Employee retention: Make yourself known

Gail Reinhart

Get out there and make yourself known. That’s the advice Gail Reinhart, recruitment and personnel specialist at Hidden Creek Landscaping in Hilliard, Ohio, gives to any landscape contractor who is having trouble finding qualified employees. The company has 150 employees and provides 40 percent landscape maintenance and snow removal and 60 percent design/build services to a 55 percent commercial and 45 percent residential clientele.

“It’s about exposure,” she says. “It’s about how many times you’ve made contact with the areas you’re really targeting (for recruitment).”

Reinhart also knows that it’s important to get yourself in front of potential employees as much as possible over a long period of time. Even if it doesn’t yield results right away, it could stick in someone’s mind and make him or her remember your company in the future.

“It’s the long game,” she says. “You become known, and if you show up, you really get people who will seek you out. I did job fair boot camp this past spring for the local TV company, and as far as applicants, I didn’t get many final candidates, but in my mind, we need to go back to it because we received TV exposure, and they were pushing on all their social media.”

(Recruiting) is no different than sales. How many times do you have to contact someone in order to get a sale? It’s the same situation of getting that familiarity.” -Gail Reinhart, recruitment and personnel specialist