Every company wants to have the best employees. The tree care industry is no different — with the additional difficulty of having fewer candidates to choose from to find the right employees.
“Some people don’t think of tree care as a career and others don’t even know it’s an option,” says Bob Rouse, chief program officer at TCIA. “This lack of awareness cuts down the pool of potential employees.”
Rouse provides five secrets to finding and hiring good employees for your tree care service company.
- Recruit constantly: When finding the right employee is a challenge, it’s best to always have a job opening posted. For example, if an interview with an applicant doesn’t go well, you’re not under pressure to hire them on the spot. This also allows you to be more selective and build a list of potential employees. Constant recruitment keeps you ahead of the game when your busy time hits or if an employee unexpectedly resigns.
- Perfect the job post: It’s not just about the wages for many job applicants — especially millennials. They’re sizing up all the benefits of working for your company, so include that information in the job posting. Make your company as attractive as possible by sharing what sets you apart from other tree care companies, such as training opportunities and company culture. Talk about your company’s drug-free policy or safety-first mentality, and promote your company’s TCIA accreditation.
- Advertise broadly: There are three main avenues for posting job openings — each having its advantages and reaching different prospective employees.
- Traditional — Newspapers and online job boards are still a great way to reach potential applicants. Spend the money to advertise here knowing you can reach a large audience.
- Employee referral — Enlist your employees to find applicants. You may even decide to provide an incentive such as a gift card or additional paid vacation day for an employee referral that results in a hire. This avenue reaches a small but high-quality audience.
- Social media — If your company has a Facebook or Twitter account, use that space to promote the job opening. Since your company is most likely connected with family, friends, customers and partners, you have the potential to reach a large pool of interested applicants.
- Prepare for the interview: You should have a job description in writing so the applicant knows exactly what is expected for the position. The description will also guide the interview. Ask questions to learn about their experience and to get to know their personality. Is it more important to get the job done fast or correctly? Are you a risk taker? If you saw an opportunity to cut corners, would you? Having a written profile of the ideal candidate will help you quickly determine if the applicant’s characteristics align with your expectations.
- Hire based on characteristics: A good tree care employee has several characteristics including timeliness, willingness to learn, safety consciousness, energy and strong work ethic. Hiring an employee who meets these criteria is likely to be a better fit than hiring someone based on experience. While most people can be taught the skills needed for the job, it’s much more difficult to change those characteristics. Plus, oftentimes business owners need to re-train new employees because they had been improperly trained.
Advice or suggestions provided by Mr. Rouse are statements of general applicability that may or may not apply to individual businesses, whose circumstances and operations may vary. The opinions of Mr. Rouse do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Vermeer Corporation, its dealers or its affiliates.