Do you ever have potential employees apply to open positions at your landscape company and then totally ghost you? Never show up for the interview and never reply to any communication ever again? You're not alone. Well, just like we need to pre-qualify leads that come through our website to see if they're actually a potential customer before we spend a ton of time trying to sell to them. We've got to do some qualification with potential employees to make sure that they've got skin in the game and that they're truly a potential employee for our team. Check out today's podcast to hear an interview with Terry Shaffer, one of my recruiting clients who quadrupled his employee interview attendance rate and ultimately filled his staff using strategies from Ramblin Jackson's Ultimate Recruiting Package that you can use at your landscape company too.
Hey everyone, Jack Jostes here and welcome to The Landscaper's Guide podcast where we share sales, marketing, and leadership inspiration to help grow the snow and landscape industry. Today we're going to talk about recruiting and I'm excited to share that next Thursday, December 14th, I'm doing a live workshop on... I'm going to reveal live recruiting case studies of what's working for actual clients in the snow and landscape industry this year that you can use to get ready for 2024. So check it out at LandscapersGuide.com/events. There's a link in the description. And now let's hear directly from Terry Shaffer. Here's a clip from a conversation we had at NALP's ELEVATE in Dallas this year.
01:50: Introducing Terry Shaffer from Summit Lawn & Landscape
All right everyone. I'm here with Terry Shaffer from Summit Lawn and Landscape. We're at the ELEVATE Show having a good time. What's happening Terry?
Terry Shaffer
Not much man. Just really enjoying the day and what's going on and everything they bring. We love it.
Jack Jostes:
Did you see any education today?
Terry Shaffer:
Yeah, a little bit of business acquisition and mergers and [inaudible 00:02:09] rolling them up other companies and that's kind of our next step, if you will. So got a lot of info out of that.
Jack Jostes:
So do you mean that you're going to acquire another company or you're looking to be bought or?
Terry Shaffer:
We're always looking to be bought, right? But looking at we always get approached by smaller companies that would like to be bought. So there's a process there and then as well as maybe taking on a capital or an equity investment type deal for us to expand. So we're always open.
Jack Jostes:
What did you learn that was maybe the most helpful or what are you still thinking about after seeing that presentation?
Terry Shaffer:
Probably exactly what the investment companies are looking for when they go to buy up a company. I was a little unclear on service mix, residential, commercial, design build versus maintenance. So learned a little bit about that, but everything else I know quite a bit about. So kind of a refresher.
03:35: How Working with Ramblin Jackson Increased Terry’s Hiring Rates from 10% to 40%
Jack Jostes:
Well, I was curious. So we worked together, we did some recruiting work, helping you with your job listings, your job ads. We helped set up Team Engine for you, we're doing reviews, how is it going? Maybe you could just share with us what work did we do together and what are some of the challenges that you were having that led you to work with us?
Terry Shaffer:
Probably you hear this a lot. One, just streamlining everything together, getting everything, all the ducks in a row from the time a prospective employee contacts you to what happens during the process is getting them in the door and then what happens next, right? When you guys came along, ours was kind of a mess. It was kind of piecemealed together and I really like how you guys helped us streamline that from the website, getting that in order to better online job applications. The job description, just a lot more detail in there really answers a lot of questions that we don't have to answer later and it just actually qualifies them more before they waste our time, if you will, because they know exactly what they're going to get into.
04:33: The Importance of Qualifying Potential Employees
Jack Jostes:
Well, I'm glad to hear you say that because... Talk to me, what's it like in the springtime when you're ramping up your staff? I think a lot of people don't think about the idea of pre-qualifying. We think about pre-qualifying our customers, but a lot of people don't think about pre-qualifying an employee. Talk to me about that and in round numbers, how much time do you think that will actually save you in peak season?
Terry Shaffer:
Oh, geez. I'd say prior to you helping us out, we'd get... Let's call it a hundred job applicants, right? I would say maybe 10% of those were qualified. Now that they can go to the website or through Team Engine, whichever way they're getting to us, it's just spelled out so clearly defined for them that I would say we may only get 50 come March, but we can close on about 40% of those candidates. So a hundred to 10 to 20, 50 to 40, I mean, which would you rather have?
Jack Jostes:
I agree, because what it does is when you put in a little bit of resistance in there asking certain questions and pre-qualifying them, it helps weed out the people who are just checking a box that they applied for a job today and helps you actually attract people who are serious contenders for your company. So I'm looking forward to seeing that. So have real human beings come through this process that now work with you?
Terry Shaffer:
Absolutely, yes. And they've been good ones. I mean, not any pre-qualifying them just at the beginning for the interview process and knowing if they're hitting some of the boxes or checking the boxes that you're looking for. But I mean, as far as the retaining them after 30, 60, 90 days, that's also increased. So just finding better candidates.
