By: Neal Glatt

Attracting quality applicants isn’t impossible.  In fact, with the right job advertisement, it’s actually fairly easy.  The problem is that most companies have no idea what to put in their job postings to actually attract candidates.  But recent data from LinkedIn shows that more than half of all job applications last year were for the 15% of job postings with only one thing in common.  What potential employees responded to more than anything else was…

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Jobs that allowed people to work from home.  And even though in the green industry we require people to work away from home, there is a bigger message being sent about the desire for workplace flexibility and better work-life integration which can be achieved for our work as well.

The nature of work is changing to be on-demand with shorter shifts, flexible hours, non-traditional working weeks, and overall far more conforming to the needs of workers outside of work.  That’s the reason why the gig economy has exploded and workers who may have traditionally worked for companies are now driving for Uber, delivering for DoorDash, or creating videos on YouTube.  Flexibility is the top perk desired by all employees.

How do we accomplish more accommodation of workers in the green industry?  For one, we can reconsider start times.  Why do crews have to start at 7am when it makes it impossible for anyone with childcare responsibilities to get their kids to school and report to work on time?  Wouldn’t it be much easier to have a 9am start time so that those with kids can get them ready for the day and get to work on time (not to mention avoiding sitting in rush hour traffic on company pay)?  Finding babysitters or other care in the afternoons is generally possible while finding help in the mornings is nearly impossible.  A small change could mean a world of difference to our workforce.

Or perhaps we could allow our crews to select whether they wanted to work a four day workweek at 10 hours per day or a five day work week at 8 hours per day.  Simply opening the dialogue and letting people choose may make the difference in flexibility that they desire in a job.  Management must do some more work to make this happen but in return will have a far more engaged workforce who performs better and stays around longer.

Naysayers will say these ideas are impossible to implement but the reality is that if we fail to adapt our business then we will continue to have the same problems with employees that we face today.  The only question is whether we will start to adapt in time to thrive in a difficult economy that may get worse.

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