‘I need to find a decent, all round gardener to assist in my maintenance business. I have tried the Job Centre, and had well over one hundred applications – only to find that very few even want to come along for an interview, and those that did had no experience or were willing to agree to an 8am start time. How do I find interested labour?’
This is a problem across the horticulture industry. It affects every firm whether landscaper or grower, maintenance company or nursery business. And I believe it will get a lot harder as there are more people in work now that at any time in the history of this country. The private sector is very buoyant, and according to the newspapers, more than one million new jobs have been created in the private sector (with many jobs lost in the Public arena). This is very good news for the country, but not helpful to those seeking new or additional labour.
Setting about finding potential staff should be very straightforward in an ideal world. The fact that Job Centres are so named should be seen as a resource centre for job seekers and those looking to take on workers. But as you state, well over a hundred people applied for a job they had no chance of wanting/taking due to a whole range of issues regarding distance and lack of ability. The fact that only four even came forward for an interview must be masking a problem I am not qualified to comment on.
Keeping within the Law
There are so many things that an employer needs to know, but are not allowed to ask under various Acts and Laws, so many prerequisites that are so obvious to us they should never need to be stated – yet we, as potential employers are unable to ask or even mention.
For example, anyone seeking work as an experienced gardener should, in an ideal world, have at least a couple of years practice working on site, otherwise how can they see the results of their efforts the previous season? How can they be sent on a pruning job, when they have never used secateurs before? Yet the Law states that is discriminatory to demand a minimum term of experience, otherwise school leavers are disadvantaged by virtue of their age, and they may have learnt their trade through reading.
Common sense – that most basic of requirements in the horticultural trade, along with practical hands on experience, working under the guidance of craftspeople, learning the trade, coping with and understanding varying temperatures, soils types, plant requirements of light, air and water – none of this is permitted under these Acts.
Keeping within the Law, what else can we do?
Obviously, placing your requirements in the hands of an Employment Agency or taking out an advertisement in a Trade Magazine is only useful if you can be reasonably sure that your target audience – the potential job applicant – actually reads the paper or is also known to the Agency. In most cases, the employer is seeking a general, all round candidate they can take on, offer a wage and advancing career package, increasing each with time and training.
The job you were seeking to fill was for an ‘experienced gardener’, not a specialist of any kind, and therefore you should have reasonably expected to find one out of well over a hundred to fit the bill. However, that was not to be.
Although I have retired from contracting, I still work very closely with the industry, mainly in the Landscape world, and am also involved in maintaining large gardens and estates, often engaged to find a suitable person to fill a more senior position. I have always been very keen to help those who seek to help themselves. I often receive letters of introduction from job seekers, keen to introduce themselves with their personal cv and profile – not only from the highly qualified and those skilled at selling themselves, but often from school leavers and students, or second careerists. All have one thing in common – they are keen to self promote, and I warmly welcome their efforts. Every letter is replied to, filed and passed on if applicable, to someone of my acquaintance that may welcome their enterprise.
Converting that thought to your efforts in finding a suitable candidate, why not leave your details, and the scope and nature of the job with the Job Centre, asking only that would-be job seekers (or somebody on their behalf) write in the first instance stating why they are interested in the position. Make no mention of prerequisites (unless a driving licence is essential for example) but invite them to introduce themselves to you, and tell you what they can do for your company.
You may well be surprised at the breadth and depth of talent that some people have, and you would not have thought to ask them about. By giving them ownership of their input in the process, you should be able to gauge more accurately their potential to help you.
At the interview stage, you will have a good idea about their abilities, and you can concentrate on telling them about you and your company, how you see the future and their role in your dreams. Such conversations can help to cement a happy and mutually beneficial relationship, without worrying about breaching some Act or Law!