Rethinking Hiring in Horticulture
Effective Strategies for Hiring in the Horticulture Industry By Harrison Downing, PRC and Senior Human Capital Advisor at BEST Human Capital & Advisory Group Are you excited at the prospect of increased demand in the Horticulture Industry over the next few years? But, on the other hand, are you concerned that you will struggle to supply material to meet consumer demand? You are not alone in these thought processes. Most companies are identifying areas to invest increased revenue in satisfying new requirements. Whether through R&D, new market channels, LEAN manufacturing approaches, supply chain amelioration, or bringing on talent for these and additional departments. When hiring in today’s changing climate, it is important to understand options, strategize a plan, and develop expectations, as the industry’s talent pool is critically thin compared to talent needs. The Process Scheduling interviews can be complicated, especially acknowledging that not only are your team members busy with their responsibilities, but the prospective candidate is likely busy in their current role. The chances of finding a quality applicant who is currently unemployed are slim. Thus, it is imperative to be realistic when setting a start date for a new hire. The traditional “2 weeks’ notice” is often satisfactory. However, occasionally, more time is required for the individual to leave their previous employer, potentially your same customers, and put them in a position for success. None of us want to burn any bridges. It is now a commonly accepted, if not begrudged, belief that quality professionals are not frequenting job boards and applying to postings. In discussions with many companies, posting a job is often more about marketing than actually identifying candidates. Utilizing current relationships to network opportunities, involving HR teams and other departments to brainstorm candidate flow, and inquiring with customers or suppliers on star players they interact with are among the options to identify talent in our close-knit industry. The graphic at right represents a recent mid-level position hire. The hiring project timeline included posting job descriptions on job boards, networking with industry leaders, and actively sourcing candidates through executive search. At a minimum, it typically takes (3) weeks to identify qualified individuals, (3) weeks to interview and offer, and (3) weeks for the individual to transition and start in their new role. For senior-level positions, plan to add a minimum of (2) weeks for each of the three steps. Because of this dynamic and the budgeting process, many companies start their hiring process a year in advance to identify what roles are needed in their organization. Hiring from within is a practical approach as it is quick, cost-effective, fluid with the company culture, and can motivate loyal employees who aspire to grow professionally. These items add up to expose less risk than hiring externally. However, internal promotion is not always the best option. Animosity between internal applicants can arise, leading team members not chosen to question loyalty. Another critical element to hiring from within is succession planning. As one hole is filled, another is created in the previous position. Active cross-training prepares team members for succession, strengthens the organizational chart, and motivates the team. Finally, from a legal and efficacy standpoint, a hybrid approach of external search and looking within ensures all available talent is vetted as there is a lack of candidates in our industry. Positions in Operations, R&D, Supply Chain, eCommerce, Analytics, and Sales are being created as companies match changing markets with innovation. Yet, retirement rates are increasing, reducing what is already a thin talent pool for horticulture. Add to this that CEA, Cannabis, and Hemp are hiring from the same talent pool as Ornamental, Nursery, Landscaping, Turf, and Greenhouse – there is indeed a growing talent gap. Casting a broad and flexible net when sourcing talent is crucial. One strategy includes considering all candidates, regardless of age. Another is compromising the amount of required product knowledge, customer relationships, or years of experience and instead focusing on a professional’s behaviors. This option requires increased front-end work through strategic planning and assessments. However, it will ultimately unlock a lucrative talent pool, allow for culture alignment, and increase productivity based on the candidate’s behaviors. We should not ignore experience and product knowledge. Painting a “purple squirrel” (what we call a perfect candidate) is an important thought project when conceptualizing a position, but how many purple squirrels have you seen? If there are (5) “boxes” that you believe must be checked for a role, it may be worth reducing it to a top (3). If a candidate shows strong behaviors, perhaps they can achieve the (2) boxes they cannot check with proper training and management. Conversely, it is nearly impossible to train or manage behaviors as they are set early in life. Behavior-based hiring dramatically opens the talent pool outside of the industry for the right fit. There will be repetitive conversations in interviews, but developing separate focus areas for each interviewer is integral to moving quickly. This approach also gives the prospect an understanding of potential interactions with the interviewer. Continuing to utilize virtual meeting resources early in the interview process allows for flexibility. One-on-one interviews with senior leaders are expected, but interview teams of 2-3 display company culture for the candidate and expedite the process. Once in interviews, an element to consider is how the candidate will be led based on their personality and responsibilities. The initial conversation with a candidate may be the most important. Spend it listening and learning. Listen 80% of the time and speak 20% of the time. Engage them about experiences, listen to what motivates them professionally, and focus on behaviors illustrated when describing achievements. Do not oversell the position or company as there is no perfect job or company. Accentuate the positives but be transparent about challenges and difficulties in the role. Truly understanding your prospect’s personality traits and professional behaviors will create a stronger relationship leading to higher buy-in, more productivity, and continued transparency. Congratulations, you have hired a strong professional! However, the process of engaging them is
