Now Hiring

When I worked in newspapers, our seasoned managing editor used to tell me she got into journalism for three reasons: You could take two-hour lunches, you could curse in the newsroom and a newspaper would hire just about anybody who had a pulse.

In my experience, the second two items were very true.

A few weeks ago, I was working on interviews for our annual State of the Industry Report, which you can read in this month's magazine, and I called up Kurt Bland, a senior vice president at Bland Landscaping Co. in Apex, N.C., to see what's going on in his market.

Kurt's a former Leadership Award winner and runs a good company. I asked him what his biggest challenge was this year, and he didn't say the market or consumer confidence or anything like that. Without hesitation, he said he couldn't find enough talented people to fill the jobs he has.

I hear this a lot from companies across the country – that they've got excess capacity or opportunity for more work, but have trouble finding reliable foremen and laborers.

"As a small business owner, I've got jobs," Bland told me. "I've got jobs for people who are willing to work."

So Bland tried something new – paying more for his key positions and actively recruiting talented people who could be trained and developed to become great foremen, account managers and client reps. This was a change from the previous strategy, which focused on hiring expertise in key positions and the cheapest laborers possible.

Instead of scrambling and hiring anyone who walks in the door with a pulse, for example, Bland has taken a proactive approach and is loading up his company with talent. It's slower, and not an easy task, certainly, but it's much better than the alternative.

As the H-2B program becomes ever more uncertain and unreliable, and American employment continues to flounder, every landscaper could benefit from Bland's example, and start a dedicated, intentional recruiting process. The future of their companies depends on it.

See my video blog at www.lawnandlandscape.com.

– Chuck Bowen