BUILD YOUR CREW
How to Hire Your First Lawn Care Employee
You're turning away work and working weekends. It's time to bring someone on. Here's a practical guide to hiring, onboarding, and managing your first lawn care employee the right way.
Quick answerTo hire your first lawn care employee in Australia, confirm demand is steady, budget for the full cost of wages plus superannuation and workers compensation, and pay at least the Gardening and Landscaping Services Industry Award rate (casuals receive a 25% loading). Systems like AxiomBlue help a new crew member follow the schedule from day one.
Hiring your first employee is one of the biggest decisions you'll make as a lawn care business owner. Done right, it multiplies your capacity and revenue. Done badly, it costs you time, money, and clients.
This guide walks through every step: recognising when to hire, writing an effective job ad, understanding your obligations under the Gardening and Landscaping Services Industry Award 2020 (GRIA 2020), running a useful interview, and setting your new crew member up for success from day one.
- Know the signs that it's time to bring someone on
- Understand GRIA 2020 award rates and casual loading
- Write a job ad that attracts the right candidates
- Structure an interview for trade and outdoor roles
- Onboard your crew member so they hit the ground running
When should you hire your first lawn care employee?
Most lawn care operators wait too long to bring on their first employee. By the time you're genuinely overwhelmed, you've already lost revenue and burnt out. Look for these signals early.
You're turning away new clients
If you've declined new enquiries in the past month because your schedule is full, you're capping your revenue. A second set of hands removes the ceiling.
You're working most weekends
Weekend work is a classic sign your Monday-to-Friday route can't absorb your full workload. If it's happening consistently, it's structural, not seasonal.
Jobs are taking longer than quoted
When you're handling equipment, logistics, and the actual mowing solo, jobs expand. Two people working together finish faster than one person working twice as long.
Solo operator vs. a two-person crew
The financial case for hiring often comes down to how much more revenue a second crew member brings in versus what they cost. Here's an honest comparison.
| Solo Operator | Two-Person Crew More capacity | |
|---|---|---|
| Daily job capacity | 8–10 residential mows | ✓ 14–18 residential mows |
| Larger property jobs | Often not feasible alone | ✓ Commercial sites become viable |
| Ability to take leave | Business stops when you stop | ✓ Operations continue in your absence |
| New client response time | Often weeks out | ✓ Can quote and schedule same week |
| Equipment breakdowns | Day lost if mower is down | ✓ Second machine keeps route moving |
| Risk of burnout | High: you carry everything | ✓ Workload distributed, pace sustainable |
What AxiomBlue does for your growing crew
Managing one person is easy. Managing a crew across multiple routes and dozens of weekly clients without the right systems quickly becomes chaos. AxiomBlue keeps everything in one place.
Employee records
Store contact details, skills, licences, and pay rates against each employee record. No spreadsheets and no paper folders. Everything sits in one searchable place.
Crew scheduling
Assign jobs to specific crew members from the drag-and-drop calendar. Your employee sees their full day's schedule on their phone the moment you publish it.
Mobile check-in/out
Crew members check in and out of jobs from their phone, with no app download needed. You get accurate time-on-site data for every job, automatically.
Payroll-ready timesheets
Check-in and check-out times roll up into weekly timesheets by employee. Export to your payroll system or accountant without manually reconciling dockets.
Job notes and photos
Crew members can log job notes and attach photos from the field. Client says the hedge wasn't trimmed? You have a timestamped photo proving it was done.
Job costing and margins
See labour cost per job against quoted revenue. As your crew scales, see which routes and service types actually make money and which merely keep everyone busy.
What award rates apply to lawn care employees in Australia?
Most lawn care and gardening employees in Australia fall under the Gardening and Landscaping Services Industry Award 2020 (GRIA 2020, MA000101). The award sets minimum hourly rates across classification levels. A new Horticultural Worker Level 1 (general labouring, basic mowing) starts at the adult minimum rate, while a Level 3 or 4 worker (operating specialised equipment, applying chemicals under a licence, or supervising others) attracts a higher rate. Casual employees receive a 25% loading on top of the base rate in lieu of leave entitlements. Check the current rates on the Fair Work Commission website each financial year, as they adjust annually on 1 July.
Beyond the base rate, you'll need to account for Superannuation Guarantee contributions (currently 11.5% in 2024–25 on ordinary time earnings), workers' compensation insurance (which varies by state and is calculated on your total wages) and any allowances the award requires, such as a wet weather or first aid allowance. If you're unsure, a brief conversation with your accountant before your first hire will save you from a compliance headache later. Get your payroll software or your accountant set up to process the GRIA 2020 classifications from day one.
Onboarding is where most small operators underinvest. Your new crew member should spend their first few days on the tools with you rather than being dropped solo into a route. Walk them through how you assess a property, how you communicate with clients, and what your quality standard looks like. From day one, have them use AxiomBlue to check in and out of every job. Not only does this give you accurate timesheets without any admin, it builds the habit of using the system before the route gets complex. A crew member who's been using the mobile app for a week will take a new job in their stride; one handed a tablet on day 30 won't.
Frequently asked questions about hiring lawn care employees
Most lawn care and gardening employees are covered by the Gardening and Landscaping Services Industry Award 2020 (GRIA 2020, MA000101). It sets minimum rates across Horticultural Worker classification Levels 1–5, with casual loading of 25% on top of base rates. Check the Fair Work Commission website for current rates, as they update on 1 July each year.
The clearest signals are: you're turning away new clients, you're consistently working weekends to catch up, jobs are taking longer than quoted because you're doing everything alone, or you've had to cancel or reschedule clients due to workload. If two or more of these apply regularly, it's time to hire.
Seek and Indeed are the most effective paid channels for trade and outdoor roles. Facebook Jobs and local community Facebook groups often generate strong responses, particularly in regional areas. Word of mouth via your existing network of suppliers, clients, and other operators remains one of the best sources of reliable candidates.
The Fair Work Act sets a minimum employment period before unfair dismissal provisions apply: 6 months for businesses with 15 or more employees, and 12 months for small businesses (fewer than 15 employees). Most employers use this as the probation window, though you should specify the probation period in your employment contract and treat it as a genuine assessment period rather than a formality.
Yes. From 1 July 2022, the $450/month minimum earnings threshold for super was removed. All employees, including casuals, are entitled to Superannuation Guarantee contributions (currently 11.5% in 2024–25) regardless of how much they earn, provided they are 18 or older, or under 18 and working at least 30 hours per week.
AxiomBlue gives each crew member a mobile-accessible web app. No download is required. They can see their daily schedule, check in and out of jobs, log notes and photos, and mark jobs complete. You get real-time visibility over where your crew is and what's been done, without relying on phone calls or paper dockets. Timesheets generate automatically from check-in data.
Ready to build your crew?
AxiomBlue gives you the tools to schedule, manage, and track your team from day one. Start your free trial and see how much smoother a two-person operation runs when everyone has the same view.
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