Take a look around the emerging cannabis industry, and it’s clear most operators are facing growing pains and challenges that only the most well-run businesses are surviving.
And while the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted current and upcoming cannabis markets in different ways, these universal challenges and lessoned-learned are more relevant than ever.
From a business development perspective, the high turnover rate in this industry is one of the most obvious red flags. In June 2018, cannabis analytics firm Headset reported that 58% of dispensary workers did not make it past their first two months, and 40% didn’t even reach one month.
What’s the story there? How can any business thrive when more than half of new hires don’t make it past their first two months? And more importantly, how many other types of cannabis businesses are struggling with these painful people issues?
Before the pandemic hit, Green Flower launched an investigation, engaging with hundreds of cannabis employees from across the industry, inviting them to share their stories.
Unfortunately, our concerns were validated as we received hundreds of toxic workplace stories, truly heartbreaking reports of disconcerting behavior from across the industry. Tales of abuse, harassment, dishonesty, nepotism, and potentially fatal safety hazards – all of it amounting to a common attitude of treating people like disposable resources (and businesses struggling mightily as a result).
The further we dug into our research, the more we understood the high turnover, the downsizing, the poor customer service, the compliance mistakes, the issues with quality assurance, and many other fixable areas of business incompetence hindering the legal cannabis world.
This white paper created by Green Flower is designed to address the following widespread trends we found and provide strong recommendations on how to resolve or prevent them:
1) Poor leadership and management practices
2) Lack of focus on building culture within the company
3) Weak human resources and onboarding processes
4) Putting people in harm’s way
5) Inadequate customer service that comes from a lack of training
6) Costly compliance mistakes
7) Regulatory frameworks and cannabis taxes creating undue pressure on cannabis operators and teams
This white paper also shows how a streamlined training solution is an essential component to addressing all of these critical challenges and achieving sustainable, long-term success in cannabis.
As the industry continues to navigate these growing pains and difficult lessons learned, it is Green Flower’s mission to help all cannabis professionals and enterprises achieve success in what could become the world’s greatest industry.
Max Simon,
Green Flower CEO & Founder
