The Next Generation Of Greenhouse Employees Might Be The Elderly
Over the last few years the horticultural industry has had a healthy preoccupation with engaging the “next generation”. We need them as customers, suppliers, innovators, and employees. And while continuing to court young blood makes good sense, for sustainable growth we should not be ignoring the vast masses of soon to be semi-retired baby boomers, or their predecessors.
Consider Silicon Valley’s 90 year old tech designer, Barbara Beskind, who works 1 day a week at IDEO helping to design human-centered products that speak to the needs of an aging population. Beskind wants products that help prevent falls, and use facial recognition to provide easy reminders of people’s names. She reminds younger designers that older fingers don’t do as well with nimble tasks, and eyesight and hearing diminishes with age.
Just as listening to younger employees can provide us with a wealth of knowledge of the demands and expectations of their generation, listening to older employees can open a window to a market that may not be fully satisfied with our current offerings.
There are roughly 76 million boomers in the US, representing about 19% of the total population, and while the majority of them are still under 65, every year moves us closer to potential workforce mass exodus, and a dramatically different marketplace.
Think of where an older person’s perspective might change your product offering, or services you could provide. Are your plant tags available with large print, could an inexpensive voice message be embedded in your pots like the greeting card business does, so information could be transferred to the customer aurally eliminating the need to read tags.
And if semi-retired workers appeal to you, think of how you can redesign work cells, production flow, and equipment handling to enable an older workforce to work in the greenhouse efficiently.
It is certainly worth considering that the “Next Generation” in your greenhouse or garden center might not be the one you were initially thinking of.
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Author
Leigh Coulter
Leigh Coulter is the President of GGS Structures Inc. a leading greenhouse manufacturer with sales worldwide. Leigh holds a degree in business from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, and she has been asked to speak at numerous events regarding manufacturing and business development. GGS manufactures greenhouses for all crops, as well as manufacturing fabric covered buildings. After years of working with cannabis growers to improve medical marijuana cultivation technologies, and as part of the company’s strategic development in 2013 Leigh established a division within the company dedicated to the emerging legal cannabis industry, and as such GGS is on the forefront of the movement. As part of this division new people were brought into the company to expand the company’s knowledge in indoor controlled agriculture cultivation (CEA) as well. GGS was the first greenhouse manufacturer worldwide to actively promote cannabis cultivation in greenhouses through their website, brochures, and in the media. Leigh believes passionately in “doing the right thing” and that supporting people’s rights to choose how they take care of their bodies is fundamentally “the right thing”. Working with cannabis growers all over the world she has developed the utmost respect for people who want to perfect their craft, and grow their best plants, and everyone on the GGS team is delighted to be part of that mission.