Employee Pay in Focus: Transactional vs Strategic Pay Practices
Differences abound between transactional and strategic human resources, but even if the distinctions are clear to HR generalists, these terms get a little fuzzy when it comes to employee pay matters. Nonetheless, it’s important to understand the distinctions as these can be important to establishing the right pay practices and policies to keep your organization market-competitive. Let’s look at some critical differences between transactional and strategic approaches to employee pay, and answer some frequently asked questions that can help bring this subject into focus: Characteristics of Transactional Employee Pay Transactional employee pay practices tend to be short-term (or, for that matter, often shortsighted). They address situations but don’t address the “big picture.” They tend to be stop-gap in nature; interim solutions that might still need permanent strategic solutions down the road. Here are some common employee pay situations that are short-term and transactional in nature, rather than long-term and strategic: Hiring new employees at just above what they are being paid with their current employer Bringing new employees into the organization at a pay rate above existing employees to make sure the position gets filled Awarding merit increases without performing any proactive analysis just because they fit in budget Utilizing loose descriptions of job functions Using free salary data or letting employees drive the pay narrative with potentially misleading or inaccurate data from the internet Characteristics of Strategic Employee Pay Strategic employee pay practices tend to be longer-term solutions. They take the big picture into account and take the long view toward continuing marketplace competitiveness. Here are some common employee pay situations that are longer-term and strategic in nature, rather than short-term and transactional: Placing new employees in a market-validated pay range and comparing their history to others in the same or similar position for proper pay placement Evaluating and adjusting pay for current employees as needed when new hires must be brought in at higher rates Conducting a discrimination analysis before approving merit increases and address related issues proactively Utilizing job descriptions with clear responsibilities and standards for minimum as well as desired experience levels and education requirements Securing third-party published and scrubbed employer data or using a compensation consultant to secure salary data Answering Frequently Asked Questions to Clarify Transactional vs Strategic Employee Pay Practices Question: How can we bring new hires in using the prevailing market range when current employees are below market? Answer: First, think of your pay range in thirds: The lowest third of the pay range would apply to new and untested employees with little to no experience. The middle level would apply to fully proficient employees with several years of experience. The upper third is for seasoned employees with sustained performance over many years as well as a lot of experience. Obviously, you’ll need to have key information to properly place new employees into the appropriate pay range. For example, how much relevant experience will they bring to the job? Three years of experience? Four? None? You’ll then need to consider your current employees and align the new employee’s pay with other similarly situated employees. For instance, if a current employee has been in the job 4 years and came to you with no previous experience and the new employee brings 4 years of prior experience, you should pay these employees approximately the same. If you need to bring that new employee in higher than the existing employee because the market demands it, keep in mind when your merit awards will occur. If they are just a few months away, the current employee’s pay may exceed the new employee’s pay with their merit increase. If you just awarded merit increases, you may need to increase the existing employee’s pay to avoid creating discriminatory pay practices. You may also have to budget an increase for current employees and then execute the pay increases as soon as possible. You could also offer the new employee a sign-on bonus payable in various payments to keep the regular rates of current and new employees aligned. This leads us to the next question: Question: How can we realign existing compensation to market levels with minimal impact to financials? Answer: Tough question. It helps to budget for market-related increases each year. If that hasn’t been your practice and the pay ranges have fallen behind, you might provide increases every six months until you can get employee pay where needed. For employees below pay-range minimums, you can give merit increases first and then make a market adjustment if needed to help them reach the new minimum. Finally, you can use bonus programs, known as “variable pay,” in addition to base pay. Variable pay benchmarks must be re-earned each measurement period based on results. This enables you to hold merit increases in check; this can be important because merit increases permanently increase salary levels as well as benefits associated with base pay, such as life insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, and sometimes retirement plans. Bonuses, on the other hand, are single pay-outs that do not normally increase base pay levels and related benefit costs for benefits (unless otherwise included per your benefit plan documents). Be sure to check your plan documents to clearly understand the definition of compensation before using bonus plans. Which naturally begs this question: Question: Why is a properly designed strategic pay program important to an organization? Answer: Among the many reasons are that a well-designed strategic employee pay program: Provides appropriate pay ranges for recruitment Promotes accurate job descriptions Provides a basis for determining the external value of jobs to market Provides baselines for reviewing employee performance and rewarding desired behaviors Ensures costs are maintained and managed appropriately Helps reduce turnover through improved employee morale and engagement when pay is not a dissatisfier and there are no pay equity issues The Bottom Line: It’s important to strategically plan your employee pay programs so you can attract and retain your top talent. Recognize that your employees are an investment and not an expense. The time and money it takes
Who wants to be President?
