Recruiting is HR’s responsibility, right? For Will Richardson, managing director of Father Nature Landscapes, based in Birmingham, Alabama, he’s found it’s more beneficial when he takes an active role in this task.
“In my mind, it’s a way better investment in our future for me to focus on recruiting and get the right people on the team,” Richardson says.
Richardson admits the amount of time he spends recruiting at high schools, colleges, and other organizations would make any business leader uncomfortable. However, he prioritizes it because he says you attract people who are similar to who you are.
“I’m not an Alabama fan, but I’ll quote Nick Saban here, ‘High-performing people have a very hard time being around low performers and low performers have a very hard time being around high-performing people,’” Richardson says. “If I can go put myself in front of a group of 20 or 30 students, I like to think that I’m going to attract the people I want to work with more easily and more consistently.”
Richardson encourages other leaders to spend six months leaning into the recruiting side of the business.
“I’m saving a lot of money when I’m the one going and doing the recruiting, because I cut out some of the recruiting steps, some of the ad spend, some of the time spent weeding through applications,” Richardson says. “I found that it’s a great return on investment.”
One strategy Richardson implemented in 2024 as a result of his being involved in recruiting and interviewing is their open house events.
Turning Interviews Into Tryouts
Father Nature’s open house serves as a time to conduct bulk interviews. Richardson says they wanted to be able to assess candidates faster, make it fun and find out how individuals handle real-world situations.
When the company needs a big hiring push, they’ll host one of these open houses, grill burgers and bring in their high-energy tenured team. Richardson shares briefly the story of Father Nature and their recent growth before having the candidates rotate through five different stations.
The stations ask job applicants to complete tasks such as moving a pallet with a mini skid, running a string trimmer, planting a boxwood, identifying native plants, or placing 15 notecards in the correct order of operations.
Richardson says during the open house, they’re looking to see who can look people in the eye, ask good questions, communicate effectively and learn quickly.
“One of the first things I say every time is, you’re not here just to show me what you know,” Richardson says. “If you say you know something, show me what you know. But if you say you don’t know it, show me how fast you can learn. Be willing to look at a grown man that may be in his 30s, 40s or 50s that you’ve never met and say, ‘I don’t know how to do that,’ but then show us that you can watch that person do it. You can ask good questions and figure it out.”
Like the NFL Combine, Father Nature employees at the open house spread out and scout for promising individuals who have both the skills and personality that indicate a cultural fit.
“It’s not just about how fast you run the 40,” Richardson says. “It’s about what’s your attitude when you finish. Are you cocky? Are people attracted to you? I’m not looking for the smartest person in the room. I’m looking for the one who asked good questions. I’m looking at who by the end of this knew the other candidates’ names, and all the candidates went to him because that’s a leader. That’s somebody who’s attractional.”
Richardson says they’ll hold at least one open house right before summer and typically one towards the end of summer, as they don’t slow down much in the winter months. In 2025, they held four open houses because they had grown almost 50% in the last 24 months.
Since implementing the open house interview method, 30 to 50 candidates have attended, and Father Nature has hired 15 to 18 individuals from them.
“I would say one of the best hires we made in the last 12 months saw we posted about the open house on Facebook,” Richardson says. “Saw the ad, was between jobs, showed up, and he was a phenomenal hire. He’s killing it.”
Richardson says one of the greatest benefits of this structure is how quickly they can bring team members on. If an open house is held on Thursday, the candidate can get drug tested on Friday and be in uniform starting on Monday.
Richardson says statistically, if an employee makes it to 365 days with the company, they’ll stay for seven years with Father Nature. He says this is because they have high standards and will turn over a lot of hires in that first year.
“If you’re having a hard time with recruiting right now and you’re unhappy with the people coming through, you can always look at yourself and make sure that you’re being the person you need to be,” Richardson says. “Then, maybe you need to play a bigger role if you want people who think like you, act like you, care like you, then you need to go find them.”