04:29: How Using Team Engine Helped Terry Manage Applicants Better
Jack Jostes:
Well, I'm really glad to hear that. So we work together on your employer branding, on who Your Hell Yes employee is, the copywriting, the three reasons to work at Summit Lawn and Landscape. We worked through a recruiting process and helped create milestones that coach them through. And then I'm really glad that you took our final step, which is using Team Engine. We're a partner of Team Engine because it helps you manage your applicants better. So I help you with that, the branding, the strategy, things like that. But when we get to the part where they actually apply, we're using Team Engine. So for people listening or watching, what is Team Engine and what does it help you do as a business owner?
Terry Shaffer:
Man, it puts you just in direct contact with the prospective employee immediately. They hit the website, they fill out the job application, they get an automated text right there on their phone, "Hey, thanks for contacting us. A rep will be in touch shortly," this and that. Humans forget things. So we may forget that that came through and the settings in the background, there's another automated text that goes out, "Hey, are you still interested?" It keeps them engaged. So the initial engagement is top-notch, in my opinion. But then once the interview is scheduled and everything like that, they're onboarded, they become an employee, then it's sending them out. Happy birthday. "Hey, congrats on your 30 days here at Summit Lawn." You can do direct messaging out through the platform and groups. That's great. We use it all the time, but not too much. Because we don't want them to not look at their text, right?
Jack Jostes:
Right.
Terry Shaffer:
But it's been great. I look forward to all that long term for sure.
Jack Jostes:
Cool. Well, thanks for doing it because I meet with a lot of people that are like, "Hey, I'm having a recruiting, I'm having a retention problem," and they kind of just dismiss what we're recommending of the process. Hell Yes Employee, but you took action on it and you're seeing the results. So thank you.
Terry Shaffer:
Yeah.
Jack Jostes:
Thank you. Thank you for working with us on it.
Terry Shaffer:
Sure. I appreciate it.
Jack Jostes:
Are there any other things you want to share on the podcast? I'll edit this part out. Is there anything else that you want to chat about or ask me? Sometimes people ask me sales and marketing questions.
08:52: Terry’s #1 Piece of Advice About Using Technology to Help with Recruiting
Terry Shaffer:
I don't think so. If there's one thing you kind of were hinting at it there indirectly, a lot of companies, whatever size you are, are real hesitant to jump in and try different technologies, whether it's the business software itself, recruiting software, it's like Team Engine or using a company like yourself, and I used to be that company or that guy. And just some quick advice is don't be hesitant, jump in, try it out. Worst thing that's going to happen is you're not going to like it. You're not committed for life, but walking around this conference and you just see everything's going so much technology. That's where everything's heading. Then we got to jump in and ride the wave.
Jack Jostes:
Yeah, I agree. You got to get in, work on it and if it's not working, stop using it. There have been a number of softwares that I've stopped using and then there are some that I've been using for 15 years now that I'm really glad that I started.
Terry Shaffer:
Yeah, jump in and do it.
Jack Jostes:
All right.
One of the things that I love that Terry said is you've got to try things to see if they work. These recruiting softwares can work, but only if you're putting out a compelling message. Only if you're clearly communicating why somebody should work for you over someone else. If you keep running the same job ads that haven't worked over the last few years and you keep running the same emails and things that you've been sending and people keep ghosting you, you're going to keep getting the same result and you're just going to keep whining about the lack of change in results. So if you want to step it up, if you want to actually get people to apply for your positions, you've got to take action. You've got to implement what's working now, and I'm excited to share what's working now with real case studies, other people in the snow and landscape industry who are getting real results, people all over the country, even in Texas, where it's insanely competitive for recruiting.
And so I hope to see you at my live webinar on Dec 14th. Check it out at LandscapersGuide.com/events. We're going to be sharing live case studies. We're going to be checking out your recruiting ads, giving you lots of valuable tips to take into the new year to fill your staff to work at your amazing company, and I can't wait to see you there.
My name's Jack Jostes. Thanks for listening to the Landscaper's Guide and I look forward to talking with you next week on the show and hopefully seeing you at the event. All right, check out our show notes for some helpful links and talk to you later.
Show Notes:
Register for the webinar: Real Recruiting Case Studies: What’s Working NOW for Landscapers: https://landscapersguide.com/real-recruiting-case-studies-what-works-for-landscapers-now/
Watch the full episode + see the transcript at: https://landscapersguide.com/podcast/
Tell us where to send your beef jerky: https://landscapersguide.com/toolbox
Book your free 15 min Marketing Brainstorm: https://landscapersguide.com/brainstorm