If you’re like a lot of landscape business owners, then you might be struggling to figure out how to bridge the generation gap when hiring. Whether you’ve already hired new young people—or you’re just looking to attract more of them to your business—then you may have already noticed that there seems to be a disconnect […]
Like so many others, Casey Hurd, owner of Worton, Maryland-based Greenscapes Land Care LLC has been struggling with labor. More specifically, he says the trouble is “finding qualified workers.” Hurd, the 2019 NALP Young Entrepreneur of the Year, says he’s learned you must be proactive when it comes to hiring great people. “People aren’t going […]
Caitlin Clineff, recruiting specialist and company ambassador for Myatt Landscaping in Raleigh, North Carolina, says these days, everyone is facing a labor shortage in the landscape industry. That’s why we can all benefit from how the industry is approaching employee recruiting strategies. “We have to do something about this ourselves,” Clineff says. The key time […]
In the past three years, NALP member Ben Carruthers, owner of Carruthers Landscape Management Inc., in Dallas, says the company has become more “HR-focused” than ever before. He’s been working with Human Resources “Harvester” Steve Cesare, of The Harvest Group, on a number of ways in which the company can improve their employee onboarding process—among […]
When it comes to hiring more labor, NALP member Lisa L. Kuperus, vice president of Farmside Landscape & Design in Wantage, New Jersey, says it must be a multi-faceted and ongoing effort. In this tight labor market—and with the industry’s struggle to receive H-2B workers—there is no time to become complacent. “We absolutely must have […]
Motivating employees and making them feel like valued members of the team has always been at the core of how Jason Musch, owner and president of Dutch Valley Landscape Contractors, has run his business. He says “without our employees, we are nothing.” Even so, in the past, the Chicago-area landscape maintenance company has experienced problems […]
Employee retention has never been much of an issue at McHale Landscape Design, a $20-million full-service landscape and maintenance company based in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. In fact, the company has many long-term employees who have been with the business for two decades or more—including McHale’s 50 foremen. But Kevin McHale, president, says he was getting […]
Let’s face it: As a result of the lack of knowledge available to people about the landscape industry and the career potential within, its image is tainted. This is particularly true with younger generations. “Students and parents think it’s a dirty job and that you don’t make any money in landscaping; we just have this […]
Like so many other landscape professionals, Mark Borst, owner of Borst Landscape & Design in Allendale, New Jersey, says the labor pool in his area often feels quite dry. It’s an ongoing struggle to find qualified workers. That’s why, about seven years ago, Borst began experimenting with employee referral rewards. Since that time, refining the […]
Like so many other landscape business owners, Bret Achtenhagen, president and CEO of Bret Achtenhagen’s Seasonal Services in Mukwonago, Wisconsin, was struggling with attracting, hiring, onboarding and retaining quality individuals to add to the company’s production teams. As a result, Achtenhagen says the company was growing faster than its ability to develop foremen and other […]