July 3, 2017

The one phrase that echos across the industry is, “I can’t find people to work.” The economy has improved and the pool of people looking for jobs has slimmed. But, don’t be fooled, hard workers are out there.

Start Within

The search for new hires begins with self improvement. Making your company a “great place to work” ensures you will draw workers in and keep them. Don’t waste your time trying to find people if you are unorganized and unsuccessful. Bad company qualities means you’ll attract bad workers. People that are excited to come to work are more likely to share their job with their friends. Good company culture is the answer to being a “great place to work.”

Reevaluate your vision, mission and core values. Don’t have these? Well, that is step one.

Vision: This would be your ideal state. Does your team know where you’re going? Do you have a clear destination? This is private information, not to be shared but to be reflected upon.
Mission: What do you do daily to achieve your vision? This one is public. Create your mission statement and share it so that your team can know where they’re headed.
Core values: These are the beliefs and behaviors that are needed to achieve your vision. Include qualities such as leadership, teamwork and profitability.

Developing an image for your company will make working for you seem even more appealing. Even if you are a small company, having the small company feel with the big company look will make you stand out in the industry. This goes further than just vision, mission and value statements. Consider social media, flyers, logo, website, and uniforms.

Once your company gets to a point where you feel people would be lucky to work for you, try hiring. Don’t just use one hiring resource, exhaust them all!

Finding Employees

In some cases the older generations have worked with a company for years, are in their last working years or have no desire to take up labor work. Although, youth are another story. Search out workers in recently graduated high school and college students. The industry is starving for more workers. The best thing you can do is bringing in new fresh hands to the industry. But, how do you attract them? The younger generation will respond most to the following application for job searching:

Social media.
Your website (just make sure it’s user friendly).
Post signs on your trucks and at your office.
Go to job fairs.
Speak and teach.
Offer internships as a test drive for people who may be able to stay on in the future.
Ask former team members.
Hold open houses.
Work programs and temporary workers.
Have a QR code on your trucks that leads to a video about your hiring possibilities.

Many people look over this industry in their job search. We get it, not everyone wants to be in the hot sun cutting grass. But you and I know that the industry is more than just cutting grass. Lighting, water features, ponds, drainage and irrigation require more training and may be of more interest to recent graduates.

Creating a Plan

So you are starting to schedule some interviews, now what? Well, you have to make a plan. Consider the following when looking for your next team member:

How many hours do I want them to work?
Do they need any training?
What experience do they have?
What references do they have?
Are they trust worthy with my equipment?
Do they have a history of jumping companies?

Also, if you currently have a team, keep them in the loop. Letting your employees know you are looking for another worker is good for a few reasons; if you are hiring on that means business is doing well and they have job security, they wont be thrown off with a new person showing up, and they may refer you to a potential worker.

Don’t forget about the budget! Paid ads and other recruiting efforts can add up fast. But a budget in place and get creative with free ways to find new staff.

Keeping Your People

The works not over yet! Once you found who you’re looking for, you have to figure out how to keep them. How many times have you hired someone on and they are gone by the end of the week? Many times it’s not your fault, not everyone is cut out for this. However, what can you do to make sure they stay?

First, keep up the company culture you’ve built. Get feedback from your staff periodically, offer incentives, have motivating morning meetings and reward them for their hard work. Training is also a great way to keep people. When someone feel like they are excelling and learning they will be more motivated and fullfilled in a position. Luckily, Wolf Creek OCmpany offers online classes and has hand-on classes during the winter months. Take advantage of these to make your team stronger and better.

Grunder says that cross training is also important. That’s a great way to ensure the business is always running at its best. Train employees to fill another’s shoes when they’re sick or out so that there’s never any downtime in the business. When training, Grunder says that you should be a “teacher, not a presenter.” While a presenter just “dumps information,” a teacher is engaged and working hands-on with the team. Trained employees will not only stay longer but also work better and smarter for you. It’s a win-win really.

Overall, make people feel like an important part of the team. Here are some ideas and incentives: