Eagle Creek Nursery and Landscape Recommendation Report: Sourcing Qualified Labor

While researching how to source qualified labor, many ways were found to incentivize applications from potentially qualified employees. In order to determine which is most applicable and relevant, data has been gathered and presented for you in the following analysis

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The best places to post a job listing

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Where to post the job is a very important part of recruiting candidates for the job listed. There is a specific website for landscaping, https://www.lawnsite.com/ but there are other websites and tools with easy navigation to get through the job listing. These popular job posting websites includes the following.

 

1. LinkedIn is a triumvirate of professional social networks, headhunting tools, and a job board. With 300m members, LinkedIn boasts the biggest potential candidate pool. On LinkedIn, you can search for profiles, post jobs, and message candidates directly.

2. Indeed is a global job board leader with 4m positions posted directly to Indeed.com. It’s also a job search engine that takes job seekers’ input (such as skills and location) and aggregates all the jobs that match. Use this site to search for resumes, post jobs, and run pay-per-click job advertising campaigns that put your job at the top of your candidates’ search results.

3. Craigslist is a classifieds site and not a traditional job board. You’ve probably used it to search for apartments or buy second-hand furniture. Don’t discount the oddball. Quirkiness and poor user interface aside, it beats everyone on inbound traffic and is one of the best places to advertise job openings.

4. CareerBuilder operates in the US, Europe, Canada, and Asia. They get 24m visitors a month and power more than 90 percent of Fortune 1000 company job boards.

5. Beyond will automatically distribute your job listings to niche sites and talent communities based on specific criteria. What’s in it for you? Targeted exposure and more relevant job applications.

 

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Placing the posting is only the first step, you must then add to the job posting in order to attract potential qualified candidates. This can be done in a few ways.

 

Writing and creating the job posting

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•  When putting your job posting on a website the most important part is to have a title that includes the position and a short bulleted list of what is most appealing about the job being posted. This is so you don’t bore a potential applicant with several paragraphs that could potentially drive them away from applying, and the bulleted list is to get them to further invest in applying

•  A short introduction paragraph describing the job to applicants. This is used to hook applicants into reading the whole job posting. This can be equally as important as the title because this paragraph could be the difference between an applicant continuing with the posting or finding something else. 

• Make sure your posting is proofread prior to posting. This should be treated like any other professional writing.

•  Avoid using long bulleted lists to describe any part of the job. Lists like this can provide dry, and sometimes irrelevant information

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Contents  

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• Tell a story about your company. Use the information that an applicant would want to know. For example, how long employees stay (Gives an idea of retention), awards, interesting projects, and information about the culture in the workspace.

•  When listing requirements, list only the requirements that are essential to the business.

• Consider applicants who do not live in the area your business is located. Some applicants may shy away from a job if it is too far away, that is why it is important to try to sell the area to attract more applicants.  

 

Onboarding and Retaining

 

After hiring qualified labor, it is important that you prevent the problem of sourcing qualified labor from arising in the future. 

One of the most frequent solutions to retaining qualified employees is to provide Job Training or onboard your employees. Jim Arabia, a writer for BigRentz, a company that provides services to a skilled laborer, says "Offering certification opportunities or subsidizing the costs of relevant courses can be a great way to show employees that you’re invested in them as people and not just workers" (Arabia 2019). In this instance, offering job training would not only attract skilled employees, but it would also retain them. While retention was not an issue specifically identified, it is part of the problem of Sourcing Qualified Labor. Employees who have been provided Job Training will not only become qualified from experience, but they will feel comfortable in their job because their employer has invested in them.

Brad Baber, paralegal, and writer for Paralegal Today tends to agree. He recommends that investing in training will net you "great success hiring and training the best talent...Many of these [workers] have remained with our firm for over 10 years" (Baber 1999).

Providing on the job training is not always free. According to the Association for Talent Development, "Organizations spent an average of $1,252 per employee on training and development." (Staff 2017) This is likely to have changed since 2017. But, the benefits outweigh the costs. According to Rachel Blakely-Gray, "training employees can end up saving you money in the long-run," and "Businesses spend an average of 21.4% of an employee’s salary on a replacement." (Blakely-Gray 2017) According to Abby Baumann writing for Urbanbound, “Organizations with a standard onboarding process experience 54% greater new hire productivity, along with 50% greater new hire retention”. (Baumann 2018).

Costs for training employees can vary depending on many factors, such as,

• Business size 

• Industry

• Type of Training

• Desirable Skills

• Time Spent Training

• Salaries

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 After costs have been calculated, you should then analyze how benefits will manifest monetarily. Some benefits include,

• Increase Employee Skill

• Provide Job Safety

• Increase Profit in Long-Run

• Retain Skilled Labor

 

However, 35% of companies don’t spend any money on onboarding. (Baumann 2018). 

According to Abby Baumann writing for Urbanbound, “Organizations with a standard onboarding process experience 54% greater new hire productivity, along with 50% greater new hire retention”. (Baumann 2018).

 

The freeway is quite simple, provide on-the-job training. In doing this, instructors and the employees being trained are still working. This will provide you with the benefits of training employees, as well as not taking away from time that the employee would otherwise spend training. 

 

Here are a few more ways to provide employees with job training.

• Require the taking of a course and/or test. This can often be one of the most expensive ways to onboard, but it is also likely to generate the greatest payout. (Bika 2020) There are many ways to design a course or test, such as making employees do it before their first day or requiring a test after a set amount of time of work or training. The later ensures they get hands-on experience before being tested

• Streamline the first-day experience. Many HR companies suggest creating an itinerary for an employee’s first day, in order to “set expectations and introduce objectives,” says Ben Peterson, CEO of BambooHR. (Maurer 2019)

• Utilize onboarding software. This is one of the more expensive ways to onboard, as some software can cost money. Many companies will often use the software to help with the aforementioned techniques, among other things. Here are a few software, recommended by getapp, BambooHR, Rippling, WorkBright.

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Providing a career path 

Experts say that one of the most recommended ways to retain your employees in landscaping is by providing them with a career path. In the article Attracting and Retaining Quality Landscape Employees, it says, “One of the big concerns we discussed earlier in attracting employees is the landscape industry being seen as a job, not a career. Career-oriented employees want to be able to see and map out their road to success. Make this process easy for them. Document ways that employees can enhance their skills and take on more responsibility, which results in promotions and pay increases.” providing a career path will motivate employees to keep working for you. 

 

 

Keep employees busy and engaged year-round 

In the article Attracting and Retaining Quality Landscape Employees, it mentions the importance of keeping your employees busy year-round and how it will retain them. The article says, “A big focus in retaining good team members is the ability to keep them occupied (and earning an income) year-round. The seasonality of the industry can be one of the biggest challenges, with many team members wondering where they’ll be working when the season ends. Offering services such as snow clearing, renovations, and holiday lighting install can help to keep team members busy during the slower months.” Experts say that keeping your employees engaged and busy even during the offseason will retain them.  

 

 

Communication 

It is best known that there is no better way than communicating with your employees which will retain the company’s success. In the article Retain the right employees experts explains the importance of communication and how it affects a company’s success. The article says, “This communication should focus on the work being performed by the employee, the employee’s personal interests (e.g., hobbies, favorite restaurants, family), and ideas the employee has for improving the job, the team or the company” ( Steven pg.3). The same article then furth mentions 6 ways to connect and communicate with your employee and they are 

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• Daily huddles

• Weekly one-on-one meetings

• Monthly pulse meetings

• Quarterly and/or annual performance reviews

• Semi-annually have the owner distribute paychecks and identify each employee by his/her first name

• Annual rewards and recognition ceremony.

 

These are the most important and effective ways to communicate with your employees to retain them. 

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Local Study Results

For the local study, we sought to identify potentially qualified employees and what online recruitment tools they are using or have used, such as LinkedIn or Craigslist. We also sought to find out if these potentially qualified employees are looking for a landscaping job or related job.

