Quick Guide to Indeed for Landscapers
Need to hire more landscaping employees?
Do NOT skip out on Indeed.
Indeed is a massive platform that helps business owners like you find employees. With over 250 million visitors each month, your new favorite landscaping workers are probably on Indeed, right now.
And if you’re not on it, they won’t find you.
If you want to hire more landscapers, or grow your bench, you need to start using Indeed. But be careful: most landscaping companies make a few painful mistakes that are killing their chances of finding new employees.
The good news?
We know how to make you look better than everyone else. Here’s what you need to know:
Quick Guide to Indeed for Landscapers
Here’s the quick, step-by-step guide to getting started with Indeed:
Easy, right?
Create an employer account on Indeed.com. Make sure to use your business email.
Write out your job posting (we’ll talk more about this in a moment)
Fill in your application questions
Review and publish your new job posting
Add your account information
Select "Sponsor job" or "Post job without sponsoring" to the right of "Continue"
Choose the best applicants and hire!
But if you want to make sure great landscaping candidates apply with you (and not one of your competitors), you must go a couple steps further.
Know What You Want
Before you can find great landscaping employees, you need to define what “great” means to you.
We recommend you build out an “ideal employee persona.” Nothing fancy, just pull out a piece of paper, and write down what you want from your candidates. This is your chance to dream.
Here’s a short list of employee traits your landscaping business might be interested in:
Experience Level
What are they skilled at? Do their skills align with your company?
How long will it take to train them up? How long will it take to un-train their bad habits?
Attitude
Positive employees build better culture, and make your work joyful. They will also refer new employees to you.
Also, a good attitude is usually a good sign of the candidate’s reliability.
Be on the alert for red flags regarding attitude. Anyone who willingly bad-mouths an old boss will probably bad-mouth you.
Expected Pay Levels
You get what you pay for, so be reasonable.
More pay will enable you to find more loyal employees who are willing to work harder, and make your landscaping clients happy.
Employees work to get paid first and foremost, because money enables us all to meet our necessities.
If you can’t pay top dollar, know that there are more ways to fill in this gap. We’ll talk about those further down.
Job Goals
Are these candidates looking to work for the long term? Do they want to grow into a crew leader, or more?
There are some candidates who just want to work in the field, forever. The truth is, that’s perfectly ok. These kinds of employees will form the bedrock of your company.
Remember: there is no such thing as a perfect candidate.
And nobody will ever care as much about your business as you do, so it’s unrealistic to expect candidates to sacrifice their lives and wellbeing for your company.
HOWEVER, Indeed is stuffed with great landscaping workers who are excited to help you grow your business.
So, how do you attract these kinds of people? It starts with good marketing.
How to Attract More Landscaping Employees on Indeed
There are three areas on Indeed you can use to shine brighter than anyone else.
Get these right, and you’ll start attracting top-quality landscaping candidates in no time.
1. Craft an Outstanding Job Title
Every new job posting on Indeed must have a title. There are two mistakes people make here: Mistake #1: They’ll write a vague title (or write the wrong one)
If you’re looking for a Landscaping Crew Leader, then say exactly that! Don’t beat around the bush and don’t make it confusing.
Mistake #2: Most employers are tempted to put the job title... and that’s it.
What a waste!
The job title is the first thing all new candidates will see. Because candidates are likely scrolling through a list of titles, you need to stand out.
Use this space to stand out from the crowd. Make your job sound enticing. For example, instead of using a generic headline like this:
“Looking for Landscaper”
Make your job sound enticing, like this:
”Landscaping Crew Leader - $21/hr + Overtime”
Job titles are critical. Do not miss your chance to make an impact, right out of the gate.
2. Get Tons of New Candidates with Better Job Descriptions
Next, every posting on Indeed needs a job description. The truth is, you’re here to sell candidates on your company. Not the other way around.
You will never make more money from marketing HERE than you will anywhere else.
Why?
Because employees are the only way a landscaping company can grow. So, remember that you catch more flies with honey. And right now, we want all the flies.
