Exchange business cards with Scott Graby and be prepared to get more in return than you gave. Whereas the normal business card fits nicely into a wallet, his 3.5”x9.5” card barely squeezes into a coat pocket.
After talking with the owner and president of Hearthstone Property Services in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, one would be surprised in anything less. His crews can be found day and night on 200 properties: maintaining shopping centers, condominiums, offices and warehouses. By day they perform a myriad of exterior maintenance services, including landscape maintenance, irrigation and snow plowing. By night they are sweeping parking lots and pressure washing sidewalks.
In between, crews are on call to perform nearly two dozen other job functions, what the company refers to as “Watchdog Services.” These include repairing asphalt, concrete, drywall and roofs; removing debris and graffiti; fixing plumbing and lighting; replacing windows; and, yes, installing flowers.
“Nearly 99% of our clients are property managers,” says Graby. “Our niche is our ability to respond quickly to just about any of their requests. If we can’t get the job done ourselves, we will help our client find someone who can. If we don’t have anybody we feel comfortable recommending, then we will find a way to get it done inhouse, and often incorporate that service as part of our regular offering. This is how most of our services have originated.”
The approach has been more than successful for Scott and his wife, Sandy, who started the business in 1986 cleaning houses and small offices. As they say, one thing led to another. Soon, his crews were sweeping parking lots and then mowing grass, plowing snow and pressure cleaning sidewalks. Other services were added per client request until property managers looked almost exclusively to Hearthstone Property Services for their interior and exterior service needs.
Today, the company has 50 employees and 26 radio-dispatched trucks that cover nearly 2,500 square miles of Middle Tennessee, including greater Nashville. Landscape maintenance accounts for 50% of its annual revenue. Parking lot sweeping is a close second with 40% of the pie. The remainder is made up of plowing snow, pressure washing, and the “Watchdog Services.”
Secret Weapon
You can’t provide this depth of service without the tools, and Hearthstone employees have the tools. In fact, their equipment lineup reads like a Who’s Who in equipment manufacturing. On the fleet side there are nine GMC sweeper trucks and five Isuzu box trucks. A 1-ton GMC truck is outfitted with two pressure washer units and a 500-gallon water tank.
There’s also a bucket truck, two GMC dump and flatbed trucks, and seven other 1/2- and 3/4-ton service vehicles. On the equipment side, the company operates seven Walker GHS Mowers, 10 Great Dane and Wright Stander mowers, 20 Shindaiwa weed trimmers, 30 Shindaiwa and Echo blowers, four Shindaiwa power brooms ... and more.
“Having the right equipment for the job is an important part of any operation,” Graby relates. “As an owner, you can’t expect to get the job done with inferior equipment. And you can’t expect employees to remain happy if they have to operate this inferior equipment.”
Graby says his company was one of the first to introduce Walker Mowers to the Nashville area. They purchased their first one used seven years ago and, in his words, the mowers quickly became their “secret weapon.”
“We started to use the mowers on properties where customers wanted a nice look,” Graby continues. “The GHS deck not only left a manicured look, it also eliminated damage to automobiles caused by flying stones and other debris, an inherent problem at shopping centers. The mowers also dramatically increased productivity, and were found to be easy to maneuver on grassy islands, a common landscape element on these properties.”
As Hearthstone purchased more Walkers, the company looked toward standardization. All seven of its current mowers are powered by Kohler 20-hp gasoline engines, and feature 48-inch GHS decks and big grass catchers. Each machine logs between 400 and 500 hours a year, and is scheduled to be replaced every three years. Graby says area landscape contractors make for an instant market for used Walkers.
The Great Dane and Wright Stander mowers comprise the other side of the mowing equation, notes Ray Livsey, operations vice president. Livsey, who’s been with the company for six years, is that one-in-a-million person who can do just about anything — from equipment repair and construction management to overseeing all aspects of a 24/7 service operation.
“We purchased our first Great Dane mower in 1997 and were probably one of the first contractors in the area to buy a fleet of them,” says Livsey. “We use them where we don’t require collection capability.These mowers are easy to maintain and they turn on a dime, too.” The two machines, the Walkers and the Wright Standers (the company is switching from Great Dane to Wright), compliment one another, Livsey adds, and they work to make his life easier.
