If you continually go to the same well for your workforce, eventually this recruiting method will dry up. This is why it’s essential to diversify your talent pipelines.
“As an industry, we have failed to expand our opportunity reach,” says Parke Kallenberg, managing partner with ADVANCE Consulting Group. “What I mean by that is – most people have no idea how rewarding this industry is, how many opportunities there are, and what a wide variety of career paths we offer.”
Kallenberg will cover alternative recruitment sources as well as key retention practices during his session, “Beyond the Basics: Fresh Approaches to Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent” on Tuesday, Nov. 4, at 9 a.m. at ELEVATE.
“There’s going to be direct and immediate actual recruiting sources,” Kallenberg says. “There’ll be a couple they can literally walk out the door, go online and sign up for that they’re currently not using.”
Kallenberg says it’s also important to educate the next generation about the career opportunities the landscape industry has to offer.
“Each of us has in the industry to market the green career because we’ve got to build a bigger population to recruit from,” Kallenberg says.
Underutilized Talent Pipelines
Kallenberg says that by expanding your recruiting methods, you can also lessen your dependence on sources that you have less control over, such as H-2B.
“Tried and true is great, but if we don’t expand our reach and if we keep slicing the same pie of recruits thinner and thinner, the industry and all of its members will suffer,” he says.
Kallenberg argues employee poaching is common in the industry currently because everyone is trying to recruit from the same talent pool.
One of the underutilized recruiting resources available is the DoD SkillBridge, which pays the first three to six months of salary for service members who are re-entering the civilian workforce. Kallenberg says currently only eight landscape companies are taking advantage of this program.
Another option is to collaborate with programs that assist refugees in settling into American life. Kallenberg says he has utilized American Pathways and the Refugee Resettlement Assistance Administration.
“The organization completes all of their legal paperwork, and these people want to work,” Kallenberg says. “My wife and I probably had 40% of our employees from this source.”
Kallenberg says another pipeline they discovered was through teaching English Second Language (ESL) classes at the local community center.
“There is not a meeting that someone does not ask us for help finding a job,” Kallenberg says. “Find your local library, rotary group, or church and ask to help with ESL.”
He says with these recruiting methods, you need to show up consistently and build trust before expecting to see results.
“It’s not a drop in and ask to be rewarded,” Kallenberg says. “Each source has ways for you to become an integral part. If you invest yourself consistently, it will pay off. The session will detail more about the primary steps for each source.”
Retention Strategies
Kallenberg says employers should also adjust their mindset that they’ll simply replace employees instead of trying to retain them.
“Losing some employees is healthy if they’re not performing, but too many times, we just go, ‘Well, they’re not working out,’ or we wait for them to ask us for a raise instead recognizing that they’re good employee and giving them a raise as a vote of confidence that we see their value,” Kallenberg says.
He says that recognition is critical to retaining your employees long term. This requires building strong relationships with your team members so it’s not merely lip service.
“You should recognize your employees who deserve it and provide it before they have to ask,” Kallenberg says. “That shows respect and awareness of who they are.”
He stresses that if your only form of employee appreciation is throwing a pizza party once a quarter out in the yard on a card table, that will not cut it.
“That’s insulting,” he says. “If you go out there, you say, ‘Okay, this month the account managers and I are going to grill chicken for you. Next month, the crew leaders from the north side of the city are going to bring the food, and the next month is going to be the crew leaders and account managers from the south side of the city, then you make everybody a part of it.”
Providing a career path for your team members also allows you to retain them for longer as they are able to progress into more engaging roles.
“If you can offer recognition and if you can offer some kind of career path, and not everybody is going to be a branch manager and owner, but if you tell David or Sarah or Juan, ‘Hey, if you will learn these two skills and demonstrate them consistently the next three months, then I will put you in for a raise,’ before they come and ask you for a raise, you’re golden.”
Kallenberg also recommends offering some form of profit sharing to incentivize employees to stay versus leaving for $1 more down the street.
“You’re going to give it to the government or your employees,” Kallenberg says. “Which one do you want?”
Want to learn how to tap into these talent pipelines? Register for ELEVATE and we’ll see you in Phoenix, Arizona!
