At Evergreen Horticulture Services we believe that by creating a fun team environment while keeping a strong focus on employee safety we can provide a career or summertime job that is rewarding, educational and that can assist our employees in all aspects of life. Due to the diversity of our work that includes but is not limited to lawn maintenance, landscaping, horticulture work and snow removal an employee at EHS can expect a wide range of opportunities to work in a field that interests them. Management encourages our expert lead staff to pass along their experience and knowledge to fellow workers. Evergreen is an “equal opportunity” employer and prides itself on hiring a diverse work force that can be seen within our crews.
We believe that being self motivated, hard working and the ability to work in a team environment are the primary skills required to attain employment and advance oneself within our organization. Evergreen management tries very hard to avoid “micro management” of its employees while balancing the necessity to ensure that the high quality standards to our clients are met.
Much of our “summertime” staff is students and/or young adults just starting out in the work force and looking for reliable multiple summers employment. EHS feels a responsibility to provide them not only with good summertime wages but also to provide work experience and educate them on safety procedures/operations that helps them prepare for future career opportunities no matter what field they choose. Management hopes that after working with us the employee can have a strong reference and a wealth of experience.
Industry Wide Standards and What to Expect from Employment at Evergreen
Evergreen believes in doing our part to professionalizing the Property Maintenance Business. Therefore we strive to educate our employees on what an employee should expect when working within the property maintenance industry. We have outlined some key points that employees should consider when applying and in turn working in this area of the business sector:
- At Evergreen we pay overtime to all our hourly staff. Overtime is an area where many companies “stretch” the labour laws of Alberta. See: https://www.alberta.ca/overtime-hours-overtime-pay.aspx. An hourly employee is entitled to Overtime Pay and Statutory Pay and must be paid 1.5 times their hourly rate. An “Overtime Agreement” can be reached with hourly employees to bank time therefore providing them with paid time off in lieu of paying them the overtime rate.
- This does not absolve the company of paying the overtime but rather allows them to defer how it is paid. Any employee not paid the appropriate overtime pay should insist reimbursement regardless of pressure and how long ago it was owed.
- For winter employees who are given salary for Snow removal enter into such an “overtime agreement” with us. In this case if there are any days where more than 8 hours is worked they receive the equivalent or more in time off.
- If such an agreement did not exist, then any days an employee worked more than the regular hours they should receive financial compensation for those hours.
- Generally we do not work weekends at Evergreen in the summer. We believe that it is important for the crews to have weekend time off to “recharge” and enjoy the limited summer season. We do offer weekend work when lost days occur due to weather, etc.
- We believe in creating a Safe work environment through training and following guidelines.
- All staff members are given an orientation and provided with safe work procedures through demonstration and paper where required
- All staff members are trained in WHIMIS
- Every crew should have a trained Emergency First-aid member
- Due to the size of our company (20 or more employees) we have a government mandated Safety Committee that consists of members from all the divisions of Evergreen. They meet regularly and provide recommendations to management on safety concerns, etc. Smaller companies do not require a committee but do still require a government mandated Safety Representative that cannot be the owner.
If you are interested in pursuing a job and/or career with Evergreen Horticulture Services resumes can be submitted via email or by fax.