring outlook. “Reliability, teamwork, respect, servant leadership and thoughtful innovation transcend generations,” said President Erin Richardson.
Finding candidates who are a good fit remains a challenge, however. “There’s no perfect sauce for hiring people,” admitted Doug Smith, president of Apex Pest Control in Milton, Ont.
NPMA recently unveiled a workforce development initiative to promote the pest control industry and help members attract new hires. A new website — pestcontroljobs.com — highlights job opportunities and career paths in the pest control industry.
