Labor: Fountain of youth

Doesn’t it seem like all the so-called inspiring quotes about the joys of being young are made by old people? Maybe it’s because young people are too busy experiencing life and making some rather astute observations.

Lloyd Traven, owner of Peace Tree Farm and spirited NGBC participant, learned something from one of his youngest employees that helped change the face of his entire company. Lloyd had just returned from California Spring Trials and was showing his staff one of the products that caught his eye. He was really excited about the prospect of growing and selling this plant. After Lloyd was done oohing and ahing over this selection, a cocky (Lloyd’s depiction), brand-new employee fresh from one of the local colleges pipes up and says, “OK, but what does it do?” Perplexed, Lloyd answered, “What do you mean, ‘what does it do?’ You’re looking at it. It’s a really cool plant.” Not satisfied with that answer, the young man retorts, “Really, what does it do? What’s so great about it? I see the cool flower, but that’s just background noise.”

He started asking questions like, “Can I eat it? Can I make dye with it? Can I make alcohol with it? Does it hang? Is it hardy? Does it have good winter color?” And he continued to rattle off a list of things he thought a plant should do to warrant such excitement, Lloyd explains.

The young man went on to say that people his age don’t care about the “pretty petunia. We don’t really notice it.” That’s the “background noise” he was referring to, Lloyd says.

“I was like, wow. That is some concept that you just dropped in my lap,” Lloyd recalls.

And that became Peace Tree’s credo: What does it do? The company started eliminating ho-hum plants, which was also the precipice of Peace Tree’s Garden Geek program.

“And it was then that I realized I had to staff my business with as many young people as I possibly can,” Lloyd says.

The nursery just hired a 21 and a 25 year old. And Alex, the lead grower (also Lloyd and his wife Candy Traven’s son), is 25.

“I want to hire someone who is so sure of themselves, they get it and understand what they want. They don’t just do something because that’s the way it’s always been done,” Lloyd says. “It’s one thing to hire a grower from a big industry player who has a ton of production knowledge, but they will fight you all the way if you try to get them to do things differently.”

Lloyd is upfront and honest with all of his hires. He tells all of his young staff that they will be flipped right into the fire. They’ve got to be desperate to learn because he’s “going to throw so much stuff at them;” and they’ve got to know where to find information and how to filter that information intelligently once they have it.

He says the biggest downside to hiring a 20-something is that there is no loyalty and they are always ready to move on and always looking for something else.

But the high energy, the eagerness to learn and those sharp observations of his young staff help Peace Tree Farm succeed.

Peace Tree brings something to the table, as well.

“We’re an exciting place to work, we’re not mainstream and we’re highly visible,” Lloyd says. “And that’s a benefit of working here because our staff will be networked and introduced to famous horticulturists, they’ll go to events and they’ll be regarded as an expert. We empower our staff.”

Lloyd says his best advice to the industry regarding the next generation of workers is to change the status quo of your business and empower your staff. Listen to them. Learn from them. Do things differently.

“It’s not the young people who have a problem, it’s the industry that has a problem, and that’s why there aren’t enough kids getting into this business,” he says.