The same can be said for a new pay system that he helped introduce last year. As Livsey explains, during the busy season, the maintenance crews work on “book rate.” A combination commission/grading pay system, “book rate” essentially pays crews a pre-established dollar amount for completing each property. The more properties they complete in a day, the more they earn at the end of the day. The kicker is the grading system. If a crew fails to meet standards on a particular job, every crew member reverts to hourly pay for that job. “The cut in pay is significant,” Livsey emphasizes, “and is plenty of incentive to ensure jobs are completed up to specification.”
According to Graby, it took awhile to work the kinks out of the new system, but the end results have been more than gratifying.“One of our foremen was dead set against going to the system,” he recalls.“When it was finally in place, however, he realized his crew could get just as much done with one less person, which meant there was more money left over for everyone else on the crew.
“The truth is, using the system helps to eliminate waste. Crews are smaller, they accomplish more, and, since employees don’t get paid if they’re not working, they take better care of their equipment. Our landscape staff has been consistently earning 50% to 75% more money under this pay plan due to the fact that the crews are working at very high efficiency and are able to service more properties. Since the book rate also locks in our labor expense at the exact amount we have budgeted, it’s a wonderful win-win arrangement.”
The program, Graby continues, has been so successful that the company recently extended it to mulching, trimming and spraying crews.
Soft Sell
Developing a new pay system is part of an overall effort by Hearthstone’s owner to create a healthy work environment, one that encourages employees like Livsey and Pat Smith, vice president of finance, and Brenda Farmer, property management and personnel manager, to stick around. Offering competitive pay and benefits, and having well-maintained, high-quality equipment like Walker Mowers, are obvious reasons to stay, he adds, noting there are less obvious ones, too. He calls these the “softer” components of a workplace.
“We try to create a workplace where employees feel at home,” Graby says. “Every morning we serve a hot breakfast buffet for all staff in our newly constructed Hearthstone Café. Doing so gives everyone an opportunity to plan together and to relax a bit before they have to jump into the day’s activities. We also sponsor company trips to theme parks, whitewater rafting and cookouts, and staff members have an opportunity to use the company chalet in the Smokies. All of these activities help shape our company culture and build a camaraderie that is essential to building and maintaining teams.”
One very pivotal “soft” item, he continues, is the company’s monthly profit-sharing program. “We currently distribute 15% of our monthly net profit in cash to all employees who have been here at least one year. Accompanying the cash is a summary of the actual numbers for the month with my analysis of where we performed well, where we fell short, and what we can do to improve. Since all of us, including me, receive bonuses from this same pot, we’re all motivated to find ways to make the pot bigger.”
Graby says that one of the most surprising developments from his company’s investment in these “soft” components has been the bottom line benefits that have appeared almost magically. Turnover has been reduced to practically nothing, which for a company his size represents a huge savings not only in training dollars, but also in fixing the problems and complaints that accompany the turnover phenomenon.
Upward Mobility
The future looks bright for Hearthstone Property Services. The company’s growth is predicated in large part on keeping its property management clients satisfied. New properties for them translates into more work for the Hearthstone team. And when a property manager wants a new service, he or she has to look no further than ... Hearthstone. That’s a pretty good relationship to have, but it didn’t happen overnight. It has taken this contractor the better part of 16 years to develop relationships and put systems in place to help perpetuate them. In the process, the company, in his words, “has moved up the food chain.”
Graby, who as a hobby has built a good-sized portfolio of rental properties, recently combined this interest in real estate with the strengths of his company. Over the past two years, he has acquired two shopping centers, which they manage and, of course, maintain. Says Graby, “These have not only been profitable ventures for us, but they have also given us a much better understanding of the needs of our property managers and owners.”
None of the above — the success, the growth, the changes — would have been possible without the support of his people, he explains. “That’s where the ‘soft’ side of the business pays dividends over the long haul. The final unexpected benefit from these ‘soft’ items has been to the extent that when we take care of our staff, they, in turn, take equally good care of our clients.”
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