Last week I received this press release from Park Lawn Corporation titled “Park Lawn empowers key leaders to enhance the family experience and support growth”.  While there is nothing particularly newsworthy in that title, publishing the press release gives me the ability to editorialize on what, for lack of a better title, I’ll call the Death Care “Two-tiered employment go-round”.

I’ll first of all note that I am happy for all employees who receive promotions and was especially happy to see that this round of promotions at Park Lawn Corporation resulted in a promotion for Lauren Blevins.  Now, I’ve met Lauren, but don’t really know her — although her father, Al, I do know and he is one of the finest people in funeral service.   What I like about Lauren’s promotion at Park Lawn Corporation is that she is coming from a successful local funeral home and according to the press release  “will bring that experience to (a region), supporting local leaders, sharing effective practices, and bringing decisions closer to the families Park Lawn serves.

I think the experience that comes from operating a family-owned funeral home or managing a funeral home is invaluable to the experience of leading others in that capacity.  But, moving successful operators up into the corporate structure of the funeral home acquisition companies does not, at least in my opinion, happen as often as I believe it should.

I also believe that one of the reasons for this is that the corporate company does not want to “upset the apple cart” of a well-functioning, profitable local funeral home operation that they have going.  Because of that thought process, many great operators who have a lot to teach others, never get the opportunity to do so because the consolidators want to keep their current operation functioning at a high level.

It’s my opinion that by keeping that operator at that “high-functioning” location, the location continues to operate very well, but the corporate company losses the opportunity to have other, possibly under-performing units, brought to a higher level that this individual, if promoted to a regional manager, could possibly accomplish. . . . . At the end of the day, it very well could result in a missed opportunity for the consolidator to “up its game” at several locations.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Over the years, I’ve met many great funeral directors who had the opportunity, if that is what you want to call it, to join the corporate Death Care world.  People like Service Corporation International (SCI) President Jay Waring who joined SCI in 1996, Jim Price who worked in the corporate world with Prime Succession and Keystone, and Jay Dodds who worked with Carriage Services, The Signature Group, and Park Lawn Corporation all transitioned from family firms to corporate positions and their experience greatly enhanced the corporate companies that they joined.

I would argue that “casting the net” to include local funeral home owners and managers when those in national Death Care are looking for future leaders would be a great idea that should be done more often.

The “Two-tiered employment go-round”:  I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to work in a localized funeral home management as well as, through my affiliation with Funeral Director Daily, get to know the Death Care world on the corporate or macro-level.  One of the things that I notice with the corporate Death Care world — what I would call national players in the business — is that they  seem to be like MLB baseball teams or college football teams and seem to “recycle” corporate employees among themselves much like those sports entities recycle baseball managers or college football coaches who have been let go from a previous employment situation and then join a competing organization at the same employment level.

I have several friends, or acquaintances in the national Death Care employment world who have worked for several different competitors over the course of their careers.

I understand that there is something to be said for “Experience” but there is also something to be said about “new ideas and fresh perspectives”.  In my opinion, often times the “safe” choice is not the “best” choice.

If your a national or regional player in the funeral home, cemetery, or preneed business might I suggest that the next time you are looking for great leadership, don’t hesitate to include local funeral home talent in that search.

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Reassured partners with Farewill.  Coverager.com (Great Britain)
• Dignity launcehs new group identity – “the next chapter for our business and ouor 3,000 colleagues”.  Insider Media (Great Britain)
• Body in freezer for 4 years:  What are the rules for preserving dead bodies in India?  The Indian Express (India)
• After 131 years of being buried in an Indain School Cemetery, a Comanche child’s remains are returned to her homelands.  Smnithsonian Magazine
• More than 20 million Americans have loved ones whose cremated remains have no permanent place to be remembered.  Morningstar

Enter your e-mail below to join the 3,482 others who receive Funeral Director Daily articles daily

“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”