Career goal setting and development. Do you have a specific career vision of being the President of a company someday? Are you working on adding professional skill sets that will enable you to take on a C-Level role? Do you have a career dream? As a company, have you invested in a definitive training and development program to foster your next generation of company leaders? The horticultural industry is just one of many that need more leaders now and progressively into the future. The number of retirements coming up is staggering. Did you know that there are over 100 owners of companies retiring soon who have no clear leader to succeed them? That is just in horticulture. Overall, 60% of the professionals in the agriculture industry are over 55. As an industry, we endured a period with historically low numbers of students and professionals interested in pursuing a green industry career. This period has created an employee talent gap in what would often be considered the next traditional leadership group. This group is talented and knowledgeable, but it is merely a matter of supply and demand. There are just not enough leaders to take over, and not enough have been provided the necessary leadership training. Throughout every sector, demographic, and role in the green industry and many other industries, there are too few individuals who have had a specific desire and career focus to run a company. Compare this to the financial or IT sectors where a high volume of professionals have an early passion and focus on driving their careers to their industry’s top leadership roles. It is surprising how few professionals have had an initial desire to be a President of a company. A dynamic affecting this is the sheer number of family-held companies where leadership has traditionally been passed to 2nd or 3rd generations. While this is admirable, it has also tempered the career aspirations of those who are not part of the family. We are now at a tipping point where there are fewer generations to pass leadership roles to, causing new and challenging exit planning options for the current leaders. How do we address this? From the mutual effort of individuals and companies. Encourage students and early career professionals to dream and envision being a company leader. Leadership is not for the faint of heart with all its responsibilities and challenges. However, we need more professionals to dream about wanting to run a company. Ask yourself if you have allowed yourself to dream about this type of role? To have more leaders, we need more professionals desiring to take on this level of leadership. With that desire comes the awareness that a person needs to embrace continual learning with curiosity and accept certain sacrifices driving their career to achieve top leadership positions. This could include putting in longer hours some days, the ability to relocate as necessary, and volunteering to take on new tasks or help in other departments when they are shorthanded. Academically, technical knowledge is essential. Many excellent educational institutions produce technically knowledgeable students. However, many lack focused programs on developing company leadership with curriculums geared to business and management. We rightly celebrate our grower interns, but we should also celebrate those doing horticulture industry internships in sales, marketing, accounting, or human resources. Have a professional growth plan. If you do want to take the helm of a company someday, identify in yourself the knowledge and industry skillsets you need to master, so you are ready. Proactively take charge of gaining the knowledge and experience you lack rather than relying on others. There is as much onus on companies to be a part of increased leadership development. Yes, this does require an investment. Begin to balance your team’s professional development with your automation budget. No matter how automated, it still takes strong professionals for a company to realize success. Many assessment tools are available that will help a company identify individuals with leadership behaviors. These tools identify a career plan for those individuals that will infuse them with the skillsets needed to become a strong leader in the future. Does your company have ongoing career development planning, which includes rotation through different departments or functions? At the very least, does the company invest in continual education or training programs focused on improving communication, soft skills, sales, marketing, financial, operations, or supply chain knowledge? Encourage and support your company’s professionals to become active within your industry via associations, seminars, or other educational and networking events. Don’t be afraid of losing this talent by this exposure. Professionals who know their company is investing fully in their growth are much less likely to leave. Employees who feel stifled in their development will leap at the chance for growth elsewhere. No company has an endless budget, but a company can apply strategies that do not require a monetary investment – transparency in your business and delegation of responsibilities. Openness with your employees about all facets of the business directly correlates to increasing their professional growth. For example, companies applying the Great Game of Business approach to transparency have more engaged and motivated employees concerning their career progression. Pairing high potential employees with positive mentors will also benefit the mentor themselves increasing organizational talent strength. Encourage delegating responsibilities and not micro-managing those assigned these tasks. This must start from the highest leadership levels. Current leaders – ask yourself if too many business decisions are run through you, or have you honestly delegated to your team decisions without hovering over them? FYI – your business’s valuation increases when delegating decision making abilities and becoming less owner-centric. Growing the number of leaders is critical to the future success of any industry. The gap can be closed with more professionals who desire to run a company and put their plan in place. Couple this with companies providing increased focus on training and development, and we have set the stage for increased industry success that becomes sustainable for many years to
Take a Breath and Think
You deserve it, and your business may require it. By Ben Molenda, Human Capital Advisor, and Todd Downing, Managing Partner at BEST Human Capital & Advisory Group Are you tired of “Work From Home,” “COVID Procedures,” and “New Normal” articles? This one is different. Instead of being advised on how to do something, the goal here is to experience thought. “THINK” is what Thomas Watson Sr., the legendary founder of IBM, would tell his people, encouraging everybody to be thinkers, from the assembly line worker and engineer to the salesperson and office admin. It was what would bind the company together and become the cultural cornerstone of one of the world’s great companies. Despite the immense challenges thrust upon all businesses during the pandemic, the Green Industry has experienced positive, and some would say unprecedented, growth. Other industries have not fared as well and are just starting to recover. The stresses you have responded to in running your business with an uncertain future, proper COVID health protocols, plus the volume of business experienced or lost, have left many leaders feeling reactive. There has been considerably less time to focus on strategy as much as they would like. And – a bit exhausted. The pandemic has also created profound change and impact on the people who make up your organization. Strategic Human Resource planning is a vital component to successfully navigating this business evolution. We are all searching for solutions to protect, stabilize, and grow our businesses. But how do you define solutions when your time and energy have been dramatically stretched? A helpful first step is to identify what the Human Resource challenges or opportunities are that require problem-solving. To support leaders in identifying Human Resource solutions, ask yourself a few of these questions to flesh out potential areas that will require change. You can then begin formulating solutions to address these challenges. WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT Have you identified specific training or development investments to grow key employees? Are your employees cross-trained if a key individual leaves the team? Does each position have a career progression plan? Have you openly discussed it with the individual? Do you have silos between departments requiring increased collaboration? HIRING What are the current bottlenecks or challenges to your business, and what type of professional would you hire to solve these problems? Is your ongoing hiring process compliant with applicable employment law and producing the desired and necessary results for your organization? Are your HR-related marketing tools and company branding message aligned with the current strategic plan to attract the proper level of talent to drive these organizational directives? Do you have a positive company brand image on social media and sites such as Glassdoor to help attract top talent? TOTAL REWARDS – COMPENSATION & BENEFITS Have you updated or benchmarked your benefits and compensation packages lately? If yes, how frequently do you do so? Do you include perks like profit sharing, continual education, or health initiatives to better invest in your employees? What unique benefits do you offer that are attractive to potential new hires or increase retention? Is your compensation in line with your geographic region, cost of living, and other industries to attract top talent? HUMAN RESOURCE SYSTEMS & SOFTWARE Do you have an organized electronic system for classifying and holding all your employees’ documents? Do you have an up-to-date chain of command to report HR issues? Do you have the appropriate technology and tools to maximize efficiency and effectiveness? (i.e., HRIS, LMS, TS, ERP, and Payroll). Do these systems seamlessly integrate? Are your HR employees adequately trained on them? EMPLOYEE RELATIONS Are your employees truly engaged in the business or simply “punching the clock”? What is your retention rate or turnover rate? What type of leader would your employees communicate that you are? Has an appropriate investigatory process been put in place? Are your HR professionals trained to objectively implement such a process to resolve employee relations issues regardless of their severity or nature? HUMAN RESOURCE COMPLIANCE If your Human Resource policies and practices were audited, would you pass without a fine? Have current policies been recently reviewed and updated to conform to recent legislation, court cases, and executive orders? Especially revised regulations? Are Human Resource audits (internal and external) conducted regularly to ensure compliance with all employment laws? SUCCESSION & EXIT PLANNING When was the last time you took time away from your business as its owner or leader of a division? Are you able to take time away knowing you have a team to keep running the business profitably and efficiently? Do you know what you will do when you retire? Have you mapped internal succession paths, including your own, so you know where to recruit externally and where to develop internally? DIVERSITY Would your organization’s effectiveness benefit from someone with a different