Hiring headaches

From coast to coast, landscape contractors report that the unemployment rates remain high. That's made the business of hiring a whole new ball game. Since the recession, contractors have continued to witness a flood of potential job candidates to the industry. This has posed some great opportunities for companies looking to hire. However, with the state of the economy, many companies are still doing their best to stay lean and have passed up the chance to snatch up new hires.
 

The state of the job market. "There is definitely plenty of labor since our state's unemployment is higher than the national average," says Chuck Vogt, president of Metro Lawns in Atlanta. He says these high numbers of unemployed folks have made hiring easier because there's more of a labor pool to choose from.

Ricki Linyard, owner of Lawn Doctor of DeSoto County in Olive Branch, Miss., says that even non-industry job seekers are applying for positions because of layoffs elsewhere. "People are looking at any avenue they can to feed their families and pay their bills," he says. "Plus, we are finding people that end up enjoying this business want to make it a permanent career move."

Overall, Linyard says that with the increased number of job applicants out there, he's seen the quality of candidates improve as well. He believes now is a great opportunity to snatch up top-notch employees. "We are definitely seeing a better quality pool of potential employees applying for jobs," says Linyard. "That helps our business run better and more smoothly in the long run."

But in Connecticut, Michael Hoffman, president of Hoffman Landscapes, says that the top-notch employees were quickly taken back off the market in his area. He says it's tougher now to hire than it was two years ago because all of the high quality workers that were out of a job got snatched up right away. "At the beginning of the recession there were people all over the place looking for jobs," he says. "But those good quality people eventually found jobs and are now already employed. In order to find good people, you almost need to find out where they're working now and go to them. But most of the time those people are reluctant to leave simply because they feel they should hang tight until the job market improves. Even if people aren't happy in their existing jobs, I feel like they're staying put."

Of course with many companies trying their best to stay lean – which in some cases has meant layoffs – they simply don't have the opportunity to hire new folks. In Portland, Ore., Rick Christensen, landscape division manager of Teufel Nursery, says that the unemployment rates in his area have definitely put qualified people on the market, but his company just doesn't have the ability to take on any new employees. The only positions the company has really been able to advertise for are a few sales jobs.

"The sad thing is that we've downsized so much to adjust to the recession that we had no choice but to let go of some excellent people," Christensen says. "We're just not able to support the same size staffing we used to. And even though we've had some really well-qualified people knocking on our door, it just wouldn't be right to hire anyone after such a painful process of downsizing. Should any opportunity for a job open, the staff we've laid off always get the first shot at it."

In Texas, where unemployment rates haven't been nearly as high as elsewhere in the country, Steve Taber, owner of Southwest Wholesale Nursery in Carrollton says the job market hasn't been quite as flooded as landscapers are reporting in other regions. Still, he says there's more people than usual on the job hunt. "If you raise the flag and make an announcement that you're looking for a job, you'll likely get a lot of response," Taber says.

While Texas has gotten by easier than most states in terms of the recession and unemployment, the climatic conditions at press time have raised challenges for the Lone Star State. Kevin McCormick, president of Botanical Designs in San Antonio, says he's simply not hiring right now and that's largely because of the drought.

"There are lawns all over town that have completely died as phase two of the drought says we can only water once a week," McCormick says. "So right now there's just not a lot of work. People are calling and looking for jobs, and I just don't have anything right now."

However, though McCormick says the drought is really hurting the industry in his area, he also believes things will turn around. "Once it starts raining again, there's going to be a lot of work to be done and I'll probably need extra help," he says. "But for now, we're just trying to get by. Even some of my current employees aren't getting full weeks because there's just not enough work."

Many are reporting that the job market isn't looking much brighter for the large number of people who are still left without a job. Christensen believes it's not a localized problem – he thinks it's nationwide. "The fact that when we advertised for sales professionals, we got people from across the country applying is a strong statement as to what the economy and job market is like nationwide," he says.

"We saw people who had very strong sales backgrounds from all different industries that were so desperate to find work. It's a sad situation," he adds. "When we've advertised for sales positions, we've gotten completely flooded with inquires."
 

The right fit. No matter what the economy is doing, one of the challenges of hiring is finding someone who is the perfect fit. Kevin Pigg, owner of The Pigg Patch Plant Farm in Lebanon, Tenn., says that it's a huge challenge to hire just the right person. He's also found a struggle with the fact that even with a market full of people looking for jobs, nobody wants to do manual labor. "Coming from a $30-$50 an hour desk job, people just aren't willing to do $10-$15 an hour labor jobs," he says.

Pigg says that in order to truly find the right person, he often ends up doing a lot of hiring and firing. His frustration over it actually lead him to create a website called Myprofiletest.com that helps categorize people into one of eight categories based on their responses. He now won't even consider hiring someone until they take the test.

"Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, but they typically don't know what they really are," Pigg says. "Now if we're looking to find somebody that fulfills a certain category, we're able to find that right person with the help of this testing. If somebody doesn't fit the bill for a particular position, then you can't force it. You can't force people to think a certain way."

For Taber, he says he finds the right people for the job by finding them through existing employees. In fact, he never advertises job openings. He believes that he's already hired people that fit the company culture and they know better than anyone else what like-minded individuals would do well in the company. "When we start thinking of hiring somebody, we go right to our people here and ask them if they know anyone that might fit into our culture," says Taber. "We look mostly at personality first because that's something you can't teach."

Taber also says that while many companies are holding back on hiring right now to keep things lean, he believes now is the time to prepare for growth. In the past year, the company has hired four people – all brand new positions, not replacements.

"We've had opportunities come our way for delivery drivers, for instance," he says. "We are always in need of good ones so we didn't want to pass up on that opportunity. The same thing happened with sales help. While we could try to stay lean and get by without them, we took the opportunity to bring these people in now so that they're up and running when things do start to build back up."
 

Employee retention. With tough times many companies are taking leaner measures and that often leaves employees feeling the pinch.

But many landscape business owners have made efforts to make sure their employees stay happy. Linyard says he stresses the importance of customer service to employees, and in return for their service, he shows them they are important to the business by providing things like cookouts and regular bonuses. He also says that when employees work through the heat, he tries to make sure they get off early that day.

Vogt says that he too offers bonuses as incentives to keep employees happy. "For example, $50 a week goes into a 'pot' for company employees to enjoy during company outings," he says.

But he says it works both ways. "Should there be customer cancellations due to events we can control, money is removed from the pot."

And though many companies would like to offer more incentives, some say that the cutbacks they've gone through have taken away such opportunities this year.

"Right now, we're in a daily struggle to stay in business and have had to do some pay cuts," Christensen says. "Right now our best gift to employees is that we're still in business when many are not. I think the employees understand that. We have a combined goal of 'Let's make it through this together.' Our employees know it means working a little harder and not as much pay as it used to be in order to get to the other end."

The author is a frequent contributor to Lawn & Landscape.