Collaboration is fast becoming a popular word being used by all manner of organisations. But what does this word really mean?

My understanding is that collaborative working means people or organisations working together to achieve a common goal.

It involves the sharing of knowledge, skills, and resources, supporting each other’s roles and responsibilities, making decisions collectively and communicating effectively to achieve something they could not achieve alone.

It is something that I have been talking about for several years that we need to address within our industry – in relations to areas such as pay and conditions, recruitment, promotion and shows.

One of the biggest problems in recent years for all businesses is recruitment. It is generally getting harder to recruit young people into our industry.

For me, the time has come for a collective approach to this problem. For far too many years now we have been working in isolation. Each industry organisation having been focusing on their own objectives. 

A recent article we published which came from the GMA was in response to a piece I wrote earlier in the year about recruitment issues. I felt that the industry must finally come together to promote, change and deliver some core initiatives to help promote the industry, increase awareness of our skill base and set up new national career pathways for those wanting to come and work in our diverse industry. 

In his reply, Geoff Webb spoke about the current work the GMA are doing to address this issue. He spoke about their NextGen team who are a group of passionate young professionals who are key to engaging the next generation. Formerly called the Young Board, the group is focused on attracting young talent to grounds management.

I believe all our industry associations – names such as BIGGA, BALI, RHS, BAGMA, BASIS, LANTRA, Fields in Trust, Green Flag and many others - are all in their own way trying their best to help improve and promote the values of our industry. 

However, for me this is not enough. As mentioned in my article, I think it is about time many of our key industry organisations stopped working in isolation and began collaborating together to promote the industry nationally. I’d like to see them set up a nationwide campaign to go into every school and tell them about career opportunities - and then create a new pathway scheme to get into the industry. This could essentially be a new apprenticeship scheme that facilitates 5,000 apprentices a year for the next five years. 

This would require working with all the UK colleges and universities and getting our hands on some of the government money they have set aside for apprenticeships.  

I believe it is an opportunity that could be realised if the like-minded came together.

So I do find it encouraging that last week we published a news item regarding BIGGA, organisers of BTME, and GroundsFest announcing a new collaboration that they say is aimed at strengthening both events while bringing together professionals from across the grounds care, landscaping, and golf sectors. 

In an official statement they said the partnership will see them working closely on joint initiatives throughout the year, including attending and supporting each other’s events, hosting tailored educational content, and working together on joint marketing campaigns. 

It will be interesting to see just how this pans out and what the industry’s response to this announcement will be? I for one will be interested to hear what Geoff Webb, CEO of the GMA thinks about this new collaboration and whether they will be seeking to join in with the initiative?

It does lead to me and many others to thinking how this could affect SALTEX? 

For many years our industry has been blessed with two annual shows SALTEX and BTME in Harrogate. However, in recent years we have now seen the emergence of other shows - specifically GroundsFest that’s now into its third year at the Stonliegh Park site in Warwickshire.

I have for many years advocated for one national show, that offers both indoor and outdoor stand space. I remember when I was Pitchcare editor, David Saltman our MD tried very hard to bring together both the IOG (now GMA) and BIGGA to form one show way back in 2006. But alas both organisations at the time decided to keep their own shows. 

Maybe this recent announcement may finally be the catalyst to help bring many of our other key organisations to work more closely together? With the aim to collectively solve the problems we are now facing regarding recruitment, retention and better pay and conditions - and crucially, finding a new career pathway into our industry. 

I congratulate both Jim and Chris in initiative, which will no doubt help our industry greatly in the coming years.