Landscape Management, October 2012

ThE iNDuSTry PuLSE by Marisa Palmieri editor Labor pains Hiring and retaining workers remains a challenge but successful operators show creativity and investment pay off F inding and keeping high quality employees is a perennial challenge for landscape contractors and lawn care operators The overall economic situation and new regulations are playing a role in the availability of the labor force as are local market conditions Despite the fact that unemployment seems to be high its gotten more difficult to hire people in the last couple of years says Lee Edwards president and CEO of The Greenery in Hilton Head S C In South Carolina we have the E Verify law so immigrant labor has really changed a lot As of Jan 1 all employers in the state were required to enroll in the U S Department of Homeland Securitys system to verify the legal status of all new employees within three business days Im in favor of those laws but it makes our job harder he says explaining more employers are going after the same pool of legal workers Its been more expensive to hire people Keeping a legal workforce is a challenge nationwide Its a top concern for Ricardo Baldi president and owner of Baldi Gardens in Arlington Texas Were having a hard time finding qualified workers he says You have a lot of companies after the Latino legal workers because they work really hard The labor situation in Jeff Bowens market has been funny this year This year its been tough says the owner of Images of Green Stuart Fla Weve talked to other companies and theyve experienced it too I think were finding people in general know landscaping is a hard hot job in LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET october 2012 S16 Florida You can make the same money at Walmart or McDonalds especially if you speak English And folks that used to want to work in landscaping are finding theres an easier way to make 8 9 or 10 an hour His solution has been to tap temporary workers He hired two temps for the month of August and one for September By the fourth quarter all of our temp labor will be gone he says Its only in the summer we need it We do the same amount of work in the winter and summer but it takes 30 percent longer to do it in the summer Being aggressive John Newman president of Hampton Ga based Classic Landscapes rates his labor situation as medium in terms of difficulty lately Its still not easy but because of the fact that were pretty aggressive its not our biggest challenge he says By aggressive he means hes forged relationships with instructors at a local technical colleges horticulture program hes been active with the chamber of commerce and hes been involved in the community as part of his recruiting effort For Newman sales positions are the toughest to fill There are people who are either very astute salespeople without as much technical background or there are great designers who are very talented but arent skilled in sales or dont want to be he says Ive been interviewing for that position Rob Reindl owner of Oasis Turf Tree in Loveland Ohio names recruiting and retaining employees a top challenge His solution is being