How to Solve the People Problem with a Simple Process

“There is a way to do it better – find it” – Thomas Edison.

THE PEOPLE PROBLEM

As business owners and managers in the landscape industry, we all complain about the access to skilled workers.   Finding good people consistently ranks at the top of every industry survey as the biggest obstacle to success.  

TURNING THE PROBLEM INTO OPPORTUNITY

Since the entire industry is struggling with the people problem, solving it within your company will give it an incredible competitive advantage.  Recruiting and hiring superstar people will enable your company to produce quality results in less time and for greater profit.

As a company in any business, your overall company objectives need to be simple:

• Achieve  your sales goals
• Achieve perfect quality
• Achieve a perfect safety record
• Reduce costs of production
• Achieve high productivity

 Your people are the most important factor in determining whether your company will meet these objectives, or fall short.   The fact is that average people deliver average results, whereas great people deliver great results and will help you build and grow a great business.

 SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY – HOW DO I FIND GREAT PEOPLE?

The people problem can be overcome with a recruiting and hiring system that finds and motivates great people.  Everybody on your team needs to have the right attitude and everybody needs to be a problem solver.  Without problem solvers, you will never make a profit in this or any business—it’s that simple!  People talk about the importance of motivating people all too often, but the truth is that great people motivate themselves.  As a business owner you progress further and faster by investing your efforts into finding the right people who are self-motivated, rather than trying to motivate people who can’t find it in themselves to solve problems and work effectively.  If there is one lesson I have learned running a landscape business it would be this:  you cannot change people!

RECRUITING THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS

A highly skilled team using efficient production systems will create opportunities at every turn, and by using a recruiting system year round, you continuously create opportunities for your company to grow and improve. 

The law of recruiting states that the more candidates you consider, the better your chance of finding superstars.  Using a hiring system improves your chances of finding superstars with less time and effort.  Imagine the ultimate scenario of screening 5,000 candidates a year, hiring and evaluating the best 50, and ultimately keeping only the 5 best people after their probationary period.   That would mean you hired 1 in 1,000 applicants.  If you are hiring without a system, and you hire the first candidate with a driver’s license, it might take you 5,000 hires to find the same 5 superstars!   Don’t risk the success of your business to these odds!  Seize the opportunity to find and hire great people by using an effective recruiting and hiring system.

Where to Recruit –The more ads you place, the more diverse group of candidates you’ll get.  Make sure you include the following resources in your recruiting strategy:

• Association websites
• Association publications
• Government Job banks
• Online classified websites (e.g. Kijiji, Craigslist)
• Local newspaper classifieds

Be aware of the opportunities that exist by hiring outside the industry.  For example, landscape construction firms should advertise directly to the building trades to find well trained, highly skilled mature workers.  Similarly, snow and ice contractors are wise to recruit in agricultural areas to attract farmers with winter downtime.  More and more larger contractors are hiring financial or HR specialists from outside the green industry.

How to Recruit – Make your job postings descriptive and interesting.  You need to attract the best candidates, not just any person seeking employment. 

When to Recruit – The best time to start recruiting is late in the winter or a few weeks earlier than the competition.  The long-term benefit of hiring the best of the available labour pool far outweighs the extra cost of a few weeks salary. 

WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE WILL YOUR COMPANY ATTRACT?

Job interviews are a two way street.  When you are evaluating candidates, they are evaluating your company!   The better the candidate, the more seriously they will evaluate the opportunity you are offering them.  Start by impressing potential candidates with a professional company website.  It’s not good enough just to have any website—your company needs a great website.  The best people in the industry are looking for the best opportunities, and a compelling website will distinguish your opportunity from your competitions’.

Present your company as a career opportunity.  Great people don’t want mediocre jobs; great people are looking for great opportunities to advance their careers.  Part of your objective in the interview is to convince each candidate that you are offering them the best employment opportunity in the industry. 

IDENTIFYING GREAT CANDIDATES

Identifying and hiring the best candidates for the job is far too underrated.  Most landscape companies spend little time screening and interviewing potential employees, and often accept the first decent candidate that walks through the doors.  By effectively screening, interviewing, and identifying the best candidates, you will be able to: 

• Minimize your time wasted interviewing poor candidates
• Spend less time hiring, firing, and re-hiring
• Improve company productivity and profit
• Improve company knowledge, training, and culture

Start your hiring process by sending out pre-interview questionnaires to interested  candidates.  Pre-interviews expand your reach, allowing you to briefly interview more people in much less time.  Pre-interview questionnaires filter out candidates with poor attitudes who put little effort into their answers, and they help surface the motivated, engaged candidates.

Select the best candidates from the pre-interview process, then book face-to-face interviews.  Use the interview process as an opportunity to impress the best candidates by preparing for the interview.   Many of your competitors will show up late, distracted and unprepared for their interviews.   Make the most of your opportunity to impress by preparing a list of interview questions that focus on the key skills required for the job, e.g. team orientation, initiative and motivation, and oral communication skills.  Use situational questions that put candidates in hypothetical situations, and ask them how they would respond.  For example:

You find a quality problem on a jobsite.  Your foreman recommends that you simply hide the problem.  What would you do?

Most positions in the landscaping trade are physical in nature, so be sure to test candidates in the field.  We use a two week working interview, followed by a probationary period.  During the two week working interview, our supervisors continuously test and evaluate the candidate’s problem solving, practical learning, work pace, adaptability, and mechanical aptitude. These skills are critical to superior field productivity and performance. 

If a candidate does not perform well during their working interview, terminate the relationship immediately.  Don’t carry poor performers for weeks or months when you have a system that indentifies problem people in days.  Poor performers drain profits, lower your standards, deteriorate company culture, and drive your best performers to look for better opportunities working for your competitors!

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

Every landscape association in North America recognizes the cost and impact of the people problem.  In Landscape Ontario, we have a strong association working hard to develop an apprenticeship program so we can attract, educate, and retain our labour force.  Using apprentice programs gives a tremendous boost to the growth of our industry.  A red seal trade certification brings our industry to the next level, and is every bit as recognized as a carpenter, an electrician or a plumber with this certification.  Take maximum advantage of these programs by making sure you have the system to hire superstars!

The Landscape Management Network offers its members access to an extensive library of professional hiring procedures.  If you don’t have the time or the skills to build your own systems, then consider professionally built solutions that already exist.  You’ll save time, money, and you’ll leverage the expertise of already proven systems.

THE PEOPLE OPPORTUNITY

Every time a person leaves your organization, you have an opportunity to improve your company.   Don’t underestimate the importance of great people in building a winning company.  A recruiting and hiring system will maximize your company’s potential and turn your competitors’ biggest headache into your company’s greatest asset.

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