How to Interview and Hire Better Landscape Employees

It was November and Dan was recapping his biggest wins, and challenges, from the previous season.  “I just need 3 or 4 more good field staff… “ Dan said to Bill over a coffee. Bill wanted to sub some snow work to Dan. They’d just returned from a site visit and now sat down to talk some shop. “1 more really good supervisor and a couple of really good supporting staff and we could take off next year.”

“Start looking soon.” advised Bill, “It’s never too early. Especially now – some companies are laying off for the winter. You’ve got some snow work to keep people busy… it’s a good time to be hunting. In fact – it’s always the right time to be hunting.”
“Have you got an interview form you want to send me?” asked Dan with a smile. “Questions I can use to find those superstars?”
“We do…”, said Bill, “But people that are a lot smarter than you or I have been trying to solve the interview problem for years, and nobody has found 5-10 questions that are going to turn you into a hiring machine. So forget the magic bullet, but get better with a hiring process.”
“So what’s your process?” asked Dan
“Spend a little more time hiring.. and you’ll spend a lot less time hiring.”
“What?” asked Dan
“Spend more time hiring when you have to hire, and won’t be hiring nearly as often. When I started out, I hired and fired fast… but I was always hiring/firing or frustrated. This way, we spend more time doing the actual hiring, but we hire/fire a lot less. It’s found us better people, and saved us a ton of time. And its not a big deal – you don’t need an HR staff to run this… anyone can follow it. It’s really 3 simple steps…”

Step 1: Application and Pre-Screen

Bill described how they setup their pre-screen form… “One of the best things we ever implemented was pre-interviewing our applicants. I never used to this – no time, but now I have a person in the office assigned to do this. We respond to every interesting resume with a pre-interview form. It’s about 10 basic questions about past work history, where they heard about the job, and why they are interested in it. We’re looking for interested answers that show some effort. We’re looking for the right attitude and approach to the pre-interview.”

“I don’t know..” thought Dan  ”I’ll bet most of the people who apply to Danscaping wouldn’t even bother filling it out.”

Bill continuted… “Exactly.    Only about 40% of the pre-interviews come back to us.”

“That’s it?” asked Dan “Not even half come back in?  Why would I waste my time with it?”

Bill looked at Dan right in the eye, “Because those same employees who don’t hand in that form are all the same employees who don’t show up on the day they’re hired, or who work for 3 days until they find something easier, or who drag their boots around because they could care less.  None of those employees are going to bother to fill out and return 10 questions to us. They’ll go work for the other guy, who brings them in the morning they need them and throws them out in a truck to see how they do.”

“They’re coming to me!”, laughed Dan

“Exactly.” smiled Bill “I win two ways – I don’t have to waste my time on with them, and you do.” They both laughed again. “Actually, with the pre-interview, I barely waste any of my time at all.  It takes only a few minutes for my office manager to send out a pre-interview form.  It’s barely any time at all.  But instead of wasting my time sorting through 50 resumes and hiring 2 or 3 people who don’t even show up on their first day, I’m only looking at 20 resumes – and they’re already the most interested of the lot.  From there, we’ll pick the best of the resumes and move to step 2 – the face-to-face interview.”

 

Step 2: The Face to Face Interview

Dan sat up in his seat when they started to talk about the interview. “This is what I’m looking for – I’ve missed the boat far too many times.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve been wrong about a person.  Great interview.  No results.”

“Same here.” said Bill “… And I still do. I don’t know if there’s any magic to an interview. It’s more of art, rather than a science. All I used to care about was whether they had a driver’s license, what machines they’ve run, and when they could start. But I burned through a whole lot of people – and a whole lot of time and money in the process.  Then I wrote up a more formal interview… standard questions – some easy and some tricky- and I stuck to the script. It was better, but not a lot better. So we made some simple changes and it seems to work.”

Bill continued… “We start with really informal conversation – like I would with you. We talk about their past job, what their typical day was like, what equipment and tools they’ve used, etc. This drops everyone’s nerves – mine and theirs. It’s not a “test” anymore – we’re just getting to know each other. This is where the ‘art’ comes in… you need to pick up on little things and zero in on them – ask more questions. For instance – I like to ask them about things that could have run better at their old company. Or what about such-and-such was frustrating. Once they are relaxed, they’ll open up more about this kind of stuff. Then take their side, agree with them, build rapport… ask more questions. Soon, they’ll be telling you almost everything you need to know about their attitude. And we hire attitude. We can train anyone on skills – we want to hire people who are eager to learn, eager to build a career, and who work well with others. And I learn more about this in conversation than any standardized interview questions.”

Dan thought about his last two interviews.  He barely asked any questions at all.  He was busy fixing some equipment, made sure they seemed like decent guys and told them to show up for work the next day.  Dan was happy if they were just turned out to be average.

Bill went for another sip of coffee, then continued.  ”Then I do move on to some more standard questions – put them in situations that are a little trickier – “Your foremen tells you to dig 8” instead of 12” because you’re going over your hours on this job. What do you do?” “Tell us about a rule or policy at an old job that you didn’t agree with.  Why did you disagree and what did you do about it?” … that kind of thing. Try to get a little more attitude out of them by putting them in some fictional scenarios, or past scenarios, to see how they handle themselves.

Bill pressed on.  ”When we find our man, or woman, we move to the final step – the working interview.”

Step 3: The Working Interview

“You guys do a ‘working interview’”, asked Dan?  ”Do they get paid?”

“Absolutely.” said Bill.  ”The terms of the working interview are simple. You start with a 2 week, paid ‘working interview’ – no strings attached, and we both re-assess at the end to see its working out for us.  You can only learn so much about a person sitting across a desk from them.  And as you and I both know, we’re wrong about as often as we’re right!”

“The working interview allows the most important people to get involved in the hiring process – my foremen. They’ll evaluate the new employee over 2 weeks and if they haven’t proven themselves by then, we know we have to start the hiring process over.”

“Kind of like a short probation”, nodded Dan.

“Yes, but it works for both of us.  For those who are the right fit, it also helps us assign the right wage. We have a pay scale for the different positions based on things like years of service, training, certifications, etc. We might have a new hire believe they should start at Equipment Operator – Level 3.   If they have the right credentials, it’s no problem, we’ll start them at that pay scale for the 2 week working interview. But, our expectations are going to be set high – at Level 3.  They need to prove in the 2 week interview that they can meet our expectations at that level – and if you don’t, we’ll either re-assign their pay grade after the 2 weeks, or we’ll agree to disagree and part ways.”

“On the flipside, we might hire a Landscape Tech at Level 1 who proves they can read simple plans, layout sites, they finish all their health and safety training courses without being bugged- we might bump them up to Level 2 after 2 weeks. The working interview helps ensure that:”
• Staff live up to the expectations we share during the interview
• Their compensation is fair and accurately reflects their skill set

Dan was jotting some quick points as Bill explained the process. “I like it, “ he said. “It’s simple, and it’s a whole lot better than what we’re doing now.”

“I don’t think hiring will ever get to an exact science. The process is not perfect, but its better. “, said Bill. “Every new hire is a new opportunity to find and hire a superstar in your business.  Every wrong hire is one more person we have to manage, babysit, discipline, and eventually let go.  People make and break us in the business – what could be a better investment of your time than a hiring process that helps you find the great ones and leaves the rest for your competitors?”

 

Mark Bradley is the president of The Beach Gardener (www.tbglandscape.com) and the Landscape Management Network. The Landscape Management Network is software and tools for landscape contractors, from budgeting and estimating, to policies, procedures, and training including complete hiring and HR processes for employee management. For more information, check out www.landscapemanagementnetwork.com.