 

Online Recruitment Tools Used By Qualified Respondents

In order to find out if respondents were potentially qualified, they were first asked these two questions, where they could only pick one response.

 

Are you currently able to drive? If you answer no, you are welcome to opt out of the survey

• Yes, I have a driver's license

• Yes, I have my learner's permit

• Yes, but I don't really drive a lot right now

• No, I do not have a license/permit

• No, I am unable to drive for a different reason(s)

 

Are you confident in your ability to pass a drug test, if given within the next day? If you answer no, you are welcome to opt out of the survey

• Yes

• No

 

For the first question, the Yes/No answers were qualified in order to determine respondents’ “experience” with driving. While the description for qualified is simply that they have a clean driving record, a response was included to indicate that the respondent can drive but they don’t drive very much. This could be attributed to a number of factors, such as the ongoing pandemic, or working from home. The final response for the first question would also indicate that respondents do not have a clean driving record.

 

The second question was not qualified. We do not feel it is appropriate to qualify a question that asks if a respondent would be breaking the law, that is why we suggested that they are welcome to opt out.

 

All 24 respondents answered that they had a driver’s license, and that they were confident they could pass a drug test, therefore qualifying all respondents.

 

In order to understand what online recruitment tools the qualified respondents were using, this question was asked, where respondents could select more than one response.

 

Which of these online recruitment tools have you used?

• Linkedin

• Zip Recruiter

• Glass Door

• Sourcehub

• Facebook Marketplace

• Craigslist

• I have not used any of the websites listed above, but I have used an online recruitment tool

• I have not used any online recruitment tools

 

Figure 1 Shows us the results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This chart measures the number of responses on the left hand column, and then the bars represent the response. 

 

A plurality of respondents, ten, said they had used LinkedIn. Eight Respondents had used Craigslist, and another four had used Facebook Marketplace. Nine respondents had not used any recruitment tools. Each of the listed recruitment tools had been used by at least one respondent. 

 

One response was omitted from the chart, “I have not used any of the websites listed above, but I have used an online recruitment tool,” because it received zero responses.

 

This chart shows three things.

 

1. Respondents have used LinkedIn, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace the most out of any of the listed responses

2. A significant amount of respondents have not used online recruitment tools

3. Respondents will generally use any recruitment tool. 

 

Type of Work Qualified Respondents Are Looking For

In order to know whether or not qualified respondents were working, a simple question was asked, where respondents could only pick one response.

 

Are you currently employed?

• Yes, and I am content with my job

• Yes, but I am open to looking for a new job

• Yes, but I am looking for a new job

• No, and I am looking for a new job

• No, and I am not looking for a new job

 

This question established whether or not respondents are working, but more importantly it tells whether or not respondents are looking for work. One can be employed but looking for a new job, for example if they want more money or if they don’t like their current job. 

 

Of the respondents, ten said they were looking for a new job. Of those ten, two answered that they were employed, and eight answered that they were not employed. “Yes, but I am open to looking for a new job,” was not flagged as looking for a job, because it does not explicitly say that a respondent is looking for a new job.

 

After answering this question, respondents answered a question were they could pick more than one response.

 

What type of work are you doing/are you looking for?

• In home

• In an office

• Away from the desk

• Physical labor

• Trade skill

• Currently not looking for work

 

Since we sought to find out if qualified employees are looking for a landscaping job or job of similar position, we flagged “Away from the desk,” “Physical labor” and “Trade skill,” as a type of landscaping job or a similar job. 

 

Since there were ten respondents who said they were looking for work in some way, we modeled what they had said about the type of work they were looking for in Figure 2 

 

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This chart measures the number of individual responses on the left column, and the bar represents the response. The response “Currently not looking for work” was omitted because this chart is measuring the type of work qualified respondents are currently looking for. 

 

A Plurality of eight respondents said that they were looking for a job either in home or in an office. Seven respondents said that they were looking for work away from the desk, and another four said that they were looking for physical work. Zero said that they were looking for a trade skill. 

 

This chart shows that qualified respondents are generally looking for work that is not a type of landscaping job or a similar job.

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