If you want to improve your company’s performance, you must set goals and measure your progress. Measuring your own progress year over year is important, as it gives you insights into where you are growing and where you still need to improve. Yet, while internal measurements are valuable, setting goals and measuring your company’s progress against other companies is crucial for success.

Bob Rouse discusses TCIA’s Benchmarking and Compensation Survey during a pop-up session at TCI EXPO ’24 in Baltimore, Maryland. TCIA staff photos.

Competitive benchmarking measures specific aspects of a business against similar organizations within the industry. While general data such as wage information in any given geographic area can be helpful, measuring against companies of similar size within the same industry provides even more valuable information. When you make meaningful comparisons with other companies, you can identify opportunities to grow and improve your own business.

TCIA offers a benchmarking tool for member companies
Enter TCIA’s Benchmarking and Compensation Survey. TCIA has offered a wage-and-salary survey to members since 2014. It provides a way for company owners to know where they stand in revenue, expenses, net profit, wages and benefits compared to other companies in the industry.

“Our industry is a bit unique in the way revenue is generated, per billable service hour per production employee, with very little mark up from related product,” says Bob Rouse, TCIA’s senior vice president, programs & services. This cascades through all other industry data, such as the ratio of revenue generated per production employee per year, capital equipment requirements needed to support those employees and the ratio of non-production-support employees to production employees.

“All of this affects profitability, salary, benefits and bonuses in a unique way,” says Rouse. “It’s hard to get this specific information from other sources.”

New features added in 2023
Prior to 2023, TCIA utilized a basic Wage and Benefit Survey. In 2023, several optional sections were added, creating the new Benchmarking and Compensation Survey. It includes a new, optional section for company financial and performance benchmarks for revenue, expenses and profits. Another new, optional section for compensation transparency has been added for companies that may need to include benchmarks in these areas for government and corporate contracting.

“We added the new demographic sections for DEI and Pay Transparency to help companies that need industry-specific data as part of government or corporate work proposals and contracting,” says Rouse. “These agencies and corporations often want to know how a specific company compares to the industry average for various demographics. For example, without context, a company applying for government work with only a 20% female workforce might get scrutinized during the vetting process as they may not meet general minimum contract requirements. However, when compared to our industry mean of 14% female workforce, the same company can now show they are better than the industry average.”

There is also a new analysis feature that allows participating companies to compare their results to those of other companies that work in other areas of the country, with the same cost of living index (Federal COLI).

Data security and integrity
TCIA employs Dynamic Benchmarking LLC to create and implement the survey. Dynamic Benchmarking is a third party, and specializes in benchmarking software for professional and trade associations. It ensures all data is securely held and protected subject to the General Data Protection Regulation.

Dynamic Benchmarking ensures that data is only reported if enough data is input based on the legal requirements, and then it is reported in aggregate, according to Maria McDonald, chief revenue officer, Dynamic Benchmarking, during an online presentation to TCIA member companies in July 2023.

The goal of the survey is to provide a valuable tool for members, and is not a source of revenue. Thus, the survey results cannot be purchased and are only available to participating members. Additionally, participating members must complete all required questions in the profile section and 50% of the total survey questions in order to access the results.

“It’s hard to get this specific
information from other sources,” Bob Rouse says of TCIA’s benchmarking survey.

Setup and use made easy
The program enables users to download all questions into several formats, including Word and Excel. This allows the administrator from your company to gather data from various departments and enter it into the survey from one working file.

Similarly, the results can be custom sorted and downloaded into various formats such as PowerPoint and Word.

A longtime user weighs in
Stacy Hughes, president and owner of Hughes Tree Service, a 32-year TCIA member company based in Gretna, Nebraska, is a longtime user of the survey. “It’s the best tool out there,” says Hughes. “It’s really helped us organize our financial statements to make them much more useable for us.”

Hughes also is a longtime member of a TCA Peer-to-Peer group. His is one of many groups of company leaders who share their knowledge and expertise within their group. They are self-governing and can tackle any number of issues together as determined by the group. “Our Peer-to-Peer group as a whole has come up with some really valuable ratios to use measuring success, and you can get that out of the benchmarking. Production per personnel vs. non-production personnel, sales versus sales expense, annual revenue per employee and per production employee. We constantly use this information in our Peer-to-Peer group,” says Hughes.

How to participate
The survey will open in early January 2025 and will be available for member companies to participate in throughout the year.

To learn more, visit tcia.org/business-support/business-solutions/wage-benefit-survey (Benchmarking and Compensation Survey – Tree Care Industry Association, LLC).

Susan DiPietro is managing editor for TCI Magazine.