Fishing for field workers

Help wanted: hard-worker to join a landscape crew.

Must be motivated, punctual, prepared to work rain or shine, and have experience operating maintenance equipment.

Valid drivers’ license preferred; bilingual a plus.

Hiring is a science, and having a process to guide you through a deep pool of applicants will help you choose wisely so you don’t burn up unnecessary resources training one-season wonders.

After all, desperation doesn’t attract long-term employees.

“By creating a process and strategy for hiring, you will communicate a consistent message and way of interviewing people so you can help them visualize what’s in it for them by working for you,” says Kenyon Mau, president, Human Capital Advisors, a Cleveland-based human resources consultancy.

Answering the question, “What’s in it for them?” is a big part of hiring effectively today, Mau says. “You have to figure out what motivates people.”

Employees no longer subscribe to the old I’m-the-boss form of management – especially Generation Y workers in their twenties. They want to know what the job will do for them. What can they expect? What will they get if they put their time and energy into a position? They don’t want to guess at these answers.

So build questions into your interview process that help you understand what candidates are looking for, then paint a picture of what they can expect at your firm by first taking stock of what offerings you provide.

Mau suggests plainly asking candidates, “What motivates you?” Or, paint a scenario: “It’s pouring down rain and we need to get a full load of work completed. What will make you happy to do your job in the worst conditions?”

On the inside, figure out what your company provides that will attract people. “Take into consideration the selling points of your industry and your organization and how those can help fill the internal wants of people who apply for jobs at your company,” Mau says.

Also, cast a wide net when recruiting workers, Mau advises. Aside from traditional methods such as newspaper advertisements and employee referral programs, try online job boards and social media.

“I’ve used Linkedin to say, ‘I’m looking for someone who does this. Do you know anyone?’” Mau says. “That goes through my network of contacts and I get responses.”

Because the young working generation is “wired,” tap into technology as an alternative form of building an applicant pool, Mau suggests. Then, go fishing by using your strategy.

This month, Lawn & Landscape spoke to three firms to learn how they find qualified employees who will succeed in their organizations.

Instructions for low turnover
David Jernigan needs job applicants who can follow directions, and he’s designed an interview process that skims out candidates who can’t.

“I used to use an IQ test, but what I found was a lot of smart guys who couldn’t follow directions,” says Jernigan, whose turnover is so low an employee hasn’t left in almost two years.

Now, he incorporates a series of “tests” throughout the interview process to determine if the prospect is someone who will listen or do things their own way. His hiring process begins online at Jobing.com, where he pays $400 for a 21-day advertisement that will yield more than 600 inquiries within two weeks. Of those, he’ll invite 10 for an interview, and three will show up. If he interviews 10 people, he’ll offer three of them jobs. And out of those three, one will work for him after two days of trial in the field.

But once on board, employees stay, Jernigan says.

The strategy is to put practical skills to the test before hiring.

Jernigan gets the process rolling by dropping an e-mail to a candidate he’s interested in – someone who responded to his online inquiry and has shown longevity at a previous position. “I look for people who have kept a job for more than two years,” he says. “That’s a pretty good sign that they’re someone you can build on.”

His e-mail invitation includes a job application, which Jernigan requests the candidate fills out before the interview. He gives the person the company address and asks him or her to dress appropriately for the job. “We might have you plant a flower pot or something as part of a test,” he hints.

If the candidate arrives at the interview on time, application printed and filled out, dressed appropriately, they’ve passed the first test. “If someone asks, ‘How do I get to your office?’ I know it’s not someone I want,” he says.

Interview questions are staged to gather responses that will indicate whether the employee will mesh with the company culture – family guys who work hard and want a career. “One question I ask is: What am I going to find out about you after you’ve been working for me for six months? What am I going to learn is your biggest fault?” Jernigan says. Some applicants say they’re late sometimes, or have difficulty communicating with others. If they say nothing, “I know their fault is dishonesty,” he says.

He also asks where else the person is applying for jobs and where The Gardener’s Touch falls in that line.

If the conversation goes smoothly, Jernigan will give the person a set of instructions on how to plant a flower pot. “I ask them to read the directions – I’m not looking to see how fast they can do it,” he says.

If they pass the test, then Jernigan invites them to work the next day, which is essentially a trial where he reviews the company’s operations. Some field time with other employees gives Jernigan an idea of whether everyone will work well together. No one “passes go” unless he and his crew leaders are certain the candidate is a match.

“If I can find someone who meshes with our employees and our company culture, they’ll succeed here,” Jernigan says.

A culture that attracts quality
When Jim Endicott purchased Landcare Specialists three and a half years ago, the company had four employees and revenue was $175,000. Since then, he has grown the staff to 12 full-time, year-round workers and nearly quadrupled revenue.

Endicott’s growth plans are aggressive. Peek at his three-year plan you’ll see a business three to four times its current size. That means Endicott will need more manpower to keep the engine running.

Despite persistent growth, Endicott has resisted the urge to bring on laborers without screening them first. But those careful reviews haven’t always worked out.

“I want to create a culture that makes this a place people want to work,” Endicott says. He believes the type of people he attracts is a reflection of the work environment he provides. “When I first acquired the business, I had people who didn’t see that same direction,” he says, noting that two of the original employees are still on board. One is now his director of operations.

