By Neal Glatt

The current talent war isn’t going away.  Last week, Home Depot announced their plans to hire 100,000 new positions this spring and revealed their game plan to accomplish their goal.  Here is what they’re going to do - and how you can beat them in your local market…

Home Depot’s plan to hire 100,000 people for the spring rush is to debut an “accelerated hiring process” where jobseekers will be given a job offer as soon as the next day in which they apply.  By responding first to those seeking employment, the Home Depot will certainly have an advantage.  Pre-pandemic, 64% of workers said the last time they were hired, they accepted the first offer they were given, according to ZipRecruiter.

For small businesses that wish to compete for workers, the bar has officially been raised.  Most landscaping companies tell me that they currently take two to five days to connect with job applicants once they’ve applied.  In today’s economy, those people will already be employed with a company like Home Depot.

So what can we do to win the talent war?  Move traditional hiring processes to electronic, text-based communication where a response is automatic and instantaneous.  Imagine an applicant texts your company looking for work and fills out a few key details on their phone.  Within minutes, a response is texted back to them, using their first name, and inviting them to schedule a call based on the availability of your calendar.  Once they select a time within the next 24 hours, you receive an email so you know to connect with them.  Playing field leveled.

It isn’t too good to be true.  Our friends at Team Engine have helped many GrowTheBench readers implement this solution already.  Of course, there are many other great benefits too.  If you want a demo and free trial, check them out at this link. 

Now that we’ve engaged a candidate as quickly (or even faster) than Home Depot, how do we make sure they choose our job offer?  Let’s talk about the benefits of working in the green industry: We enhance the natural environment while working outdoors, we have minimal interaction with annoying retail customers, and we can be employed (almost) regardless of appearance or background check issues.  Clearly, there are advantages that Home Depot can’t offer.

If you want to learn more about how to target underserved labor pools and explore the idea of open hiring (the two best tactics I used to hire hundreds of snow shovelers every year), you’ll want to check out our FREE recruiting course, generously sponsored by Team Engine.  The time to prepare for the spring hiring rush is now, so register today to finalize your talent war battle plan.