How to Hire Landscape Employees for Your Business: 6 Steps

1. Decide what kind of employees you need

The type of positions you open should directly relate to the support your business needs most. 

Landscape business owners often choose to hire permanent or temporary field workers.

• Permanent field workers are long-term partners who know your brand, grow their skills, and start to build strong relationships with your customers. These full-time roles might cost more in wages, but they can also save time and money when compared to constantly hiring part-time workers.
  
• Temporary or seasonal workers let you scale your team when you have sudden spikes in customer requests. These roles are perfect for busy seasons (like spring and summer) when landscape work is in high demand. Temporary positions give more flexibility and prevent layoffs when and if you become overstaffed. 

Should you start with permanent or temporary workers?

When hiring your first employee, part-time field workers can be a cost-effective way to start growing. Once you and your part-time employee have more work than teams can handle, you can gradually grow the team and complete more jobs.

For certain jobs, you might need a subcontractor instead of a part-time or temporary field worker. Subcontractors help fill in the gaps for one-off lawn care jobs you wouldn’t normally do, like pruning or snow removal.

READ MORE: Subcontractors vs. employees: what’s the difference?

2. Create a lawn care job description

Once you’ve decided what kind of employee you want to hire, create a job description. This description tells job seekers what skills, experience, and traits you’re looking for.

Remember to add these sections to any new lawn care job description:

• Summary – Give an overview of the position, including the purpose of each job and how it fits into your lawn care business plan or growth plan.
  
• Ideal candidate – Describe your ideal candidate, including traits that could help them succeed on your team (e.g., supportive, focused, creative).
  
• Expected responsibilities – Outline what a team member needs to complete on a daily or weekly basis. For example, a new hire might need to operate lawn care equipment, interact with customers, or provide quotes for hardscaping.
  
• Specific qualifications – If you want to find an individual who has previous lawn maintenance knowledge, landscaping experience, or special certifications, outline that clearly. Clarify whether these specifics are “must have” or negotiable.

Pro Tip: Avoid hiring inexperienced employees just to save money. Experienced lawn care and landscape professionals will end up saving you training time, reducing costly errors, and improving the quality of your jobs.

3. Advertise your landscape job posting

Using the information from your job description, create a new job posting that you can advertise publicly. Most job seekers are online, so it’s wise to post your request on places like:

• Online job boards (Indeed, Monster, and Craigslist)
• Job-hunting Facebook groups specific to your industry
• Your company’s social media pages
• Your landscaping website or ‘Careers’ page

READ MORE: Where to find employees for your small business

Next, you can try other tactics to find the best candidates and spread the word about your landscape openings.

4. Interview your top candidates

Once you’ve collected several good resumes and have reviewed for basic qualifications, it’s time to have real conversations. Schedule interviews with your qualified applicants to move forward in the hiring process.

If you’re unsure about what to ask in those first-round discussions, here are some interview questions you can use right off the bat.

• Can you tell me about yourself and about your background?
• Please describe your past experience in lawn care and landscaping.
• What made this job posting stand out to you? What motivated you to apply?
• What type of lawn care or landscaping equipment have you used? 
• Do you feel comfortable operating powered equipment such as mowers, tractors, snow blowers, electric clippers, chain saws, sod cutters, and pruning saws?
• What are the most effective methods for mixing and spreading fertilizers, herbicides, or insecticides?
• Describe an experience when you followed planned landscaping designs to sow grass, lay sod, or plant foliage.
• Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult customer or coworker. How did you handle the situation?

READ MORE: 10 questions to ask a new employee before you hire them

Although your role in the interview is primarily to get to know the candidates, you also want to communicate important information about yourself and your landscaping business. 

Explain why your company is a great place to work. You can prepare for this by knowing what attracts employees to a company, and then previewing any benefits you can offer.

To further verify a great interview, ask candidates to send professional references. Let them know that you might call these contacts to learn more about working history or past performance.

5. Extend an official offer to your chosen candidate

After the application, interview, and vetting process, you get to do the fun part. Phone your top candidate, and congratulate them on securing the job. 

In addition to calling or texting, always put an official offer in writing. You might send a brief email or attach an offer letter, which should outline their starting date, job responsibilities, compensation, benefits, and the conditions of their employment. 

Always have your new employee read and sign this document to show that they’ve agreed to meet your expectations for the specific role.

6. Start the onboarding process

Finally, start preparing for your employee’s first day or first time on a job site. This is when you’ll welcome them to your company and introduce them to their team and responsibilities. 

Before an employee’s official start date, you should prepare:

• A meeting place to welcome them and get them set up for work
• Forms to collect their Social Security number (SSN), verify their eligibility to work (IRS Form I-9), and deduct income taxes (IRS Form W-4)
• An official work uniform (e.g., a company-branded t-shirt or hat)
• Essential supplies for work, which may include a company vehicle, landscaping equipment, lawn care business software, and other supplies 

On their first day, walk your employee through your company policies, and discuss their work schedule to make sure they understand days and requirements. 

You can provide an onboarding mentor or make yourself available throughout the first week to help them adjust to the role and know where to go with questions or concerns.

Pro Tip: Document your company policies and get new team members to sign. This official agreement comes in handy if an employee fails to meet your requirements and needs minor correction or disciplinary action.