Meanwhile, Endicott has hired and fired 40 people in the last year and a half. Only two of that bunch worked out as quality employees. The local newspaper advertisements he ran prompted phone calls, but from the wrong candidates.

“People were coming in for interviews who couldn’t make it anywhere else,” Endicott says. “They talked a good game and interviewed well, and then they couldn’t make it with us because they couldn’t perform to our standards.”

Endicott interviewed and hired plenty of laborers who said they owned their own landscape businesses and decided they’d rather be working for someone else. “That became the kiss of death,” Endicott jokes. They were the worst workers.

One applicant told Endicott he had 15 years of experience in the industry. “I put him on an edger and he couldn’t figure out how to change the blade,” Endicott says.

At first, Endicott interviewed each candidate personally, since he was working one-on-one with his laborers in the field. As the business grew, Endicott began filtering first-time interviews through the operations manager.

“This gives us another layer of sifting through applicants and getting down to the nuts and bolts of what they can really do,” Endicott says.

Hiring is frustrating, but Endicott realized that skimming unqualified workers from the applicant pool would have to start from within his company – by the image he portrayed.

“I felt like I was getting the dregs of the employee base – people who couldn’t make it anywhere,” Endicott says. “And really, just looking internally as to who we are and what we are – developing that culture within – has resulted in referrals. That really works.”

In the last year, he has not run advertisements in the newspaper and is getting referrals via employees who already work at Landcare Specialists.

The laborers who work for Endicott tell others “there is opportunity” at Landcare Specialists. The company offers health insurance and paid time off for sick days, vacation and holidays. Endicott keeps employees working full-time, year-round when many companies his size in the area do not.

And during a new hire’s first day, Endicott emphasizes his company culture by riding with the worker to jobs and explaining the firm’s goals.

In the last year, the culture-building at Landcare Specialists has drastically raised the bar in the hiring process. “I’m getting phone calls from people asking if we are hiring, so they are beginning to seek out us,” Endicott says. “And I’m finding quality individuals who were doing fine somewhere else but are looking to make a change.”

Hire by trial
Chris Ballard learned the fast way to flood his e-mail inbox with applicants: Post a job listing on Craigslist. In one day, Ballard received 25 responses to a help-wanted ad for a field worker. “I don’t know if that’s a sign of how many people are looking for work, or what,” says Ballard, who purchased the business last year.

With the company came six employees, two of which are still on board as crew leaders. The original six worked hard through last season, happy to retain their jobs despite an ownership change. When one worker would leave, he’d bring on a friend to take his position. “Last year, I relied on the people who worked here,” Ballard says, adding that he felt “in over his head” by end of season and knew that hiring more employees was critical to continue growing the business.

The company has historically serviced high-end residential properties, but mostly those in the neighborhood of the previous owner. Ballard wants to expand the footprint, continuing to offer maintenance and enhancements to a wider audience.

But that will require Ballard to step back a bit from everyday operations. Most days, he labors in the field with the rest of the workers. So Ballard took his first shot at hiring this spring with the Craigslist ad, and he was pleasantly surprised.

Of course, not all of those 25 applicants were true candidates for the position. Ballard spent $25 to list the job opening under the “Jobs” category of Craigslist. (You can list any position under “Labor” for free, he says.) Once Ballard receives e-mail responses, he calls the applicants and talks to them about their experience.

“I look for people who attach a resume to their response or talk about their experience and themselves,” he says, noting that some applicants didn’t write in complete sentences or mention industry experience. While Craigslist produced a job pool for Ballard, there were only a handful of good workers to bother interviewing.

Still, this advertisement generated leads that gave Ballard a place to start – and he hired two workers from Craigslist who started this spring. The website is a venue for introducing the job position, but a field trial is the best interview Ballard can conduct.

“With laborer positions, you don’t know until you try them,” Ballard says. “Are they going to show up every day and be on time? Are they going to work hard and get along with the other guys? Do they do quality work?”

Ballard observes new-hires on their first days and asks his crew leaders to do the same. They look for “little things” that indicate lack of experience. “I can tell how someone handles a weed-eater – it takes a little bit of skill to move at the pace you need to and hold it steady,” Ballard describes.

Other signs are more blatant. “One guy said he had experience, but after 20 minutes on a regular 21-inch, walk-behind mower, he didn’t know how to empty the bag,” Ballard says. “There is a skill to mowing and weed-eating and edging – it’s not hard to acquire, but there is one.

“The best thing is to get them out there and see how well they work with our guys and whether they really know what we’re doing,” Ballard says. “I rely on my two drivers to let me know how things are working out.”

Meanwhile, Ballard also subscribes to a low-tech method of hiring. Because his business is located in a district with other contractors, laborers looking for work will often approach him in the morning and ask if they can join the crews. These workers are not bilingual and most of them would not have access to a home computer. But they have worked hard in the industry for years, and their way of applying for a job is to walk up and ask for one.

Ballard hired a worker this way who had worked at a large, high-end firm for some time. “We gave him a try, and he’s unbelievable,” Ballard raves. In fact, that worker is now Ballard’s No. 2 guy.

For now, hiring continues to be trial-and-error for Ballard, but he sticks to field observation as the most effective test before he’ll bring on an employee full-time. “The trial is a big deal for us, and it has worked well so far,” he sums up.

The author is a frequent contributor to Lawn & Landscape magazine.