H2-B Part 1

If there is a silver lining in the H2-B cloud, the failure of so many landscape management companies to get their workers year after year brings our labor crisis into full view. We don't simply depend on guest workers to get the job done. We depend on them for keeping our companies and our industry viable. Without them, our current customers suffer, and growth comes to a screeching halt.

This is a case of demand outstrpping supply - labor supply - and if we don't fix it, our industry will miss an opportunity of a lifetime..

I believe the industry can approach the crisis from several vantage points. First and foremost, we need a guest worker program that will ensure an adequate supply of field workers. The current H2-B program has a proven track record of supplying legal workers. We need an expanded version of that program, or something like it, to meet our labor needs. What we don't need is a mishmash of regulations that will make us quasi enforcers of new, improved immigration legislation.

With that said, I don't believe we can pin our industry's future entirely on H2-B, in large part because the crisis extends beyond the field. Our industry also needs upper and middle management people. Owners and managers need to be proactive and place labor issues on their yearly strategic-planning agendas. Filling our labor requirements, including recruiting, training, and retaining employees, has to be part of any business plan and any long range strategy.