How to find (and keep) the best employees for your landscape business

You probably didn't have a fully-fledged HR department in the early stages of your landscaping company’s growth. But as your business hit its stride–expanding landscaping jobs, increasing hires, and dealing with new challenges in labor management–that scrappy HR side of your business realized a further need for thorough process and management capabilities.

So where does one start?

A high-growth landscaping business typically reaches a particular scale if they can navigate the competitive landscape industry through superior services and quality work. This is why some companies of this scale find themselves ill-equipped to find a solution for increasing efficiencies, processes, and management productivity within their HR team. That doesn’t mean the answer is to hire more experts and dump valuable investments into onboarding staff that could be spent elsewhere. There are ways to take your existing teams and give them the tools they need to scale with your needs. 

Aspire has put together a resource that can provide your business with the strategies and processes that may benefit your company's ability to grow. 

What capabilities are vital to your HR team’s success?

Your HR team has a significant impact on your ability to scale. Your ability to make new hires, retain employees, maximize your workforce’s efforts, and manage new labor initiatives all falls on your HR team. 

Expanding your team's processes enables you to scale at an increased pace, one more suited towards your growth goals. Our 29-page HR whitepaper covers the fundamental strategies your HR team can utilize to achieve these goals without increased investments. Our whitepaper aims to give your key leaders the ability to maximize your processes and efforts. 

Let’s explore how.

Recruitment

Labor is the single biggest challenge facing landscape companies today. Finding and keeping good people is more complex than ever, but it can make or break your ability to grow. Myths about working in the landscaping industry scare away quality talent, and high turnover rates will make it feel like you're always at least two steps behind. Your HR team should be equipped to help you overcome this challenge. 

Navigating recruitment in an expanding landscaping business is much more challenging than in an early-stage company. You can’t set your strategies based on one profile type. The jobs you need to fill can vary from more frontline crew members to office positions. Your HR team needs to have a unique strategy and profile considered for each of the varying roles you’re searching to fill because quality talent will only respond to a position that seems targeted at them. From there, it’ll take a streamlined hiring process to ensure you successfully win over new candidates and secure the position.

Retention

Nothing is quite as big a growth killer as high turnover rates. Many landscaping businesses focus so hard on the recruitment process that they neglect the need to focus on retention. Many companies assume retention is beyond their control, chalking up financials as the most significant reason an employee sticks around or not. This couldn’t be further from the truth. 

You have to cater to retaining employees with the same attention you cater to keeping customers. Just like a customer might enjoy an initial experience and then use that experience to explore other options, you have to prepare to provide an experience your competitors can’t beat. And no, that doesn’t always mean increased pay rates. It’s about your ability to create an environment where team members can thrive at every level of the organization. That means understanding their needs, goals, and passions for the job.

Culture

Your company culture says a lot about your ability to achieve the goals mentioned above. Culture can be a complex aspect of a business; without a dedicated team or leader ensuring a standard of culture is met, it can become easily lost. Culture goes beyond company outings or dress code. It’s about the community and bond your workforce shares throughout every level. That means crew members can’t feel disassociated from the office positions and the office positions can’t feel inferior to your crew workers. Every team member is a vital aspect of your business and they deserve to feel celebrated.

Cultivating a space of diversity and inclusion is huge in crafting your company culture. You want the best talent, regardless of background, upbringing, or geographical heritage. Your company needs to support varying backgrounds so every employee feels welcomed and supported to do their best work. Even customers will appreciate the culture you’ve cultivated and it can help you win over new clients who also may be of a diverse background. 

Level up your team’s strategies today

Our whitepaper is dedicated to helping your HR team manage and celebrate your company’s growing success. With insight into the path other successful landscaping teams have taken, and actionable strategies that your company can deploy today, our HR guide provides all the insight you need to succeed.