Getting new talent in the door and keeping them remains one of the top concerns of irrigation professionals.
In the 2024 Green Industry Outlook survey, 72% of respondents listed it as their main barrier to growing the business. Though finding the right fit can be a challenge, building a relationship and developing a career path can go a long way toward directing a team poised for growth.
To start, the goal should be to identify workers who are in line with the company, but who also seek opportunities when necessary to advance, says Kimberly McNeil, HR knowledge advisor, Society for Human Resource Management, Alexandria, Virginia.
That entails “being on the lookout, looking at your employees and putting together opportunities that allow them to get high profile tasks to meet leadership, have those conversations and openly and directly discuss their career aspirations,” she adds.
Mark Dzierzbicki, president of Controlled Irrigation & Blackflow in Highland, Indiana, has witnessed employee hiring and retention trends over the years. He keeps his six employees sharp with new skills so they’re ready when they start with service calls around April 1.
Building strong recruiting strategies is more important now than ever as the industry faces increased challenges, he says.
Recruiting is different in various parts of the country because of the industry’s seasonal nature. Someone may be able to work year-round in Florida, but in the Midwest or Northeast, that same employee would only be working about eight months.
“But he’s going to get paid more,” Dzierzbicki says of the seasonal employees in his region, the Midwest. “You’ve got to find a special kind of person. It’s a challenge to find a person who can do or is capable of doing all those things.” The seasonal nature of the job means the potential employee must either learn to budget money in the down time or take on a second job, such as traveling to warmer climates to work in the same industry for a few months. For his company, senior staff members who have been with the company for more than 20 years are paid year-round.
Nashville Irrigation and Lighting in Franklin, Tennessee, serves middle Tennessee with 32 employees, which increases to 37 in the summer, according to Shannon Wooden, company manager. To attract employees, the company pays for a portion of the employees’ health benefits and offers paid holidays and vacations, says Wooden.
It’s always best to build relationships with the community, McNeil says.
For positions in the irrigation and lighting sector primarily comprised of small businesses conducting mostly seasonal work depending on the locale, McNeil suggests business owners reach out to colleges, universities and high schools.
“You can create internship and mentorship opportunities that would allow for a pathway or funnel program where they could learn the business from current talent. There’s a pool that you’re now creating to recruit from,” she says, adding it also serves to establish name recognition in the community.
Dzierzbicki has taught for the Irrigation Association and at junior colleges among other places and suggests teaching and community outreach as a way to recruit. It helps him identify potential employees and gives students a chance to consider working in the industry. He suggests participating in school career days or municipal job fairs.
“When you teach a class, you get people who are interested in the first place,” he says. It also affords the opportunity to identify top talent through direct interaction.
Bob Gurkin is president of Rainfall Irrigation and Landscape Lighting in Kingston, Massachusetts.
Gurkin leverages his experience as a high school athletic coach in his hiring strategies. He looks for people who are eager to begin their career, so his biggest avenue is scouting for hires at vocational-technical school.
“We’ll meet with the kids and have career days,” he adds.
Gurkin says he’ll open a spot for someone with a great attitude and work ethic, even if he’s not hiring. He’s got three rules to be a part of his team: Be on time, give 100% and communicate. Each of those translates into a life skill that will serve the employee even if they move on to another company in the future.
That’s the biggest thing. It’s hard to find a person with a great attitude. I’m very
fortunate to have the people who work for me.
– Bob Gurkin, Rainfall Irrigation and Landscape Lighting
“That’s the biggest thing,” he says. “It’s hard to find a person with a great attitude. I’m very fortunate to have the people who work for me.”
Share an experience
Social media also can serve as a low-cost recruitment tool, but it’s important to do more than just throw a few posts out and expect a result, McNeil says. Highlight real experiences and think of it as more traditional advertising, though the target audience is a potential employee.
“The key is to not produce content that looks overproduced or fake,” she says, adding content creation should serve to advertise the business and promote an authentic employee experience. Have employees present their day in the life of what has made working for the organization favorable for them, what they felt they have accomplished or how it has helped them grow professionally or even outside of work. That gives people a realistic and transparent perspective.
Social media also can serve as a low-cost recruitment tool, but it’s important to do more than just throw a few posts out and expect a result. Highlight real experiences and think of it as more traditional advertising, though the target audience is a potential employee
Dzierzbicki says some potential employees will check out a company’s website to determine its legitimacy. That means that not only does a company’s website need to exist in the first place, it needs to look professional, usable and attractive to the potential employees visiting it.
