Words of Wilson will teach you each month to better understand, develop and manage your most valuable resource – your people.
© St_Aurora72 | iStockphoto
Landscapes don’t build themselves, irrigation isn’t plumbed without a trained workforce and gardens don’t thrive without the careful attention of skilled crews – a group of which have been in increasingly short supply.
However, there is good news. A tight labor market is helping us to be more strategic about how we run and staff our business. In this spirit, here are eight tips busy owners can use to attract the right people.
1. Target your recruiting.
Posting job openings
2. Tell a better story.
People looking for jobs are following social media, especially your company’s Facebook page. Profile your existing employees, awards, celebrations and community involvement on social media to show that your business is fun and has
3. Use interactive mobile technology.
People looking for jobs depend on interactive mobile technology. Make sure you have online features in your website and through your social media channels that encourage applicants to apply for open positions, ask questions and learn more about making your company their career home.
4. Use training to improve the odds.
You can teach job skills, but you can’t fix a bad fit. People seeking jobs are drawn to positions that include opportunities for them to learn. When your workforce can do their jobs better, they become more confident, leading to greater job satisfaction, improved productivity and an increased collective knowledge of the whole team.
5. Raise wages.
The best solution to a worker shortage is to pay more. Many business owners might say they can’t afford to pay more, but in a labor-tight market, that thinking may no longer be an option. If wages rise as a whole, it drives positive change in the industry, attracting more entry-level labor and people looking to switch jobs or careers. For owners willing to pay H-2B employees higher rates plus the costs of the program, but not pay new employees the same rate, it’s time to revisit your compensation strategy.
6. Improve efficiency.
If you want to increase efficiency
7. Control overhead.
Maintaining a stable employee base is one effective way to manage overhead. Another is to provide training and tools that support greater efficiency in account and project management. This way, employees responsible for a larger workload can be more productive without compromising their ability to deliver. Some companies cut costs by changing hours of operations, going to a four-day, 10-hour/day work week; others replace full-time employees with part-time workers to reduce administrative costs. As companies grow, eliminating redundancies between departments will reduce overhead, as will outsourcing non-critical tasks.
8. Reduce your footprint.
Can you use bigger, faster mowers? Can you replace older equipment with more eco- or fuel-efficient equipment? Our industry’s manufacturers are designing innovative products for efficiency and productivity that can offer lasting value to your business and improve your ability to meet your customers’ needs. Distributors offer training programs that can help a streamlined workforce become smarter about the way they work and programs that enable you to easily upgrade to save cost on labor, fuel
Explore the July 2018 Issue
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