How to Hire Seasonal Workers for Your Snow Removal or Landscaping Business

If you’ve started a snow removal or landscaping business, your hiring needs will change with the season. Before snow falls on the roads or melts to reveal the foliage below, you need to make sure you have a team ready to take on your seasonal contracts. But, the market for seasonal workers is competitive and reliable help can be hard to find and secure. This blog post will help you get your hiring processes in order so that you can put your best face forward and build a team you can depend on next season and beyond.

Complete these tasks to hire seasonal snow removal and landscaping teams.

Before the start of the season, start thinking about your upcoming hiring needs. What’s in the forecast? Do you have any big contracts that will need to be fulfilled? How much historical demand do you usually have? Are there any predictions for extreme weather patterns that might affect demand?

Ultimately, figure out what types of workers and how many you will need so you don’t need to say ‘no’ to a project. When putting together your hiring plan, think beyond the jack-of-all-trades. Remember that you’ll need a diversity of skillsets--from truck drivers to shovelers to planters and waterers. After all, you will likely have a range of jobs to get done and will need a range of skills to do them.

Based on your predicted demand, think about the kinds of contractors you’ll need to fulfill your jobs. It might help to break your projects down into individual tasks so that you can better identify what—and who—you need. You can then format these tasks into a job description. No matter the position, there are some key qualities to look for in a hire:

• Outdoor appreciation: Since snow removal and landscaping can involve extreme weather, you’ll need to make sure your workers aren’t afraid of the elements.
  
  
• Flexible schedules: With the unpredictability of the weather, you’ll need some workers who can shift in and shift out when needed. Finding workers who can flex to a variety of schedules can help you cover shifts.
  
  
• Reliability: The work can be tough and it can be even tougher to wake up in the dark and head out in a snowstorm. Someone who will reliably show up when needed is worth their weight in gold.
   

At the end of the day, you want a worker who shows up on time, works hard, doesn’t mind some rain or snow, and comes back day after day. In reality, you probably won’t end up turning anyone away since any labour you can find can help you get work done. If you find help with some experience in multiple facets of landscape and construction, it’s simply a bonus.

Seasonal labour is often a job seeker’s market. So how will you get an edge on the competition who also want to recruit the same seasonal workers? Your brand positioning and marketing messaging can make an impact here.

Start with your brand and how you present your company. Workers want to have confidence in your company (and that they will walk away with a paycheck). Consider printing custom T-shirts or other swag with your logo on it to gift during interviews and to show that you invest in your team.

In your communications, you can also stand out by speaking directly to the needs of the market. For example, you may want to target students who are off in the summer or winter by advertising that you have a great seasonal job with the potential to return the next season. If you have previous student hires, perhaps you could include a testimonial about the job as social proof of the opportunity.

Another good tactic to attract people who are looking for work is to offer the potential to transition from seasonal work to full time.

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