Client Spotlight: Rancho West Landscape Uses a Simple Newsletter to Drive Safety

Author, Lauren Stumpf, Media Communications Assistant, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

To say Rancho West Landscape (RWL) is proactive in safety would be an understatement. They have made safety a top priority in their company. Their newsletter is among a variety safety initiatives they‘ve embraced. Each month, RWL is able to compress incredible content into a one-page company publication available in both English and Spanish. With the fast-paced schedule of daily business activities, maintaining the level of consistency in generating the newsletter is an achievement in and of itself.

Drew Garcia pictured with Christy Flores.

“Rancho West is always looking for a way to improve safety, training, process and communication,” says Drew Garcia, Vice President Landscape Group at Rancho Mesa Insurance. “This newsletter is a small example of their company’s culture that is rooted in safety. I always admire consistency in people and organizations. It has been a pleasure to work for Rancho West and watch activity like this continue with regularity.”

In the November 2019 issue, RWL announced their new safety program with Greenius. Greenius is an online safety platform designed to provide educational safety training to landscape professionals. To learn more, read Rancho West Landscape’s November 2019 newsletter Issue 16.

If you are interested in creating your own safety newsletter, Christy Flores, the writer, editor, and publisher of the RWL newsletter, broke down some of the key concepts she thinks about when generating the monthly issues:

• Look to make one key point and center the rest of the information around that point.

• Incorporate current events: time of year, weather, holidays, etc.

• Include company pictures to make it more personal.

• Recognize an employee or group of employees.

• Have fun with it (see the word search and incentive for participation).

• Keep it to one page, too much information is overwhelming.

• English and Spanish (hint: use Google translate and have someone read it over for clarity).

• Be consistent (Christy publishes monthly, but you can start off slow. Try publishing quarterly).

• Distribute newsletters with pay checks, post them in company common areas, and email if possible.

• Provide key contacts.  Christy keeps the area mangers phone numbers on every issue.

• Find the right person to own and enjoy creating the document.

• Find content online, in the news, through your association, and from your insurance broker/carrier.

• Newsletter templates are available on multiple websites and platforms. Christy uses Microsoft Publisher.

“I’m really proud of Christy for sticking to it. Without any recognition, she continued to create the newsletter to help make Rancho West a better company,” expressed Greg Duncan, President of Rancho West Landscape.

Rancho Mesa Insurance thanks RWL for allowing us to highlight their company in an effort to promote safety within the landscape industry.

About Rancho West Landscape
Rancho West Landscape has been servicing Southern California since 1990. As a local landscape contractor based in Murrieta, they have upheld the highest standard of service and continue to raise safety standards.

Rancho Mesa Co-Hosts OSHA 10 Course for Landscape Industry

Author, Lauren Stumpf, Media Communications Assistant, Rancho Mesa Insurance, Inc.

Attendees holding certificates after completion of the OSHA 10 Course for the Landscape Industry.

On May 14 & 15, 2019 Rancho Mesa Insurance Services’ co-hosted the OSHA 10 Course for the Landscape Industry at the San Diego Christian College in Santee, CA.

The OSHA 10 Course for the Landscape Industry is a two-day training provided by Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies (BHHC) in partnership with the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) and Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc. 

Multiple companies were in attendance at the workshop, including Atlas Tree Service, Four Seasons Tree Care, Inc., Heaviland Landscape Management, Rancho West Landscape, Inc., Pacific Green Landscape, Inc., True Lawn Care, Inc., and Urban Habitat.

Art Marquez of BHHC started off the training with an introduction of the history of OSHA. Steve Hamilton taught the rest of the course covering a variety of topics such as the fatal four hazards (i.e., fall protection, caught in or between, electrical exposures, and struck-by hazards), material handling storage/use, and stairways/ladders. Steve and Art are in the Loss Control department at BHHC, which assists the insureds with safety related trainings and site inspections to ensure that they are not doing anything that would create a hazard or potential claim.