When advertising for a job, Dzierzbicki notes the salary ranges from starting pay to the top pay and indicates there are additional benefits. Being able to share that range can differentiate the job opportunity from others. If the role is seasonal, “you’ve got to have that conversation that in these parts, it’s an eight-month-a-year business,” he says.
Recognize that while a crew member’s role might seem straightforward, there are a lot of requirements that go into being successful, even in an entry-level position, he says. Take some time to understand which of those skills can be taught and which you want them to show up with to the interview.
“You’re looking for someone who knows a little bit about electrical, plumbing and hydraulic principles and a lot about customer management skills,” he says. “That’s a lot to ask for. You can have a guy who’s a great technician, but if he goes to the customer’s house 50 miles away, accidentally leaves the gate open and lets the person’s dog out because he’s not paying attention, you’ve got problems.”
The experience of an employee isn’t the only one that’s important. Potential hires want to know about the people who run the company and who they’ll be connecting with each day. Leadership insight is key. McNeil says questions that should be addressed include: “Who are the people who run the business? What is their day-to-day? What drives them? What are the things they’re passionate with both in and outside of work?”
Build a map
Once an employee comes on board, a successful retention strategy starts with the human resources professionals in charge, McNeil notes. That can be challenging in a business sector that is more seasonal in nature.
She suggests mapping as a way to help ensure current and future employees have the skills needed to do the job not only for which they are hired, but potentially learn other skills so they can move within the organization as opportunities arise, including those during nonpeak season.
“Career mapping can be an arduous task, but it can be broken down easily into a couple of small steps,” says McNeil. “One is engaging the individuals to do a little bit of self-reflection and assessment of their skills and how their past experience shaped the job, any accomplishments and their interests.”
That serves as a foundation for creating a career map unique to the individual that’s based on where they see themselves going, she adds.
“You want to retain them internally,” McNeil says. “Any good career map should be based on ways they can stay within the organization. Inevitably, there may be skills they may need to obtain from outside of the organization. This allows some transparency and the best use of people’s time.”
Once that map is established, seek out reliable current employees who can mentor and teach new skills. Those leaders should also be able to guide and improve a mentee’s current skills or help them redirect their experience into other skill sets. Look for situations where opportunities present themselves to either fill in or work on collaborative tasks where they would be able to gain insights, McNeil says.
Since the relationship with a new hire is predicated on trust, Dzierzbicki makes sure that they understand that education will continue as they develop experience. Education is one way that he retains his current employees, building on their skills and showing a tangible payoff by providing them with new capabilities in their field. That gives them new opportunities to advance and potentially earn more.
For employee retention, Dzierzbicki uses a two-page tech checkout sheet delineating proficiency skills which are checked off as they are mastered. A copy is retained by technicians, managers and the office.
His success in retaining customers from 30 years ago underscores the impact of these practices.
“There’s a reason for that — we do all of those things,” he adds.
Gurkin’s company offers a retirement plan and health benefits. Though the work is seasonal, shutting down from January through March, he keeps employees busy during the downtime and awards a bonus based on the time they’re out to cover that work.
Gurkin has one employee who’s been with the company for 18 years; many foremen have been there over a decade.
“The biggest thing is we do a lot of team-building activities with different parties throughout the season to show my appreciation to them,” Gurkin says. “We have goals and performance bonuses based on those goals with their salaries incorporated. We invest a lot of money on education and certifications.”
Gurkin outlines what must be achieved to be promoted to a foreman, with pay based on that.
“You become more valuable to the team,” he says. “There are a lot of incentives for them to move up the ladder.”
He makes it a point to reward not just technical experience development, but also a growing understanding of customer care and people skills.
“I have three incredible foreman who customers rave about how kind, polite and patient they are,” Gurkin says.
The key to retaining employees, says Wooden: “Meet people where they’re at and treat them like you would treat your own family.”
Wooden says the company has retained 75% of its employees for five years or more. The company hosts cookouts in spring, summer and fall and a Christmas party with games and prizes.
“If they have an emergency in their family, we always work with people so they can take off when they need to,” she adds. “We try to help them out with bonuses and things like that to make sure their families are taken care of.”
