SavATree, a landscape services company that operates across 40 US states, generated $1.5 million in returns by better engaging and training its frontline workers.
The company was a Supernova 2025 award winner and highlights how engaging frontline workers is increasingly critical to success. SavATree, which deployed UKG Pro Learning, detailed its project at Constellation Research's Connected Enterprise conference.
Sarah Cusack explains the SavATree project at CCE 2025.
I caught up with Sarah Cusack, director of learning and development at SavATree to talk about the project and lessons learned. Here's a look at the takeaways.
Career advancement for field staff needs to be easily accessible. “This project was all about taking what was previously a very basic pen and paper system for training modules, and putting that into a UKG learning management system,” said Cusack, who noted that the previous system hurt engagement due to the manual and slow process.
To make training accessible, the primary delivery method for frontline workers is a mobile device. “We made training more accessible to our field employees through their mobile devices, making it available in the languages that they all speak, and reducing our turnover that was related to career development and promotions,” said Cusack.
The system was a win-win for the company, which benefited from lower turnover, and the employees, who advanced careers and pay quickly.
Delivering returns. Cusak said training for employees needs to drive returns. The primary KPI was a decrease in turnover. Better engagement also translates into better service.
“We saw a 6% decrease in turnover before this program and after that was directly tied to the lead reason of promotion or career advancement,” said Cusak. “Overall, we had about $1.5 million in cost savings, taking into account the reduced turnover, increased engagement, decreased time to fill positions.”
The breakdown went like this:
- Decreased turnover ($255,840 savings): In the two months before the initial rollout of the SDAP program in UKG Pro Learning, 25% of hourly employees cited “career development/promotion” as their primary reason for leaving during exit interviews. In the two months after rollout, less than 10% of hourly employees in that same service line cited “career development/promotion” as their primary reason for leaving.
- Increased employee engagement ($636,480 savings): Leveraging its annual employee engagement survey, SavATree determined that disengaged employees are 18% less productive than engaged employees. Two years after implementing the SDAP program in UKG, disengagement in the main service line fell to 50%, resulting in significant productivity gains.
- Decreased recruiting costs ($392,000 savings): Programmatic recruiting spend, which has the most reliable cost data.
- Decreased training costs ($254,000 savings): Training time and materials.
- Decreased print material costs ($15,000 savings): Reduction in paper usage and printing costs.
Gamification can drive employee engagement. Cusak said a leaderboard where everyone in the company could compare training and learning relative to peers drove engagement.
“The leader boards and competition always sparks a little bit more interest in training,” said Cusak.
Balancing AI adoption with authenticity. Cusak said there’s a line enterprises have to walk between using AI and remaining authentic to the frontline worker. “When it comes to things that are really important to our people, we're keeping those as authentic as possible,” said Cusak, who said AI can be used for some content creation, but the things that directly reach frontline workers need a human touch.
Cusak said:
“What we're doing with our approach is making sure we're keeping what is at the heart authentic. Messages from our leadership and frontline leaders will still be authentic. When it's something concerning our mission, vision or values, those things are always authentic and 100% human.”
