It’s easy to play the comparison game when you’re recruiting and wonder if your landscape company needs to hire a full-time recruiter in order to be successful. Yet what works for your organization will depend on your growth goals, current company size and market conditions.
If you’re on the smaller side, experience low turnover rates or have already reached your goal company size, there may not be a need for this specific role at your company. In this case, recruiting may be divided amongst your HR team’s responsibilities.
For instance, Pete LaSage, human resources specialist for David J. Frank Landscape Contracting, Inc., based in Germantown, Wisconsin, says their entire HR team works collectively to engage with applicants through their Team Engine software and move them through the onboarding process.
Signs It May Be Time to Hire a Recruiter
However, if critical roles are sitting open for months or your managers are spending far more time recruiting than executing their core responsibilities, this can be an indicator that you need an individual dedicated to this task.
Marion Delano, director of technology & marketing for Level Green Landscaping, based in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, says in their case, they had grown to the size where they were routinely looking to fill 2+ manager-level roles at any given time. Because reviewing resumes and conducting initial interviews can take anywhere from five to 10 hours a week, they decided to add a corporate recruiter role in 2020.
“That was simply too much time for our branch managers and leadership team members to spend, so shifting that to a recruiter allows those people to maintain their schedules and focus on higher-value tasks,” Delano says.
Heather Reitano, senior recruiting manager for The Davey Tree Expert Company, headquartered in Kent, Ohio, agrees that recruiting and hiring is too much to expect a hiring manager to do in addition to operations management. Davey Tree has around 30 full-time recruiters on staff currently.
Before having a recruiting team, Jennifer Jones, director of national recruiting for Mariani Premier Group, headquartered in Lake Bluff, Illinois, says positions could sit open for a year.
“Our recruiting team filled over 500 positions this past year, and the majority were specialized roles that are critical to the growth of our business,” Jones says. “We are filling positions faster with an average of 30 days’ time to fill.”
It’s also a good idea to consider hiring a recruiter if your candidate experience is lackluster. Failing to get back to applicants in a timely manner can damage your brand as an employer and make it that much harder to fill roles.
Delano says having a dedicated recruiter allows them to be more strategic and proactive in their talent acquisition.
“Erica can focus on building relationships with candidates, managing our recruiting pipeline, improving our processes, and ensuring a consistent, positive candidate experience,” Delano says.
Reitano notes that most operations managers simply do not have enough time to dedicate to one-on-one relationship building needed to establish trust with potential candidates.
“To attract the talent that the company needed to grow, we needed to have people at the company who were dedicated to screening and attracting candidates to our company full-time,” Retaino says. “It is the only way to ensure that you aren’t letting good candidates slip through the cracks or sending the wrong message by not communicating with the applicant after they have indicated interest.”
Retaino says while the labor market is still tight, with recruiters on staff, they have the bandwidth to communicate and engage with their candidate pool.
John Bosch, VP of operations for Virginia Green, based in Richmond, Virginia, says as they grow their staffing needs have grown with it. Having recruiters on staff allows them to streamline the screening and interview process.
“Timing is critical,” Bosch says. “When it comes to recruiting, I would say that being able to communicate and expedite internally offers us an advantage to securing the right employee.”
The Benefits of Bringing On Recruiters
Delano says having a dedicated recruiter on staff has improved both the quantity and quality of their candidate pipeline. He says their recruiter can respond to candidates quickly, keep job postings current and optimized and maintain relationships.
“Customer service is so important in recruitment,” Delano says. “People apply and expect quick responses and constant communication. It’s hard to do that if it’s just one small part of your job, but when your whole role is ensuring potential candidates have a great experience interacting with the company, it changes things.”
Delano says they constantly receive positive feedback from potential employees about interactions with their recruiter and feels that she is a competitive advantage for them.
Another benefit of having an on-staff recruiter is the increased effectiveness of your hiring managers.
“They can focus on running their operations while trusting that recruiting is being handled professionally,” Delano says. “When they do need to interview candidates, those candidates are better pre-screened and qualified, making the managers’ time more productive.”
Bosch says having a recruiter allows them to review resumes and arrange a screening call within the same day, improving their candidate quality and securement.
“If the candidate seems to be a high-potential or very eager to work with us, we’ll then immediately connect them with a local manager, depending on the facility they apply for, for an immediate interview,” Bosch says.
Reitano adds that when you have someone dedicated to recruiting full-time, you can standardize the process and not re-invent the wheel for every single candidate.
Jones recommends finding the right person to advocate and recruit for your company. She adds that this person needs to love what they do.
“Having a strong recruiter in the role could be the difference between a good year or an exceptional year in sales growth,” Jones says. “They will help enable your business to thrive.”
