AVOID These Hiring Mistakes
You can’t go anywhere without seeing “We Are Hiring” notices, and it doesn’t look to be going away any time soon - we’re in an employees’ market.
It seems as though every brick and mortar is in dire need of help, and the situation is no different for lawn and landscape businesses. Many business owners are looking around for just about anyone with a pulse to hire.
The tables have shifted - employees aren’t looking for someone to hire them, instead, businesses are looking for employees.
Simply advertising “Hiring”, isn’t going to cut it anymore. You’ve been successful at selling your business to customers, and now it’s time to sell to potential employees. We’re going to outline what most businesses are doing, so that you can AVOID those same pitfalls. You can turn this ship around, it’s just going to take a fresh approach.
Awful Job Descriptions
Lazy job descriptions that solely state the facts will only push candidates away. We get it, the facts are the truth, but they aren’t always selling words. Being honest doesn’t have to mean being boring! Remember, they have an immense pool of work to choose from, similar to how your clients can always switch to a competitor. What do you offer that can spark their interests?
Your hiring descriptions should read similar to a marketing campaign. This is an opportunity for your copywriting to separate you from the rest. A great job description should make candidates feel something - e.g. excited to work with you, eager for the opportunities to grow.
So many lawn care jobs read the same, “we’re looking for hard workers / people who aren’t afraid to get dirty.” We get it, every business wants a hard worker, but where’s the value for them? There’s little appeal in that type of description, it sounds…meh.
Start off with your company benefits, a bullet point list will do the job. That will get people’s attention right away. Let them know what your company is about, and what opportunities lie ahead for them. Use empowering words that make them feel like they can add value.
Along the same lines that your customers buy the benefit (vs the feature) of your service, it’s in your interest to sell the benefits of employment. Other than having a job, what’s going to pull them to want to work for you? Not that you have to do a total 180 when it comes to employee benefits, just look at what you offer through a different lens - a copywriting lens. Here are a couple ways of rewording your features to read as actual benefits:
PTO vs Earn Paid Time Off from Day One
Competitive Salary vs Earn Up To __ (Your cap for said position)
Growth Opportunities vs Opportunities for Advancement with a Rapidly Growing Company
No time to re-write your own job descriptions? Get in touch and we’ll handle them and your Indeed ads for you.
Are You *Always* Asking The Wrong Questions?
This is crucial not only in the in-person interview but also in the initial questionnaire application. For the initial application, your goal is to get an overall idea of your candidate before offering them an in-person interview. Following all the basic yes or no answers, you should include fill-in-the-blank questions such as:
Why should we hire you?
What’s your best quality?
Where can you use improvement?
First off, just answering these questions shows that they are willing to complete the task at hand (that’s a good sign!). If they seem like your ideal employee, invite them for an in-person interview.
When we say “ideal employee”, that is not meant to be taken lightly. Yes, being fully staffed would be a godsend, but don’t settle on just filling your roster. It’s tempting, but it can come back to bite you. That one “bad apple” can add more stress to your already pressed team, and cause more irritability and employee turnover.
During the in-person interview, it’s your job to fully vet each candidate. You can also have their would-be supervisor sit in to observe and ask questions if warranted. This interview is about getting to know them, their intentions, and the feeling that you get from your interaction. If they check out on paper but something doesn’t sit right, then you should trust your instinct. It’s much easier to prevent chaos than to rebuild what you had.
It doesn’t hurt to reuse questions from the initial application, so that you can see their body language in real time. If they are just looking for a job, it’s not a good fit, because you aren’t just looking for a worker. As soon as a different opportunity comes along they’ll be the first to jump ship, and you’ll be back at square one.
Narrow down to what you want, and stick to it.
Run a Company Worth Working For
We keep hearing, “no one wants to work anymore”, when the reality is that no one wants to work an awful job. Look at the places who are always hiring (cough, McDonald’s), what are they doing wrong? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hiring sign at Costco, and probably for a good reason. They offer good pay for the work, PTO, a tight-knit community, and the ability to climb the company ladder.
Take the time to really evaluate your company, what makes it worth working for you? This isn’t to tear yourself down, but to find where you can restructure and build upon. You don’t have to have revolutionary ideas, simple changes can have a significant impact.
Do your employees have the opportunity to grow?
Knowing that they can set goals and reach them within your organization is HUGE. It’s your responsibility to show them the steps to a bigger and brighter future with you. Plus, with their growth, it will allow you to keep pushing your company for more, because now you’ll have a solid base of employees who also want your company to succeed.
Waiting Till Spring
We’ve seen it, lawn care companies self-sabotaging because they decided to wait till the last minute to hire. Marketing efforts are wasted (they can’t handle the influx of customers), employees are tired, and they’re walking on a thin line - when they should be at their peak performance.
Inevitably, you will be desperate for hands if you decide to hold off hiring until spring kicks off. This will cause you to walk back on your set standards, and your crew will look like a circus more than anything.
Which is worse? The possibility of not having enough work for your employees, or the guarantee of having to turn down work because of staff shortages?
Hire before you need to. It may be uncomfortable, but you know better than anyone that that’s how you grow. Having those extra employees on hand will push your business forward to go after more clients.
Even starting hiring a few weeks earlier than previous years and using the extra time for a little extra training or equipment-readying can give you a serious leg-up over competitors who wait until the first warm day to think about hiring.
Employee Handbook - Setting the Right Expectations
What time does the work day start?
What’s the uniform?
What happens if an employee gets hurt on the job?
If you have yet to hire your first employee or you have teams out in the field, we’d highly recommend having an employee handbook ready at hand. Legally, there are no requirements to implement an employee handbook, but it can help protect your company if any issues arise. We are not here to give legal advice, it’s just something to consider.
More importantly, an employee handbook gives your employee an overall understanding of key procedures, guidelines, and employee benefits. They know when to come into work, appropriate attire, who to address concerns with, and everything between.
Not only does it streamline the onboarding process for the employer, it gives the employee confidence in knowing what’s expected of them. If you have yet to create one, with a quick search you can find free templates and examples to create your own.
Ready to Get Started? Fix Your Hiring Process Today
Get those (hopefully rewritten) hiring ads out NOW - stay ahead of spring and begin planning on how you can approach and improve your onboarding process.
While you’re waiting on applications, start thinking about outlining different career paths within your company for new and current employees. This can really boost the morale and quality of work within your company, because now there is an obvious future to work towards. Not everyone wants to be a laborer, and that can be their starting point, but show them how they can go for more.
You can and will get past these times, but it’ll take some creativity and trying new things. If anything, this hiring craze will only make your company stronger for issues that may come ahead. So while everyone feels sorry for themselves, “no one wants to work for me”, you just see it as part of the process.
Get after it.
Need help with your hiring ads? Lightspeed Social will re-write your job descriptions and manage Indeed ads for your lawn care or landscaping business. Get in touch.