February: People Planning
In a previous post we presented our business model for growth and success.
This model breaks down the year and designates monthly themes or “focal points,” which landscape owners and operators should concentrate on to ensure the positive development and health of their business. According to the model, February is “People Plan:” the time of the year to focus on finding, hiring and developing your team of employees for the upcoming season.
While it may seem early to start the hiring process, the truth is springtime is simply too late. When it’s April, you need to get working. As a result, you push your new employees out the door with no training, no knowledge of the systems, and no understanding of the controls and processes in your company. No wonder your changes and improvements never stick. You need start the hiring process in February, and take time to orient and train new employees on your systems. Otherwise, employees will always depend on supervision, direction, and your knowledge to get work done. This will cost you valuable time and effort, frustrate you with their (perceived) lack of responsibility, and slow down your productivity.
Superstars in the industry are far and few between. Don’t hire the first person in the door. Use a hiring process including pre-interviews, interviews, and 2 week “working” interviews (paid, of course) to test the waters. Don’t be afraid to cut non-performers loose. There are potential superstars who could much better fill those positions.
This month should be about planning, interviewing and training. Not sure how to implement the proper hiring process? Here’s everything you need to know:
Note this content is from our previous post on how to attract superstar employees. The following advice is based on a seminar instructed by LMN President and owner of the Beach Gardener, Mark Bradley.
Hiring process
The hiring process starts with the right advertisement. You want to attract serious employees, so ask yourself what serious employees are looking for. A higher wage, stability, a safe working environment, opportunities for career advancement, a positive working atmosphere, a year-round wage, bonuses and benefits – any intelligent employee looks for these characteristics in a job. In your advertisements, include all of these features as well as an attractive wage range.
Pre-interview:
After you’ve sent out your advertisement and the resumes are coming in, you need a way to effectively weed out the ones that are not fit for the job, without having to dedicate much of your time to the process. Here’s where a pre-interview comes in handy. A pre-interview should be sent by email to all interested applicants that meet your basic criteria (i.e. a driver’s license, the right education and experience). This is not something you have to handle yourself – get someone in your office to take responsibility.
Your pre-interview questionnaire should ask interested applicants about specific equipment they’ve used and their past job responsibilities. You should also ask a number of “what would you do if” questions, such as “what would you do if a co-worker asks for your assistance while you’re working on another important job?” These questions will help you learn more about an applicant’s personality, work ethic and people skills – in other words, the qualities a resume will never tell you. Anyone can write a resume, but when you ask applicants to put a paragraph together, you get a better idea of their personality and whether they’ll jive well with your work culture.
Now you may find some applicants will have a problem with your pre-interview questionnaire and refuse to complete it. All the better! You just narrowed down your search. Some may think you’re too serious for the type of work they’re after. Good to know now before you hire them! On the other hand, some will be thrilled by the fact that you take the job seriously. Case in point: one of my best supervisors once told me that our pre-interview was one of the reasons he wanted to work for us. Right off the bat, he knew we were living the ‘right culture’ and he wanted to be a part of it.
Good pre-interviews, meaning the applicants recognize efficiency and waste and show in their answers that they have a positive attitude, should be forwarded to you. I usually find that of the 10 or so applicants I do receive, I hire 3 of them (or 30 %).
Working Interview and Orientation:
Your selected applicants should then take part in a two-week working interview, including a proper orientation. Before orientation, ask your applicants what they’d like to earn. If they pick a wage that’s on the high end of the spectrum, agree to pay that wage for the two week trial period, under the conditions that the working relationship be terminated if at the end of the working interview you don’t feel they are worth that wage. You’ll likely see a more realistic wage suggestion after that!
On their first day, don’t just throw a new employee in the field without a proper orientation. Give your new (potential) employees a work tour, an operations manual with company policies and HR policies, and an employee handbook. Also, ensure they sign off on all forms, as well as their personal information sheets. The difference between simply dropping them off at the site and a proper orientation is that, when you walk new employees through a proper orientation, they’re already feeling that there’s a career to be had with you. Keep in mind that they’re more likely to take the job seriously if you do.
Your supervisors should play an important role in the orientation process, specifically in coaching your new people. At the end of the week, both you and your supervisors should ask your newcomers what they thought of the job and how their first week went. Right away you’ll get a feel for their impression of your company. And, as we’ll get into later, if your crew’s bonus structure is linked to their productivity, your supervisors will be honest with you. They’ll be eager to tell you whether they want the ‘new guy’ contributing his effort. After this process, and you and your supervisors weigh in, you’ll likely be left with one employee that you can reasonably say has the potential to do well in your company.
Stay tuned for next month’s focus on “creating systems.”
