The backbone of this industry isn't machinery or contracts. It's people.

I joined Ground Control because I believed the work mattered. Three years in as CPO, I believe that more than ever, and I see more clearly the scale of the people challenge this sector is facing. Grounds maintenance employs hundreds of thousands of people across the UK. It keeps hospitals safe, schools welcoming, public parks open, and housing estates liveable. It is work that is visible in the results and invisible in the conversation, an industry that the public benefits from every day without ever quite noticing it's there. That invisibility has consequences. It shapes how potential recruits see us, how commissioners value us, and how seriously our people challenges are taken by the wider business community. It is time to change that.

The recruitment challenge is structural, not cyclical

The UK grounds maintenance sector is facing a demographic cliff, a significant cohort of experienced, skilled operatives approaching retirement, with too few people coming through behind them. Post-Brexit, the seasonal EU labour that once filled the gap is no longer available in the same way. And younger generations, who have more choices than any previous cohort, are not naturally gravitating towards physically demanding outdoor work.

At the same time, the complexity of what we ask our people to do has increased substantially. Today's grounds maintenance operative is not simply mowing grass. They are working to biodiversity net gain specifications, operating advanced equipment, following exacting health and safety protocols, and representing our brand in front of clients every single day. The skills required have risen. The supply of people with those skills has not kept pace.

This is a structural problem, not a temporary one. It will not be solved by raising day rates alone,  though fair pay is non-negotiable. At Ground Control, we are an accredited Living Wage employer. That is a commitment, not a marketing position. It means every person who works for us, directly employed or through our supply chain, is paid a wage that meets the real cost of living, not just the statutory minimum. In an industry historically associated with low pay, that matters. It is also increasingly what serious clients expect of their contractors.

Values have to be lived, not laminated

At Ground Control, our values are the framework we actually run the business by. We believe that talent comes in all shapes, sizes and colours. We encourage an entrepreneurial culture where hard work and ingenuity are rewarded. We follow through on commitments and lead by example. We win as a team.

These are not aspirational statements. They are the standards we hold ourselves to in how we recruit, how we manage performance, how we handle difficult conversations, and how we celebrate success. When we get them right, they create the kind of workplace that people want to stay in. When we fall short, we say so, and we act. That honesty is part of the culture, too.

Safety sits at the heart of our values, non-negotiably. In an industry where field teams work in all weathers, on roads, near machinery, and in unpredictable environments, that commitment shapes every briefing, every risk assessment, and every conversation a manager has with a team member at the start of a shift. A culture that genuinely values people takes safety seriously, not because it has to, but because it understands that no contract is worth an injury.

This approach to culture is not just the right thing to do,  it is recognised externally. Ground Control has been named in the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Places to Work. That recognition comes from our own people, through independent employee surveys. It is the most meaningful kind of endorsement a workplace can receive, and it reflects years of sustained investment in how we treat the people who work for us.

Widening the door, and meaning it

One of the most important shifts we can make is to recruit from a much wider pool. The traditional pipeline of young men from agricultural or horticultural backgrounds is narrowing. That is not a crisis; it is an opportunity to look in places we haven't looked before.

Our partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions is one example of how we are doing this in practice. We are creating genuine pathways into the sector for people who might not have considered it, including people returning to work after a period of absence, people with lived experience of challenging circumstances, and people for whom the physical, purposeful nature of outdoor work is not a barrier but a draw. We have seen first-hand that this approach works. People who come to us through these routes bring energy, commitment, and loyalty. They stay.

Diversity of background is not a tick-box exercise. It is a talent strategy. An industry that recruits from a wider pool, invests in people who others have overlooked, and builds genuine inclusion into its culture will out-compete one that doesn't. The Living Wage accreditation and the Sunday Times recognition are part of the same story: if you want to attract people from a broader range of backgrounds, you have to be demonstrably serious about how you treat them.

Development is retention

The most common reason people leave any job is that they stop seeing a future in it. Our job in People is to make sure that doesn't happen, by making career pathways clear, by investing in training that builds real capability, and by celebrating progression at every level of the organisation.

Working in green services in 2026 is genuinely interesting work. There are career paths in ecology, technology, project management, carbon accounting, landscape architecture, and operational leadership. There are apprenticeships and routes from field operative to contract manager to director. These paths exist. We need to communicate them far earlier, at schools, at career events, in the communities where our field teams live, so that people consider this industry before they've already chosen something else.

What the industry needs to do together

Ground Control can lead by example, and we intend to. But People challenges of this scale are not solved by one company acting alone. The grounds maintenance sector needs to speak with a unified voice about what it offers as a career: purposeful outdoor work, genuine skills development, fair pay, and the knowledge that what you do every day makes a visible, tangible difference.

We need to engage schools and colleges much earlier. We need to make the case to the government that investment in green workforce skills is an investment in national infrastructure. And we need to stop being apologetic about what this industry is.

At Ground Control, our goal is to bring humans and nature together. You cannot do that without the people to deliver it. Building that workforce, developing it, and keeping it is the most important strategic challenge this sector faces. It is the challenge I show up to work for every day.

Lisa Blakey is Chief People Officer at Ground Control, the UK's largest grounds maintenance company by market share. Ground Control is an accredited Living Wage employer and has been named in the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Places to Work.

Note to editor: all credentials and award references should be verified with Ground Control before publication.