SPRING IS IN OUR STEP! - Commercial Landscaping Bristol & Bath

As you may or may not know, (depending on if you follow us on Facebook!) March 2019 has been filled with a variety of celebrations and successes for Elmtree.

Firstly, Mark Harris aka ‘Harry’ is due a massive congratulations as this month he reached his amazing 20-year work anniversary!! He started at Elmtree as a landscape operative. Over the years he has worked his way up to Senior Landscape Supervisor and has now been doing a fantastic job as Landscape Manager for the last five years.

It’s great to see people come up through the ranks at Elmtree and stay with us for such a long time, we must be doing something right! Harry is joined in long service by several others, such as Graham Robbins (25-year anniversary in 2020), Dean Rowley (38 years’ service), Richard Coole (13 years current service, although originally started with us at age 16), Lynn Morgan in the office (21 years), and Paul Lynch (27 years).

We would like to extend our gratitude to all our team, for your hard work and dedication to the company. You are all an asset to Elmtree and we wouldn’t be without you!

This month we also recognised the success of Tom Hanson for passing his SMSTS course through Knight Learning. Tom is one of our senior landscape supervisors. The Site Management Safety Training Scheme (SMSTS) is an industry recognised course providing health and safety compliance which also gives all the relevant knowledge required to meet today’s legislative demands. Tom completed his course and we look forward to presenting him with his certificate! Hopefully we might even get a photo if he’s not too shy! Tom is a busy man at the moment as his partner has just had their second baby daughter, so he is on paternity leave.

Elmtree have also pledged to support the Skills West Project. We have offered to be part of the Business West initiative and help to forge links between employers, educators and training providers in the South West. We are providing a range of different activities from work based shadowing and work experience to fully fledged apprenticeship schemes.

Business West is about opening up the lines of communication between education providers, support agencies and employers and we are keen to help aid increase interest in our industry. Offering support to the Skills West Project will help to building stronger links with local community and promoting a more diverse workforce. It’s an exciting project to be involved in, we feel we are able to help talent spot and offer young people a ‘work ready’ learning activity.

This month also saw National Apprenticeship Week being recognised. We still have vacancies available for our apprenticeship scheme and have also been trialling a potential candidate to see if he enjoys the role. Apprenticeships are an excellent way to learn on the job, progress and shape your career.

Take Peter Reeves as an example. Peter came to us in 2002 on a week’s work experience when he was still at school. He enjoyed his taster week and so we offered him an apprenticeship when he finished school. We took him on permanently after he successfully completed his apprenticeship. Today Peter is married with two children and is one of Elmtrees most skilled landscaping team members. He does most of our machine work, is fully qualified to use excavators up to 10 tonnes, dumpers and JCBs all of which he learnt whist with us.

Elmtree are passionate about providing the training needed to be successful. Apprenticeships are an exciting opportunity to be part of a program that incorporates on the job training and learning. They focus on developing the skills and knowledge required whilst giving confidence to allow the true behaviours of the individual to be successful in the workforce of the future. Not only that but apprenticeships give the opportunity to have a hands on approach to learning and are very respected in our industry.

Elmtree have recently struck up a partnership with St Peters Primary school, a local school near us in Pilning. We are proving essential ground maintenance work to the school environment and have also donated four firepit logs for classes to use during their outdoor sessions. We have also started an exciting competition; the prize being three annual family passes to the Wild Place (with free entry into Bristol zoo too!) The new ‘Bear Wood’ attraction that we have been working on is opening this summer so to celebrate this we have asked the local school children to design their own bear. Representatives from Elmtree and the Wild Place will also be visiting the school to judge with the headteacher and hand out the prizes to the three lucky winners!

In other news we have taken on three new vehicles to help us through the upcoming season and the keep our fleet up to date. If you haven’t already check out our Facebook page to see our new team photos. Theses photos will also be featured in the next edition of Pro Landscaper magazine following on from an interview that took place with Elmtree. Look out for the next edition to see the article on us!