MULTI-LEVEL RECRUITMENT

Steven Cesare, Ph.D.

A landscaper from Delaware called me the other day to discuss his company’s ongoing issues related to employee recruitment, staffing, and retention. Like most of the green industry, the Delaware company is always looking for higher quality employees, though acknowledging its current headcount status is relatively comfortable, unlike the crisis orientation that characterized much of the green industry just a few years ago.

Inspired by resolute leadership that designed a well-rounded, multi-level recruitment plan, allocated invaluable resources presaging its successful implementation, and maintaining strategic stamina to the plan despite periodic problems, Version 1.0 is in place. Take a bow!

To all of the staffing skeptics, recruitment naysayers, and facade leaders: It really can be done.

Except at your company. Because you’re different, right?

Same story… Every year…

While space limitations prevent me from capturing every one of the Delaware company’s efficacious procedures that contributed to its recruitment success, I thought it advantageous to highlight some of aspects of its broad-based, integrated, and forward-thinking approach.

College Recruiting. After extensive internal debate, the Delaware company allocated sufficient funds to support a trip to this year’s National Collegiate Landscape Competition, sponsored by the National Association of Landscape Professional (NALP), held in Denver Colorado. This annual event provides a venue for talented college students, throughout the nation, to showcase their skills in landscaping, horticulture, irrigation, and other green industry domains, across a broad array of competitive exercises.

Wisely, the Delaware company sent its Human Resources Manager and Branch Manager to the event. Supported by high-quality marketing materials, a professionally-designed booth, and requisite human resources documents (e.g., job descriptions, on-boarding plans, wage and salary scales, employment applications), the company representatives scouted talent to fill immediate vacancies, future positions, as well as potential summer-internships. Numerous introductions were made, many interviews were conducted, and ongoing contacts (i.e., “catch and release”) were earmarked for follow-up conversations.

Next year, this event is scheduled to be held in East Lansing, Michigan. While I know you’re going to say your 2026 budget and calendar are already full, I also know your top competitors will be there.

High School Recruiting. Closer to home, the Delaware company complements its collegiate recruitment efforts, with planned attendance at several local high school job fairs. Maybe you have heard that more and more young people are choosing to avoid college, its fulsome long-term debt and undeniable indoctrination, in favor of starting their careers closer to home. Trust me: Your top competitors have.

These events allow the company to extend the local visibility of its brand image, identify top employment prospects, and invite them to the company office for a catered lunch with company executives who share their insight on the company culture, business model, and career paths, augmented by a tour of the yard, shop, and office. I am confident the company will likely be a co-sponsor at some of these events in 2026.

Internal Recruiting. The Delaware company has a pronounced commitment for day-to-day recruitment: an attractive Careers section on its website, a capitalistic Employee Referral Program, recurring H2B Visa program involvement, and a venerable culture that emphasizes quality regarding its employees in much the same fashion it exemplifies quality toward its jobs, equipment, ethics, and business planning.

I know you are way too busy to develop a multi-level recruitment plan for your company in 2026.

If only it was 2025! Then, of course, you would have enough time to give it some serious thought. Right?

The Delaware company has; and by the way, so have your top competitors.

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