Young Professionals Hold Spring Event

Young Professionals Group Launches Spring in a Fun, Meaningful Way

by Nina Koziol More than 75 people took part in this year’s Young Professionals Event at Mickey Finn’s Brewery in Libertyville, and by all appearances it was a roaring success. “I just love to be around people who are going to shape the future of the industry,” said Jillyan MacMorris, chief improvement officer at Night Light, Inc., in Lombard. “It’s a really different vibe than other ILCA events, where it’s an older crowd, in different roles, thinking differently.” Despite the forecast of yet another snow event for that day, “We had a really good turnout,” said Marissa Stubler, ILCA’s membership and marketing manager.

The program kicked off with a presentation by staff from Chalet in Wilmette. Lawson Thalmann, technology manager, is a 4th generation employee at the family business, where he helps implement technology to improve efficiency. He and four other staff took attendees through the various aspects of technology development focusing on landscape, retail, plant production and property management. Lawson launched Chalet’s eCommerce business in 2017, and sales have tripled each year. He’s now focusing on new software for Chalet’s landscape division.

“That’s what gets me up in the morning,” Lawson said. “I like to think about the future.” This was his first time attending a Young Professionals event. “I wanted to see if there were kindred spirits.” His presentation focused on how data can transform the landscape industry.

After the presentations, attendees huddled for roundtable discussions that examined issues like communicating with management, sharing ideas and career development. Elaina Blankenship of Plandscape, Inc., in Elburn, has been in the green industry for three years and led one group discussion, which included career goals and how to effectively communicate ideas up the ladder. “We have a lot of freedom at our company,” she said. “Our owner’s view is go big or go home.”

Culture Clash vs. Collaboration

“Just having someone value your idea is important,” said Ashley Marrin of Bret-Mar Landscape in Homer Glen. Her parents started the company and she and her brother work closely with them. “My mom is very accepting of ideas and she likes to collaborate. My dad likes to see the numbers so I present my ideas and suggestions with finances in mind. You have to figure out people’s personalities and how they view the business.”

And that goes back to company culture. A survey by the recruitment website Indeed showed that 46 percent of job seekers who considered a job said they ultimately chose not to apply because they didn’t feel it would be a good cultural fit. Business culture refers to the company’s policies, procedures, ethics, values, employee behaviors and attitudes, goals and code of conduct. It makes up the company’s “personality” and defines the work environment. For example, whether the company is professional, casual or fast-paced.

Other elements include management style, expectations, company goals, local and national government policies, benefits and perks, opportunities to advance, the way employees feel about the work they do, and the company’s disciplinary action methods. According to the Indeed survey, 72 percent of job seekers say it’s extremely or very important to see details about company culture in job descriptions.

“Culture is the heart of everything,” said Samantha Harris of Night Light, Inc. “If it’s not good, good people leave.” Benjamin Di Salvo, a recent graduate of Colorado State University, had left his municipal job and was looking for other opportunities. “We had a younger group of staff with good ideas, but it wasn’t always easy to get the ideas heard.” That comment was a recurring theme in the discussions.

A Different Vibe

Maritza Gil, store manager for Russo, in Hainesville, said, “A lot of our team members have been there for 20-plus years. The past two to three years we’ve worked on software so there’s less paper—we need to keep up with the times. We have to find better ways to do things so we’re not doing double work.” This was MacMorris’s second Young Pros event. “This event is a different lens on the industry. Some of the big challenges [for young employees] are feeling underestimated or underutilized. They are big dreamers and have smart ideas and want to influence the culture at their companies, but it’s hard to have a conversation when the owners have always done things a certain way. There’s a lot of physical paper being passed around—we lag a bit in our industry. It’s mind-blowing how manual some of the processes are, but I feel like everything is changing.”

Gannon Siran is an associate designer for Greenwise Organic Lawn Care. He has an Associates degree in Landscape Contracting and Management with a focus on design. “You need to develop a rapport and set up your ideas. It’s about building your reputation—having the data to support your ideas and pre-

paring yourself in a professional way as well as finding the right time to present them,” he said. “Sometimes the culture is not the right place or is not open to growth. You might have to leave to create a better place for yourself.” He also stressed practicing patience. “Just working your hardest and showing who you are, with a good work effort—it may take a season to see [the company’s] way of doing things.”

There was plenty of discussion about owners retiring or older staff not willing to adapt to technological changes. “If you’re fine with the status quo, change is difficult,” Harris said. “People who don’t want to change will tap out—retire.” Don’t Call them Millennials, Please

“Millennials are long gone,” Blankenship said. “I’m generation Z. You have a whole other generation, but people are still adjusting to [to the term] Millennials.” Some attendees noted that their co-workers have children who are older than them.

For the record, “Millennials” refers to individuals born between the 1980s and early 2000s. That’s a 20-year span— basically a whole generation. Millenials follow Generation X (people born between the mid-1960s and 1980) and who are largely the children of baby boomers.

Generation Z is the group of people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Someone born in 1998 (24 years old) is a Gen Z member and that’s light-years away from a “Millennial” coworker who was born in 1984. Gen Z grew up with a smart phone in one hand and a tablet in the other.

Career Builder: Volunteer!

Several attendees currently serve on ILCA’s Young Professionals Committee or other committees. “Coming out of school and getting involved with the industry gave me more confidence,” Marrin said. “I liked the structure of the roundtables,” Marrin said. “Otherwise you gravitate to people you know.” Suggestions for future events include visiting a nursery or a public garden.

Allison Westbrook joined the Young Professionals Committee last year. An account manager for Midwest Groundcovers, she said, “A coworker, Nikki, encouraged me to join. I get to mentor sales team members who are in their 20’s and now I feel (at age 33) that I’m one of the older ones.” The Young Professionals event is geared to green industry staff who are age 35 and younger, but that may change in the future with the age bumped to 40. Genevieve Rodriguez of Fiore Nursery and Landscape Supply serves on the Young Professionals committee. ‘I really enjoy getting to know other young people in the industry.”

When the roundtables wrapped up, attendees had two hours of networking, open bar and a pizza buffet. And, that’s when they had a chance to mingle a bit more and discuss nonwork things, as in play. While Thalmann is passionate about using technology to improve business and day-to-day life, he seeks to balance work with a connection to nature and wellbeing for himself and others. Experienced in meditation, he leads meditation sessions for customers and staff as part of Chalet’s Learning Center. For this cohort of green industry pros, it’s work hard, play hard.

Matthew Dingeldein & Company