Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.
LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry
LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.
For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.
Replies
What do they know ahout Benji's gardeing services, have they actually researched what your about ?.
get references and speask to people on the phone to follow them up...and listen to what they say and ask if they would employ them again. take note of the sounds of hesitation whilst trying to be diplomatic!
Take a pair of secateurs and a fruit twig.
Ask them to prune it to a bud, or just take the twig and ask them to show you where they would prune it and ask them why?
Geoffrey King North Yorkshire said:
I'd then ask them to do some basic servicing, such as change a spark plug or clean an air filter.
ive gone through three new people since christams to fill one post. I have to say it doesn't really mean a lot what they say in the interview, it comes down to what they do an how they are, and you judge that pretty quickly. Without wishing to sound horrible, if you have doubts or they don't fit in, follow your gut instinct, don't be soft and move on to the next one. Sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you have to go through a few till you get the right one
Hi,
Before an interview I always send an email telling them to answer a few questions, age, smoker or non smoker, any health issues, able to use professional garden machinery, work on a ladder, able to work in all weathers, able to meet for 7.30am, any gardening experience, do you have a criminal record PLS be honest, on the day of the interview you can relax and just see what the person is all about and go on instinct if thing don't work out move on to the next person in line. Good luck.
Maybe too late now, but be very careful of any questions relating to Age, Race, Sex and Disabilities.
The legislation around these areas are a mine field to ensure equality (what ever your views...).
The ACAS website (and the old BusinessLink - now direct.gov) provide a lot of good guides.
I was about to post a similar response, so many pitfalls to avoid even of a seemingly casual/innocent comment in recruitment situation.
Here's a couple of good summaries -
Interviews: the questions an employer SHOULDN’T ask you
Interview question do’s and don’ts
To go back to the original question, I have found competency based questions give you a good idea of an applicants work ethics and how they would approach a given task/problem. Their responses should give you an idea how they would fit into your business and what they are like to work with.
Think about our trade and some of the problems challenges that we might come across and base your questions around them.
Describe a scenario, for instance "Our customers expect a high quality of service and workmanship, and we work hard to meet their expectations. However, occasionally a customer might criticise the work we have done and we have to put the situation right."
Invite the candidate to describe a similar situation that they have experienced themselves, what the job was, what they did to rectify it and what the outcome was.
In HR lingo this is called 'STAR' format - situation, task, action, result. S - what the scenario was, T - what the specific task was, A - what specific action they took, R - what the result was.
Once they have given their response, then 'probe' !
How did it feel when your work was criticised ?
How did you deal with the stress of the situation ?
What options to fix the situation did you consider ?
Why did you decide to take that course of action?
How did you know it was the right decision?
Would you have done anything differently?
Try to be open minded - you might have a set view on how you would deal with a situation, but your candidate might come up with a innovative solution that you'd never thought of ! That kind of candidate could be very useful for your business.
Once you've got your newbie on board, make sure they are aware they are on their 'probationary period' - usually around three months. Make sure they have documented objectives when they start (ie. the things they need to learn or to demonstrate they can do) Review this with them regularly during the probation (monthly at least), and make it clear to them if you have any concerns at each review. It's important to give them support and training they might need to meet the objectives, and to be able to demonstrate that you have done this should things go pear shaped. Document everything and ensure your new starter has copies also so they are clear on where the areas of concern might be and the action plan to rectify these.
You can extend the probationary period if you wish (again meet, review and document this), however my experience is if you reach this point and still not sure, sadly it's probably time to say farewell.
Gary RK said: