What does a grounds keeper do?
A groundskeeper's job responsibility is to maintain and modify outdoor areas such as college campuses, parks, gardens, etc. Your major duty is to carry out routine maintenance, planting, and gardening of a business or park's landscape. You may have to perform duties like mowing and maintaining lawns, planting new greenery, and trimming shrubs. Other duties you may likely carry out are watering, fertilizing, mulching, and applying pesticides. In all, the goal is to maintain the grounds of the place where you work.
Grounds keeper responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real grounds keeper resumes:
- Manage hardscape installation team and project
- Remove debris from stairs and walks, rakes leaves, and mows lawns.
- Remove leaves and other debris from graves, using leaf blowers, rakes, and weed eaters.
- Perform flower and foliage care and planting, raking or blowing leaves, mowing grass, mulching and removing weeds.
- Assist with general building maintenance including plumbing and electrical repairs.
- Used spray guns, brushes, brooms, cleaning solutions, ladders.
- Maintain parking lots and other surfaces, including asphalt repairs.
- Perform minor repairs of asphalt or concrete and directional signage repair.
- Used weed whackers, rakes, shovels, and other equipment in the performance of duties.
- Employ a variety of hand and power tools including trimmers, blowers, compactors, concrete/asphalt see etc.
- Operate equipment such as back hoe, dump trucks, tractors, lawn mowers, weed eaters, and chain saws
- Perform a combination of the following: mowing, trimming, planting, watering, fertilizing, digging, and raking.
- Diagnose and correct electrical, plumbing and constructional integrity issues.
- Machine maintenance-Mowing greens operating all mowers.-Grounds keeping.
- Operate, maintain, and repair light, medium, heavy equipment: tractors, sweepers, bobcats, etc.
Grounds keeper skills and personality traits
We calculated that 30% of Grounds Keepers are proficient in GRASS, PET, and Lawn Care. They’re also known for soft skills such as Customer-service skills, Dexterity, and Troubleshooting skills.
We break down the percentage of Grounds Keepers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- GRASS, 30%
Mix and spray fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides onto grass using hand and automatic sprayers and spreaders.
- PET, 19%
Removed pet spotting with sod plugs.
- Lawn Care, 7%
Cut lawns and take care of the pool and other duties with lawn care for the lake condos
- Snow Blowers, 5%
Operated various types of lawn and grounds keeping machinery; tractors, bobcats, push mowers, snow blowers, etc.
- Mowing, 5%
Performed routine maintenance on golf course including mowing, greens repair, tree removal, irrigation, and cart maintenance.
- Weed Control, 4%
Weed control of the facilities, trash, and painting.
Most grounds keepers use their skills in "grass," "pet," and "lawn care" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential grounds keeper responsibilities here:
Dexterity. Many grounds keeper duties rely on dexterity. "grounds maintenance workers must have good eye, foot, and hand coordination when using dangerous or heavy equipment such as backhoes, mowers, and tractors.," so a grounds keeper will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways grounds keeper responsibilities rely on dexterity: "lifted dead leaves and grass from between growing grass and soil, using thatcher. "
Physical stamina. A big part of what grounds keepers do relies on "physical stamina." You can see how essential it is to grounds keeper responsibilities because "grounds maintenance workers must be able to do strenuous labor for long periods of time, occasionally in extreme heat or cold." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical grounds keeper tasks: "accept and make deliveries.maintenance: maintain the cleanliness and physical upkeep of the grounds and apartment buildings. "
The three companies that hire the most grounds keepers are:
- Aramark116 grounds keepers jobs
- Greystar Real Estate Partners103 grounds keepers jobs
- ABM Industries95 grounds keepers jobs
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Compare different grounds keepers
Grounds keeper vs. Lawn care technician
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a grounds keeper are more likely to require skills like "pet," "minor maintenance," "de-icing," and "cleanliness." On the other hand, a job as a lawn care technician requires skills like "customer service," "basic math," "pest control," and "safety procedures." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Lawn care technicians really shine in the finance industry with an average salary of $34,566. Comparatively, grounds keepers tend to make the most money in the health care industry with an average salary of $32,958.The education levels that lawn care technicians earn slightly differ from grounds keepers. In particular, lawn care technicians are 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a grounds keeper. Additionally, they're 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Grounds keeper vs. Lawn maintenance worker
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, grounds keeper responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "pet," "minor maintenance," "de-icing," and "cleanliness." Meanwhile, a lawn maintenance worker has duties that require skills in areas such as "hand tools," "ladders," "dexterity," and "manual dexterity." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
On average, lawn maintenance workers earn a lower salary than grounds keepers. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, lawn maintenance workers earn the most pay in the health care industry with an average salary of $30,057. Whereas grounds keepers have higher pay in the health care industry, with an average salary of $32,958.In general, lawn maintenance workers achieve similar levels of education than grounds keepers. They're 0.2% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Grounds keeper vs. Lawn technician
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from grounds keeper resumes include skills like "grass," "pet," "minor maintenance," and "de-icing," whereas a lawn technician is more likely to list skills in "quality customer service," "fertilize lawns," "pest control," and "safety procedures. "
Lawn technicians earn the best pay in the construction industry, where they command an average salary of $33,766. Grounds keepers earn the highest pay from the health care industry, with an average salary of $32,958.lawn technicians typically earn similar educational levels compared to grounds keepers. Specifically, they're 0.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Grounds keeper vs. Lawn care specialist
Types of grounds keeper
Updated January 8, 2025