Ways to Write an “Irresistible” Job Description
The candidates on Indeed want to work. That’s why when our agency helps landscaping companies get set up on Indeed, we see a ton of high-quality landscaping applicants.
So, what do these landscapers want?
Everybody wants a job they’re happy to do, every single day. They want to know their company cares about them, is looking out for them, and will compensate them fairly for their hard efforts.
Most people also want to show off their skills - and to not be micromanaged.
Talk about perks and benefits. These people are using a job board, they want a job. They want a job they’ll be happy to go to, every day.
Here’s how you catch them:
Write When You’re Excited
Drink a cup of coffee or do 50 jumping jacks before you get started. It sounds crazy, but it really helps.
Write Short Paragraphs + Bullets
You want your description to be readable. Nobody is going to read a wall of text.
Focus on What They Want.
It’s about them, not you. Don’t worry, your part is coming up in a moment.
Talk About Growth Opportunities
Nobody wants to stand still forever. Talk about career development within your company, or mention your competitive pay raises.
Create Urgency for the Position
Include specific start dates to add a powerful sense of urgency that will make candidates want to apply right now.
Show Off Your Culture
Culture is everything. For many landscaping employees, it can be just as important as pay.
Optimize for Your Keywords
Include keywords in your job postings.
For example, if you’re looking for a “landscape crew member,” then use that exact phrase at least once inside your job description. This will tell Indeed’s search engine that your job is hyper-relevant to landscapers.
List Your Benefits
Be sure to list your benefits on your Company Page, too.
Talk about every benefit you can think of, from your flexible hours, your competitive pay, and other benefits.
A solid list of benefits makes candidates jump to join your business, which makes it so much easier to build out your bench.
Be a Professional, not a Professional Complainer
Too many times, we see job postings by landscaping companies that look like this:
DO NOT BE LAZY
DO NOT ASK FOR TIME OFF
DO NOT COME TO WORK LOOKING LIKE A SLOB
Yikes. Talk about airing dirty laundry.
When your new job posting focuses only on negative traits, guess what kind of people will apply?
Yup. If you say, “don’t apply if you’re a...” then you’re going to get exactly the kind of person you don’t want.
The final piece of your new job posting is all about qualifications. NOT disqualifications. With that in mind, let’s talk about the qualifications you want to include:
Landscaping experience
Certifications
Language Proficiency
Landscaping Skills
Be sure to draw the line clearly between MANDATORY and PREFERRED qualifications. If you’re open to inexperienced individuals, then don’t make 5+ years of experience a requirement.
The goal is clarity. You want candidates to know immediately if they’re a great fit or not.
This will save you a boatload of time, and ensure you’re only getting the best landscaping candidates.
Need More Landscaping Employees ASAP? Try this…
Indeed is a massive platform, and there are so many ways to optimize your account to get hordes of great applicants.
The key is to just get started.
Use the tips above to quickly craft the ideal job title, description, and qualifications. And when you’re ready to go to the next level, you have to try this...
SPONSORED JOBS: Our #1 Tip for Success on Indeed
Tons of companies use Indeed every day, which means they post new jobs all the time. Sponsored Jobs are key to getting lots of great candidates.
Best of all, once you get it set up and running, it’s like a faucet. You can run it at a trickle, or turn it off in your slow season.
And when it matters most, you can run that faucet full blast, and fill up your bench in weeks (or even days).
Sponsored jobs are even perfect for people who need to fill a position right now.
The truth is, these ads are a little more difficult to set up than your basic Indeed job posting. If you don’t set them up right, you’ll waste money - or worse, you’ll think they don’t work at all, and miss out on tons of great new employees.
You can dive into Indeed’s ad platform and set up these ads up on your own. It takes time, management, and you might have to read a few detailed guides.
You can also get a dedicated professional to help you. That’s us.
Lightspeed Social is a landscaping marketing agency that specializes in all forms of digital advertising.
Yes, even hiring ads!
Our expert team creates truly great content and high-converting ads for landscape companies.
We can help you build a deeper bench of landscapers who are hungry to work for you. Talk to us today, and we’ll show you how we can solve your hiring problems.