Cast a Wider Net

It seems a bit counterintuitive: When times are good, angling for quality employees is tricky for many landscape companies that don’t have the time or the bait to snag a big catch. When unemployment increases in other industries, trolling for new hires gets a whole lot easier.

As the longest recession since World War II continues to take its toll on the U.S., many in the landscape industry are actually benefiting from the increased layoffs, thanks to a larger labor pool. “People are cutting back, and that’s giving contractors more selection in terms of who they’re hiring,” says Tom Grandy, president of Grandy & Associates, a business training firm in Owensboro, Ky.

In fact, employers in many industries, including landscaping, are being inundated with candidates who are desperately seeking work, says Jean Seawright, a certified management consultant and owner of Seawright & Associates in Winter Park, Fla. According to a Lawn & Landscape survey, 49 percent of contractors say unemployment has increased their job applicants for hourly/seasonal labor positions.

Yet it’s not all smooth sailing – the challenges that come along with that increase in applicants leave many landscape professionals green at the gills. “With a significant increase in the number of candidates, the challenge becomes how to effectively and efficiently manage the volume of resumes and applications,” Seawright says. And many contractors (30 percent) answering the survey say this hasn’t meant higher quality workers either.

More Fish in the Sea
The unemployment rate climbed to 8.9 percent in April (the highest since 1983) even as the pace of layoffs slowed (539,000 workers lost their jobs that month). That leaves a lot more people fighting for the few jobs that are available.

“A year ago, it was just about impossible to find good help or help at all,” says Andrew Blanchford, president of Blanchford Landscape Contractors, a design-build firm in Bozeman, Mont. “In terms of qualified help, it’s still hard, but in terms of general labor it’s no problem now. We have applications coming in and we’re not even advertising.”

Blanchford hired five new workers this year, and the rest of his crew (he has 17 full-time employees) returned from last season. Most new hires had experience – some quite a lot. “I have one new hire who has 10 years of experience,” Blanchford says. “He’s probably being underutilized by us right now, but we’re thinking this is an opportunity to build for the future, so he will probably grow into a bigger position with us in time.”

Although Blanchford wrapped up his new hires for the year before the season was underway, hiring employees is an ongoing process for some business owners. “We’re consistently hiring,” says Ryan Jaycox, owner of Integrity Lawn Care, a landscape and lawn care company in Fenton, Mo.

Many of Jaycox’s applicants are from other landscape companies in the St. Louis area – they aren’t getting the number of hours they used to when the economy was good. Others have been laid off from one of the largest Chrysler plants in the area, which recently shut down. Some of those former Chrysler employees are trying to start their own companies; many others are attempting to work for companies like Jaycox’s.

“It’s tough. We’ve brought guys on with zero experience and generally put them on the mowing side, because our goal isn’t just to help our company, it’s to help the city we’re in,” Jaycox says. “Even if they don’t have the experience, we’ll bring them in and get them trained so they can make money again.”

Jaycox’s hiring practices aren’t solely for the benefit of the unemployed, however. He needs the help. Despite the choppy economy in the St. Louis area, business is booming for Integrity Lawn Care. “We haven’t felt the crunch in any way. People are still spending money and they want a company that has a good track record and does good work,” Jaycox says. In fact, Integrity Lawn Care is on track to double what the company made last year – around $1 million.

With that boom in business, Jaycox is renting equipment from other companies and even hiring their crews to supplement the work of his 15-employee staff. Often, those workers who assist Integrity Lawn Care are so impressed with how the company is run that they ask about jobs. “They see how we work and how many jobs we have and I guess it attracts them. They want to be a part of what we’re doing,” Jaycox says.

Still Not Smooth Sailing
Despite the influx of applicants, business owners face considerable challenges when it comes to hiring. One of the biggest problems: a shortage of qualified help. “A lot of people think they can just jump into our industry because there are low barriers,” Blanchford says. “But as long as there are people in the pool who know something, we probably aren’t going to spend any time talking to the people who don’t.”

Sometimes, however, it’s hard to determine who has the experience and who doesn’t. Rob Schmidt owns Bob’s Lawn Care, a small, mostly residential mowing and trimming service in Forest Hill, Md. This spring, he spent three weeks trying to find a new hire. In the process, Schmidt worked with a number of local organizations, including a small business development center, and posted the job opening on the state labor department workforce exchange Web site and Craigslist.

Out of 40 possible candidates – a considerably higher response rate than in past years – Schmidt interviewed about 20 people. At times, the process of hiring the two employees he ultimately selected was a painful one.