background, mindset, viewpoint, or values? Have you hired individuals from various backgrounds and educational backgrounds? Have you properly followed Equal Employment Opportunity Laws? Are you tracking appropriate diversity data regardless of whether you must file an annual report? OPERATIONS & PRODUCTION Are you struggling to achieve complete buy-in to LEAN principles or Health & Safety protocols? Do you have employee retention or engagement problems with your production team? Are current performance metrics or KPIs aligned with job expectations, job descriptions, and organizational outcomes? SALES & MARKETING Do you hire sales professionals based solely on knowing your product and customers, or have you taken time to identify and assess for successful sales or marketing behaviors? Have you worked with your sales, marketing, and production teams to understand and increase collaboration with one another relative to production capacity and sales growth? Are your customer-facing professionals a positive reflection of your company with customers and the industry? NEW PRODUCTS & MARKETS Do you have new products in the pipeline that will require hiring professionals with a unique skill set or knowledge? Have you identified new markets to enter that will require hiring professionals with the targeted industry knowledge? FINANCE
The Foundation of Everything
Take a step back and look at your company. Do the people seem genuine? Do you feel as though they are making significant progress in reaching the organization’s goals and ambitions? Do you believe in your people, your process, and your mission? How do you foster trust within your company, especially during a crisis like COVID-19? Trust has three foundational components, like a 3-legged stool. Each leg is essential and depends on the others to work together. If one leg breaks, everything collapses. The same goes for trust if one of the components begins to wobble— trust is in jeopardy. The three foundational pillars of trust are authenticity, logic, and empathy. Authenticity “A true leader is one who is humble enough to admit their mistakes.” – John Maxwell Did you ever experience being in a conversation at work and feeling that the person you were talking to was not being completely honest with you? Our human nature can quickly zone in and identify those not being real with us. To avoid a problem with authenticity, BE YOU – ALL THE TIME around EVERYONE – Voice your thoughts and opinions, respectfully. Pay less attention to what you think people want to hear and give more attention to what you need to say. For companies to emerge from this crisis successfully, all ideas need to be explored to reimagine and decide the best strategy. Leaders need to allow the office to be a safe place for everyone to speak when creating a culture of trust. A leader is not expected to know all the answers— welcome comments and ideas. Allowing an environment for fresh perspectives helps build an authentic team and ultimately leads to trust within the organization. Logic “When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.” – Dale Carnegie Most problems concerning logic are not about the quality of the logic, but about the ability to communicate the reasoning in a decision-making process. Likely, we all have sat in team meetings where one person dominates the time by taking us on a long journey through their experience and often is interrupted and never makes a definitive point. Many people like to tell a long story before getting to the point. To communicate logic clearly, start with your point in a crisp, clear sentence and then make your supporting statements. This approach allows for greater clarity and prevents you from being interrupted before making the critical point you needed to make. If everyone in an organization has clarity on the decisions, real progress can be made, and trust becomes foundational. Empathy “Empathy is simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of you’re not alone.” – Brené Brown Would your employees say that management is listening to them? Not just hear them, but attentively LISTEN. The best listeners provide eye contact and lean forward in the conversation with no distractions (put away the cell phone). Listening is critical for building empathy. For most companies, this is the leg that “wobbles” due to demanding schedules. However, during a pandemic, this is a critical time to listen. Each of us is experiencing this crisis differently. We are all facing unique circumstances and challenges. Listening to your team to better understand them and their situation fosters a healthier relationship to build trust. Trust is the foundation of everything we do. It can be earned and built. It can also wither and break. If a company develops and operates in a culture of trust and transparency among all stakeholders, it can make unprecedented progress in reaching its goals. With a foundation and culture of trust, companies experience better productivity, enhanced morale, lower staff turnover, ability to handle challenges, willingness to take risks, enhanced creativity, optimism, teamwork, higher client satisfaction, better company reputation, and higher profitability. Be real, start with your point, and know you are not alone. It works, trust us. Does your organization want to learn more about building a culture of trust that can help you to unprecedented growth? You’re not alone, and we are here to help. SOURCES: Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader’s Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You, By Frances Frei and Anne Morriss (Authors) The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, By Patrick Lencioni (Author) The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, By John C. Maxwell (Author)