For Chase Mullin, founder and president of the St. Rose, Louisiana-based company Mullin, recruiting and retaining his workforce is a lot like winning over customers. The deal doesn’t stop with a handshake.
“As hard as it is to find labor — you have to attract, attain, train and retain — you can parallel this and use it with customers, too,” he says.
“As hard as it is to win new business — or to recruit a new employee — it’s almost easier once we get them onboard to not pay enough attention to them. You know you’ve won the sale or filled that position — but for us, that’s not good enough. We want them to stay long-term, and we don’t want that seat to reopen. Ultimately, we want to continue building the boat.”
And Mullin says that has been his philosophy since Day 1 when he began building up the business years ago.
“As the company started growing beyond me and a couple people in the truck — I set out to create something where people wanted to come to work,” he says. “I’ve worked places where Sunday night, going into Monday morning, I dreaded it.”
Paul Crocker, maintenance division manager with the company, says this hard work is paying off. After nine years as a paramedic and then entering the green industry in 2019, Crocker says he’s finally found a place to call home in Mullin since joining the team in July of 2023.
“So far it’s been awesome,” he says. “It’s been everything I could ever ask for in terms of my professional development and the autonomy I have. I don’t really feel like there is a ceiling in place in terms of what Mullin can do.”
After working for another lawn care company, Crocker says he knew it was time to make a change after talks stalled numerous times about growth and career development.
Crocker notes he knew of Mullin on the periphery but was pleasantly surprised to learn how much he connected with Chase and the whole staff.
“I met Chase, and we really aligned from the get-go in terms of ethos and the philosophy behind business and what business could do for you,” he says. “It was very easy to want to be a part of that team.”
Crocker says it’s that mentality which allows Mullin to keep pushing the envelope and continuing to grow.
“It’s a culture that pushed out mediocrity,” he says. “If you’re talented, then the sky’s the limit for you. It’s empowering to be surrounded by talented people. Mullin is heavily invested in surrounding the whole team with other talented people. It’s fun when everyone is pulling their weight and going in the same direction. No one has fun when they’re dragging people who don’t want to come along behind them.”
That’s why ambition is so encouraged at the company and why Mullin says he places such a focus on training and education.
“We put the focus on continued development so that the good people want to stay on board,” Mullin says.
“If we’re not continually developing people and showing them a path of what’s next, they’re going to go somewhere else that will. It’s simple and it’s not necessarily easy to do, but it’s easy not to do, and I think a lot of people may not place enough focus on it.”
And that ambition sparks innovation — which is contagious, according to Crocker, who says the entire team is young, smart and hungry.
“The ability to innovate is just super fun,” he says. “It’s not a job that people come to so they can just clock in and clock out of it. We’re all on this journey together.”
But making sure all boats are rowing in the same direction starts during the interview process, adding that’s why his company is extremely selective — and that’s paying off for them.
“We try to filter the people we bring in the best we can to make sure they’re a good fit and truly align with our core values,” he says. “The last few years in particular, retention has been really high. Like any company that employs entry-level labor, at times there are people that depart…and there are people that may not last, but we try to flush that out during the interview process.”
Mullin adds that the 90-day mark is a good indicator if someone will be onboard for the long haul.
“Once we get them past the 90-day mark, the percentage of them staying long-term increases exponentially,” he says.
“We try very hard to recruit people who have friends or family that already work here. It gives them an immediate support system. On a crew level, it is tough in that southern Louisiana heat and humidity, but if you have the right support system, it helps.”
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Carlos Gomez, a production manager with Mullin, had that support system when he came on board in 2019 as an H-2B employee for the company. But now in his new role, he still feels supported.
“My time at Mullin has always been good,” he says. “I’ve grown a lot, and I’ve definitely learned a lot. I feel good here and I’ve had a lot of opportunities. They help me and teach me, and everybody here is good people.”
From his crews in the field, to the office staff to the upper management, Gomez says Mullin really does run like a well-oiled machine where everyone is willing to lend a hand.
“The support here is nice. We have a saying where it’s one for all and all for one,” he says. “Basically, we always help each other out. I’ve had some challenges in being in the new role, there is a bit of a language barrier, but everyone has been so patient and understanding and a great support system.”
Crocker says Gomez has been knocking his new role out of the park — and that he’s just one example of career progression among Mullin’s H-2B staff — adding that he hopes more will be making similar moves in the near future.
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“Carlos went from the buddy to the boss, and he is killing it,” Crocker says. “It’s so fun watching him grow.
“We’ve been having the same H-2B guys come here for over 10 years, and they’re awesome,” he adds. “So, I wanted to offer a permanent sponsorship to a group of the guys. Last year we sponsored six guys for permanent residence, and my ultimate goal was to promote one of those guys into a manager. We really want to show our people they won’t be cutting grass forever. If they’re dedicated to their craft and interested in learning more, we’re going to reciprocate that and give them the opportunities they’ve earned.”
Mullin says he not only takes great pride in being able to offer someone like Gomez a better job and a better life, but acknowledges it’s no small feat and shouldn’t be taken for granted.
“I, and we, are truly blessed to offer what we offer,” he says. “To be in a position to give people a really fair living wage at the bottom of the ladder and allow people to move up and create unimaginable lives and careers for themselves through the work that we do and the business we’ve built. It’s a special blessing to be able to do that.”
It’s that spirit that keeps employees like Gomez and Crocker eager to continue growing themselves and the company.
“Who I am today may have been good enough for who Mullin was yesterday, but I’m not good enough for who Mullin needs to be tomorrow, so I need to develop just like everyone else,” Crocker says. “That philosophy is permeating throughout the whole organization. If you’re going to be the best — it takes a lot of investment in continuing to be the best. Otherwise, you get stuck in the ways things have always been.”
The team’s ambition to always strive for better is evident even to its customers — especially Jennifer Ballard, regional property manager with Rampart Multifamily Management.
“Mullin has been a vendor in my portfolio for eight years,” she says. “They’ve always provided great customer service, and that’s always been most important to me.
“I’ve taken over other properties where owners weren’t very happy with the current lawn maintenance company, so I’d get bids from a few of them but always let them know the one I prefer to work with, and they’ve always been happy the minute we switch over to Mullin,” Ballard adds. “If I know I’m getting a new property, they’ve always been my first call.”
Mullin says he and the team have their sights set on some even more ambitious growth goals in the near future and keeping up that company culture is essential to achieving them.
“We enjoy challenges and are always chasing better,” he says. “One of the things we’re dealing with is with a second branch in Baton Rouge and soon to be a third branch… we’re looking at how do we ensure we’re scaling and bringing this culture we have at HQ to these other branches, while also allowing them to have some unique identity? We’ve got to give them guardrails though to ensure we’re maintaining the culture in the right ways. That’s been my vision from the onset — I want to grow as big as the team wants to but only if we’re growing the right way.
“I want to forever be a Best Place to Work…It’d be boring to sit here and do nothing else — it’d be too simple. Let’s get to 300 or 400 people across four branches, figure out the special sauce and learn how to put it there,” Mullin adds. “As long as we can continue providing that really positive impact — let’s just keep it going.”
The author is Senior Editor with Lawn & Landscape.