“I had a lot of wasted time dealing with people who were getting unemployment benefits and didn’t really want to work,” Schmidt says. One laid out her demands (she needed 40 hours of work a week at $13 an hour or she wouldn’t consider an interview). Another wasted five hours of time in training before telling Schmidt he didn’t want the job.

“A lot of job applicants play games when you first talk to them,” he says. “They say they know how to do something and want to work, but then they don’t show up or return messages.”

Finally, Schmidt started asking people if they were on unemployment during interviews. “I was tired of wasting time, so I started asking what they would need to consider taking the job. I was frank with them so I could screen the ones who weren’t serious.

“I had a bigger pool of candidates because of higher unemployment, but I needed them,” he adds. “In the past, I didn’t do a good enough job screening applicants. This year, I was determined not to have the same luck.”

A Lower Quota
Many landscape companies have fewer positions to fill this year because business is slow. This presents another challenge: “It’s a whole different caliber of people looking for seasonal work compared to those looking for year-round work,” Blanchford says.

In addition, some companies have fewer openings because so many employees from last year are sticking around – even with reduced hours and wages, they know better than to give up a steady gig. “Motivation is not really a problem right now because most of the people we have get that if they’re not motivated and producing, there’s somebody behind them who will,” Blanchford says.

Blanchford’s design/build work has slowed, so he was forced to cut back hours for his full-time designer. Rather than leaving altogether, the designer was willing to stick around on an as-needed basis. Other employees who have dropped from salaried to hourly positions are staying on, too – a boon for Blanchford’s business, because he doesn’t have to start from scratch with new hires. “I think there’s more of that than the employment numbers tell you – a lot of people employed but not fully employed anymore,” he says.

Schmidt agrees. “There are more people who call and are willing to accept part-time work. They want to work full time but they’re willing to take anything they can get.”

Reeling in the Keepers
Even when landscape professionals make the right hires, there isn’t any guarantee they’ll be able to keep employees around. Nineteen percent of business owners surveyed worry that once the economy improves and more jobs become available, employees will jump ship.

“Right now in the landscape industry, if you’re looking for someone to dig a hole, you’ll get a better quality individual, but they won’t stay with you for very long,” Grandy says. “In reality, they’re going to take the job and then start looking for something else.”

Keeping quality employees in the green industry will be easier if companies pay more and charge more, says Kim Parker, owner of Kim Parker Plants, an interior plantscaping company in Milpitas, Calif. “We have yet to elevate our image from ‘gardeners’ to ‘technicians,’ where better money can be charged and expected. What we do is detailed, difficult, dirty, hard work, and the people willing to do this work should be well-paid.”

 Previously, when unemployment was about 2 percent in Bozeman, Blanchford says finding qualified labor was hard, so he overpaid people. But now unemployment is closer to 5 percent, so he estimates entry-level labor has dropped from about $12 to $10 an hour.

Yet wages – and whether they decrease or increase in this economy – vary depending on where firms are located. “You have to pay more if you’re going to retain decent people,” Schmidt says. “Since I started, I’ve raised what I’m willing to pay because at the lower end I wasn’t getting any applicants. I’ve gone from starting at $9 to starting at $10.50. I just raised one guy to $12.”

Jaycox pays well, too – and attributes that, in part, to his success. Right now, his entry-level mowers are generally paid $12 an hour. Head foremen make $30 an hour, plus commission as part of the company’s sales team. “Everybody else is in between,” he says. “A lot of companies think I’m crazy when I tell them how much we’re paying, but the employees love it, and it keeps them here.”

Although Grandy cautions retention may be tricky, he acknowledges, “You might find some who want to stay in this industry and move up the ladder and fill management positions later on.”

Jaycox hired some laborers who have held management positions in the past, but they didn’t quite have the experience to make it as foremen. Still, they’re willing to work because they get paid for at least 40 hours a week.
“Last year our biggest challenge was a lack of qualified applicants. This year, to be honest, we don’t really have any labor challenges,” he adds.

Jaycox acknowledges the industry is in a recession – and he doesn’t think it’s going to come out soon. “But in a way it’s good because it’s going to weed out the good companies from the bad. Companies that strive for customer service, take care of employees and are doing things in the community will excel. The companies that don’t will suffer.”

“Ultimately, in the next 12 to 24 months we’ll see less competition,” Blanchford predicts. “The question for me is where does the pool of available work go? Is it going to grow so there’s more work for fewer companies or is it going to stay smaller and the adjustment is getting to the right size for the market again? That’s what I don’t know.”

The author is a freelancer based in Lincoln, Ill.