Eagle Creek Nursery and Landscape Recommendation Report: Sourcing Qualified Labor

In order for us to create useful recommendations to improve sourcing qualified labor, we wanted to know what Eagle Creek Nursery and Landscaping had done up to this point, how other companies go about sourcing, and what experts in sourcing say works best. We conducted additional research with the use of a survey and we conducted research using online databases as well.   

 

Digital Research, IUPUI Databases, Google Scholar, 

 

Google Scholar. Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that includes a large amount of scholarly literature. With the use of Google Scholar, we were able to sift through a large number of different information sources that would assist us in better understanding the methods used to source qualified labor. 

 

Proquest. ProQuest provides access to 47 complete databases with a variety of content types across over 175 subjects, making ProQuest an additional resource for our team to use when researching sourcing qualified labor. 

 

University Library 

 

Our team used these databases to gather the information that will assist in our recommendations that are included in this report. Below are some of the terms used to find specific information.

• “Sourcing skilled laborers” 

• Sourcing AND “skilled laborers”

• “Qualified labor” 

• Qualified AND labor

• “Employee Retention”

• Hiring AND strategies

• “How to Source” 

• Sourcing AND “social media”

• “Direct sourcing”

• Recruiting AND skilled workers

• Onboarding

• "Onboarding guide"

• "Onboarding for contractors"

• "Why use onboarding"

 

Survey

​

When researching, we could not find any data that specifically pertained to the qualified parameters, as listed by the client. It was for this reason we created a survey in order to directly link the two. We also sought to identify individuals who would qualify for a job at Eagle Creek Nursery and Landscape, and also be looking for a landscaping job, or a similar job. 

 

This survey had 8 questions and received 24 responses. The survey was manually distributed, either through email or physically. Google forms was used to create the survey. The form was then shared via email or manually distributed. Google Forms was used because it was easy to create, familiar to the whole team, and easy for the team to access. 

 

Limitations in the survey method

The biggest limitation was that this survey was limited to respondents that were manually surveyed. In other words, there was no perfectly random sampling for the respondents. This means that our survey results could be biased in a way that doesn't account for different types of people that would be accounted for in a perfectly random sample. With this flaw in mind, the survey was sent out in a way that tried to mitigate this. Respondents were not just taken from one class, neighborhood, group, etc. Respondents were therefore chosen based on their differences and demographics. A few examples of chosen respondents.

• College Students

• High School Students

• Landscapers

• Other Adults

​

Another big limitation was that the survey was mostly sent by email. This means that our expected number of respondents was lower, as people are less likely to respond to a survey in their email, especially if it is from someone they don't know.  

​

One final limitation present in every survey is the possibility of lying. Respondents might not answer truthfully for a more personal question, such as asking if they are currently employed, even if the responses are anonymous.