A new player is emerging to provide online education, professional development, and peer groups for landscape and snow management industry companies seeking to retain talent by investing in their growth and development. Online courses are focused on key positions in which education and development options were historically limited: crew leaders, front-line managers, salespeople and business developers, account managers, etc., in addition to courses for senior management, leadership teams and owners.
GrowTheBench.com was launched by industry consultants Phil Harwood and Neal Glatt. The subscription-based educational service provides full access to its library of online courses, selected to meet the unique needs of the industry, at an affordable level of investment. Mobile-friendly courses are available 24/7, and viewable with a 4G or Wi-Fi connection. Facilitated online peer groups for each functional area of the company supplement learning and the developmental process.
Harwood, managing partner of GrowTheBench, states that, for many years, his consulting clients were asking for affordable turnkey education for account managers, operations managers, salespeople and crew leaders, in addition to senior managers and owners. GrowTheBench was designed to meet this need.
Glatt, also a managing partner of GrowTheBench, is a certified coach with the Gallup and John Maxwell organizations. He states that over 50 years of Gallup research shows the powerful return on investment of investing in people first and it’s the single best investment a business can make. GrowTheBench makes this type of investment affordable for contractors.
The initial course library consists of over 80 online class modules, each lasting 15 to 20 minutes. Available at launch are courses focused on professional fundamentals, management foundations, developing great crew leaders, effective time management, high-performance coaching, John Maxwell’s Leadership Gold and more. An all-access pass is available for $97 per month per user.
According to Harwood, “GrowTheBench solves a critical need in our industry to develop our people, invest in them and grow our workforce from within. GrowTheBench was created for the entire industry—for all contractors, suppliers, consultants, educators and anyone who has something to share with others to enhance the attractiveness of our industry by investing in our people. Think of GrowTheBench.com as the Amazon.com of online education for our industry. If you care deeply about the future of our industry and want to be part of something special, you’ll want to be part of the GrowTheBench community.”
