ValleyCrest Landscape Companies is a large landscape company with over 150 locations across 23 states and over 12,000 employees. They have a centralized recruiting team that faces challenges in attracting talent due to the limited local talent pool and national labor shortages. To address this, ValleyCrest has hired recruiters with wide networks, launched the Jobvite platform to expand their reach, and grown their college recruiting program. They are also working to change managers' expectations and help them think long-term about building their talent pipelines. The presentation provides tips for recruiters on understanding candidates' options, connecting with them through different channels, and continually recruiting to build pipelines even when not actively hiring.

1. Attracting the Hard-to-Hire
Elly Levin
ValleyCrest Landscape Companies, Manager,
College & Recruiting Operations

2. Today„s Topics
1 ValleyCrest‟s Company Dynamics
2 Our Hiring Dilemma
3 Attracting the Hard to Hire
4 Questions and Answers

3. ValleyCrest‟s Company Dynamics

4. ValleyCrest‟s Company Dynamics
 Located in 23 States
 Over 150 Locations
 12,000+ Employees
 5 main Divisions
 65 Years in Business
 Average tenure 20+ years
 Centralized Recruiting/New Recruiting Team

5. Our Hiring Dilemma

6. Our Hiring Dilemma
 New recruiting team all from different industries
and no legacy knowledge transfer
 Hiring Managers preferred to hire on their own
 Talent pool extremely limited to small mom and pop
shops to 2 major landscape companies
 We are landscape giants; our talent pool does not value
size
 Some of our talent works in the field
 Labor shortages across the nation

7. Some of Our Solutions
 Hired Recruiters who knew how to find talent far
and wide
 Launched Jobvite to increase our candidate reach
(aggregators & social); Recruited our office staff to
start using Jobvite at the field level
 Built a robust college recruiting program recruiting
both at career fairs and virtually (using Jobvite and
posting to various college sites); increasing reach
from 20 schools to 37 schools first year
 Rebranded Recruiting to “Where Careers in Nature
Bloom”

8. Attracting the Hard to Hire

9. Dilemma Equals Opportunity for Change
Changing Manager‟s Thought Process
 Managers always want more but ensure managers
know candidates are not a dime a dozen
 Create new talent pools with career paths
 Think long term for your managers and leverage
College Recruiting as a major source; teach
managers to think “want” instead of “need”
 Help your managers to think about building their
bench strength

10. Attracting the Hard to Hire
 Understand candidate‟s options and what
makes you better
 Know what is important to your candidate pool
so you can speak their language (Ex: Big
Company Opportunities Small Company
Environment)
 Find other ways to connect with your
candidates (text, after hours calls, etc.)
 Leverage Jobvite for all positions
 Pipelining – Recruit even went you are not!

11. Elly Levin
ValleyCrest Landscape Companies, Manager, College & Recruiting Operations
Elevin@valleycrest.com
THANK YOU!