What does a grounds maintenance supervisor do?

The grounds maintenance supervisor is in charge of the maintenance and landscape crew. These are people who mow lawns, trim overgrown shrubs, irrigate planting beds, and perform a host of other outdoor maintenance tasks. Your job will be to supervise them and ensure that the grounds are attractive and orderly. Grounds could either be sports grounds, gardens, lawns, parks, businesses, or urban infrastructure.
Grounds maintenance supervisor responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real grounds maintenance supervisor resumes:
- Manage sales, run machinary, complete wekly inventory, run forklift, deliver orders, and keep financial records
- Mow lawn using manual or riding mower, trim and edge around sidewalks, flower beds, and walls.
- Operate small power equipment, mowers, edger's, hedge clippers, weed whackers, back pack leaf blowers.
- General responsibilities include mowing and general upkeep of property, pipe repair, machinery operation and upkeep.
- Use of weed whips, blowers, hedgers.
- Clean grounds, using rakes, brooms and hoses ECT.
- Trim and prune trees and shrubbery.
- Used power lawnmowers, chain saws, leaf blowers, and electric clippers.
- Conduct hiring interviews, performance evaluations, and employee training relate to OSHA standards.
- Trim trees, prune shrubs, and design and install irrigation plans for efficient water usage.
- Mow around the farms, repair water and lagoon leaks, and use skid loader to clean up feed spills
- Cut trees, mow grass, provide traffic control, operate equipment such as tractor, backhoe, front end loader.
- Mix and spray or spread fertilizers onto grass, shrubs, and trees, using hand or automatic sprayers or spreaders.
- Used various mowers, tractors, heavy equipment, trimmers and other equipment for use in a landscaping and maintenance environment.
- Maintain campus in compliance with all applicable OSHA, EPA, and other local, state and federal states and regulations.
Grounds maintenance supervisor skills and personality traits
We calculated that 12% of Grounds Maintenance Supervisors are proficient in Mowing, GRASS, and Hand Tools. They’re also known for soft skills such as Customer-service skills, Dexterity, and Troubleshooting skills.
We break down the percentage of Grounds Maintenance Supervisors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Mowing, 12%
Provided support for the maintenance of massive Veterans Affairs campus including mowing, edging lawns, emptying trash receptacles.
- GRASS, 10%
Cut grass using a mower, irrigating grass, cutting hedges/ weeds and picking up trash around school grounds.
- Hand Tools, 6%
Operated weed whips and a variety of different hand tools.
- Cleanliness, 5%
Maintained cleanliness of park and assisted with recreational activates
- Grounds Maintenance, 4%
Direct supervision of grounds maintenance employees including daily work schedules, training, yearly job evaluations, and educational requirements.
- HVAC, 4%
Supervised HVAC technicians in maintaining site building and all utilities (water, cooling, power and building structure).
Common skills that a grounds maintenance supervisor uses to do their job include "mowing," "grass," and "hand tools." You can find details on the most important grounds maintenance supervisor responsibilities below.
Customer-service skills. The most essential soft skill for a grounds maintenance supervisor to carry out their responsibilities is customer-service skills. This skill is important for the role because "these workers interact with customers on a regular basis." Additionally, a grounds maintenance supervisor resume shows how their duties depend on customer-service skills: "clear grounds of natural clutter and animal damage maintain grounds cleanliness take down and build greens and hills expand grounds assist customers"
Dexterity. Many grounds maintenance supervisor duties rely on dexterity. "many repair and maintenance tasks, such as repairing small devices, connecting or attaching components, and using hand tools, require a steady hand and good hand–eye coordination.," so a grounds maintenance supervisor will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways grounds maintenance supervisor responsibilities rely on dexterity: "sorted and tackled team oriented work with excellent customer service through out the city.completed hands-on activities and projects. "
Troubleshooting skills. grounds maintenance supervisors are also known for troubleshooting skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to grounds maintenance supervisor responsibilities, because "workers find, diagnose, and repair problems." A grounds maintenance supervisor resume example shows how troubleshooting skills is used in the workplace: "provided ongoing production support and troubleshooting of all machines and hand tools.selected achievements:received hazwopper level 3 certification"
The three companies that hire the most grounds maintenance supervisors are:
- Wallick Communities6 grounds maintenance supervisors jobs
- Goodwill Industries of San Diego County2 grounds maintenance supervisors jobs
- Scentsy2 grounds maintenance supervisors jobs
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Grounds maintenance supervisor vs. Landscape foreman
A landscape crew leader works hand-in-hand with a Foreman during the landscape project installation. This professional represents the organization's best interest and maintains top-notch professionalism and integrity. Besides maintaining a clean project site and a fully equipped and orderly equipment trailer, a landscape crew leader also manages and instructs the team to create a top-notch and profitable product even in the absence of a Foreman. Moreover, landscape crew leaders teach and train team members to follow the right procedures and processes.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a grounds maintenance supervisor are more likely to require skills like "hand tools," "cleanliness," "hvac," and "ladders." On the other hand, a job as a landscape foreman requires skills like "work ethic," "strong work ethic," "bobcat," and "landscape design." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Landscape foremen earn the highest salaries when working in the construction industry, with an average yearly salary of $40,279. On the other hand, grounds maintenance supervisors are paid more in the health care industry with an average salary of $34,332.On average, landscape foremen reach similar levels of education than grounds maintenance supervisors. Landscape foremen are 0.7% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Grounds maintenance supervisor vs. Athletic fields superintendent
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, grounds maintenance supervisor responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "grass," "hand tools," "cleanliness," and "grounds maintenance." Meanwhile, an athletic fields superintendent has duties that require skills in areas such as "all-conference," "ran," "freshman," and "basketball tournament." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
In general, athletic fields superintendents achieve similar levels of education than grounds maintenance supervisors. They're 3.9% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Grounds maintenance supervisor vs. Landscape crew leader
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 maintenance supervisor resumes include skills like "hand tools," "cleanliness," "hvac," and "ladders," whereas a landscape crew leader is more likely to list skills in "taking care," "landscape installation," "work ethic," and "landscape equipment. "
Landscape crew leaders earn the highest salary when working in the utilities industry, where they receive an average salary of $50,773. Comparatively, grounds maintenance supervisors have the highest earning potential in the health care industry, with an average salary of $34,332.landscape crew leaders typically earn similar educational levels compared to grounds maintenance supervisors. Specifically, they're 1.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Grounds maintenance supervisor vs. Lawn service manager
Even though a few skill sets overlap between grounds maintenance supervisors and lawn service managers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a grounds maintenance supervisor might have more use for skills like "grass," "hand tools," "cleanliness," and "grounds maintenance." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of lawn service managers require skills like "customer issues," "customer complaints," "customer accounts," and "customer relations. "
Lawn service managers enjoy the best pay in the construction industry, with an average salary of $56,242. For comparison, grounds maintenance supervisors earn the highest salary in the health care industry.The average resume of lawn service managers showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to grounds maintenance supervisors. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 1.4% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.9%.Types of grounds maintenance supervisor
Updated January 8, 2025











