Photo: Viktoriia Oleinichenko / iStock / Getty Images
Jason New, principal at green industry consultancy McFarlin Stanford, shares some of the innovative ways companies are approaching hiring and training.
Treat recruiting like baseball season.
Have a spring training event to help hire new team members. During your hiring season, invite candidates who pass the phone interview to work with your company for a week as a tryout. Have some members of your current team host the tryouts, which will allow the vetting process to take place in person, while performing work in the field. Also, spring training allows companies to assess candidates’ skill levels and where they fit best on the team should they make it through. Winning a jersey to work with your team should be an honor. So, when you’re in need of field team members, consider having open tryouts and repeat the process in the summer if you still need people.
Promote your best crew leaders to field trainers.
Senior crew leaders are in a position to help your organization with orientation and training and serve as guidance counselors for new field team members. Have your best examples of crew leaders provide the standards training during onboarding. This tactic ensures that new field team members have the best examples and environment to be successful at your company. Most importantly, you can see if the new people are willing to learn and are a good culture fit for the team before they’re considered ready for full-time work.
Make career paths a standard development practice.
An entry-level person should know the skill sets and responsibilities needed to qualify for promotions at your company. Allow new team members to see the path to senior crew leader, and show crew leaders and entry-level managers the path to a leadership position. Post these career paths for the whole team to see. Doing so will encourage higher-caliber people to stay and grow with your company.
MORE: Strengthen your business in the current economy
The post Winning workers: Innovative ways to approach hiring, training appeared first on Landscape Management.