‘The following format and questionnaire is designed for use by all employers involved in the world of horticulture. They are intended for use when interviewing for senior positions, and may be used for all kinds of business model.’
An increasing part of my consultancy work involves locating and appointing new Head Gardeners, usually for larger and more complex properties with several existing members of staff, often with mixed abilities. I understand that you are currently in charge of such a garden.
The process of interviewing a prospective Head Gardener is not straightforward in any way, as the nature of the site, wishes of the employer and possible future plans for the garden, and the information that one may gather from (say) the library or Internet on interviewing techniques is not very useful as the suggested questions to the candidate are not particularly relevant to our industry.
My first question to the employer is ‘What are you looking for? A Manager of the garden or a Head Gardener – someone who is a brilliant gardener, but may not be so good at dealing with people and the problems that are inherent when working with indigenous staff and perhaps involving the general public. Some people can easily handle both – others cannot.’
Therefore I have a number of questions, all of which are ‘Open’ and allow the candidate to answer fully, in as much detail as they wish. I tend to avoid ‘Closed’ questions unless I require a straight ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer. Bear in mind that the questions I have set out in this article are only part of the interview, and these ignore the more general or ‘housekeeping’ type involving references etc.
Making the candidate feel comfortable and important.
As there are few thing more daunting than appearing at an interview panel, I relax the interviewee by thanking them for applying for the job, and congratulate them on their successful application having achieved a personal interview, when so many did not reach this stage.
Q “Your curriculum vitae is very impressive – what do you consider to be your most outstanding attribute? What can you offer that other candidates cannot?”
Q “Tell me about yourself – tell me what you like, what makes you, who you are?”
Q “Do you consider yourself to be a Head Gardener or Gardens Manager – how do you see your present role in your current job?”
Q “Would you say you were a proactive or reactive person in your professional life?”
Q “How do you like to run your team? Do you prefer to carry out all aspects of day to day management or allow the staff to think and act for themselves thereby giving them responsibility for their time and actions?”
Q “Do you prefer to conduct One Way Evaluation Assessments with your staff – or do you prefer Two Way Reviews”?
Q “Apart from your mobile phone or computer – what do you consider the most important item of everyday use to you as a Manager?”
Q “Please describe the likely achievements you will have made at the end of the first week, and month, and what benefits your actions will have had on the well running of the department.”
Q “Describe your methods of dealing with difficult staff, perhaps outlining a couple of examples from past experience. Please give the reasons for the problems, how you dealt with them, and the outcome”
Q “How soon would you conduct personal interviews with your staff? In what order would you decide each persons’ position in the interview programme? Senior first? Newest employee first? And why in this particular manner?”
Q “How do you keep up to date with new legislation, products, materials and techniques?”
Q “What ‘out of hours’ activities do you undertake in understanding the latest developments in the world of horticulture?”
Q “What are the current hot topics? How do you see the future of horticulture, and why?”
As you see, there are no questions regarding propagation, composting, plant identification, irrigation methods – nothing at all horticultural. I feel that if someone has previous experience as a Head Gardener, such ‘text-book’ questions are unnecessary and almost insulting. Whilst none of us can know everything, I am not concerned with the minutiae of the mundane. I am much more interested in seeing how the candidate reacts to each of these questions. They are far more difficult to answer than they may at first appear!
They do however, offer the interviewee the chance to really shine, and offer a wide ranging insight into their attitudes and knowledge, and sometimes the outpouring becomes a flood!
They are couched in such a way that someone may offer a suitably ‘correct’ answer, one that may have been anticipated and rehearsed beforehand, but the opportunity is also there to allow them to contradict an earlier statement made on a slightly different question. Only those that are genuinely suitable will be able to maintain their credibility.
I have used these questions on a number of occasions, and commend them – or others in a similar vein – as they bring out the best/worst in candidates. The ‘correct’ answer is not easily anticipated especially as they may vary from site to site and only an honest response will prove successful!