Tag: groundskeeping

Get Your Best Facilities Workers by Promoting Within

Looking for the perfect candidate to take care of your facilities? Rather than trying to recruit open positions externally, organizations should provide career development opportunities for their current facilities employees. That’s what Facilities Director Ken Midgett, with over 40 years of facilities management experience, and Facilities Maintenance Market Director Dan Clapper, with over 25 years […]

Philadelphia Phillies Co-host Skilled Trades Program to Inspire Careers for Kids

Major League Baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies and NEST, an integrated facilities management company, are joining forces to launch the Skilled Trades All-Star Program, a dynamic initiative aimed at guiding Philadelphia-area youth towards promising careers in the skilled trades. The initiative kicks off with a series of educational events at Citizens Bank Park this season. The urgency […]

A Primer on Landscaping Hazards and Safety

Landscaping plays a major role in ensuring facilities look inviting and well maintained from the outside. However, landscapers are exposed to all kinds of different hazards on a daily basis, ranging from heat and weather hazards, chemical exposures, accidents with machinery or tools, construction dangers, and the physical stress of lifting and other awkward postures. […]

10 Summer Landscaping Projects for Facilities Managers

Summer is here, and it’s a great season to start working on various maintenance projects. This is especially true as more facilities workers return to their workplaces in person after working remotely during the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Regular upgrades to outdoor projects may have been postponed due to COVID-19 and staff shortages, […]

Facility with Trees

If a Tree Falls on Your Facility, It Will Make a Sound: Keeping an Eye on Tree Health

To a facility manager, a picture can be worth a thousand words, and the trees on their facility grounds are an important part of that image. Their value also extends well beyond the ornamental; healthy trees help curb cooling costs, manage stormwater, clean the air by intercepting pollutants, and provide some shade where your or […]

Bees

Facilities Groundskeeping Safety Week, Part 4: Deadly Insects

Would you consider bees to be an occupational hazard? In 2007, three workers were stung by bees while harvesting almonds in Texas; one of them was stung more than 60 times and had to be taken to the hospital. In 2008, a worker in California was stung while driving a tractor and died of an […]

Pesticide safety

Facilities Groundskeeping Safety Week, Part 3: Pesticide Hazards

How do you get rid of crabgrass on your facility grounds? Or insects? Or clover, thistle, dandelion, or any of the other weeds that mar your attractive landscaping? Hand weeding may be a good option for a well-mulched flowerbed, but pesticides may be the most effective solution for large grounds and lawns. If your workers […]

Leaf blower

Facilities Groundskeeping Safety Week, Part 2: Leaf Blower Hazards

Leaf blowers aren’t just for autumn—you’ll see them in use throughout the year. They can be used to blow the grass off your mower, to blow cut grass off sidewalks and paths … they have essentially replaced brooms and rakes for many tasks. They may be time-savers, but leaf blowers also pose hazards.

Mower, mowing

Facilities Groundskeeping Safety Week, Part 1: Mower Hazards

Summer is fast approaching in the northern hemisphere. Soon enough, facilities management professionals will be out in force, working hard to keep their grounds and buildings attractive for tenants and customers, with the familiar growl of mowers and lawn tractors, the howl of leaf blowers, and the whiz of string trimmers echo through the land. […]