Are you looking to hire a gardener in your area? Then you need to make sure you know how you want to hire, and where to best look for gardeners. There are various different ways you can look to hire a gardener in your local area. But you should also be aware of what process might work best for you, and what to think of when hiring!
Your Local Network
So if you are indeed looking to hire a gardener in your area, it might seem straightforward to firstly use your local network. That means neighbours, friends, colleagues who all live or work near. They might already have a gardener, for example, who they would love to recommend. Or they might know of someone locally who is looking for some extra hours of work and is handy in the garden.
There is nothing wrong with using your local network to find a gardener. It can actually be a really resourceful tool. However, it comes with a lot of things you might not have thought about yet.
Firstly, when someone is recommending a gardener – or anything! – to you, this might not mean this is right or you too. Everyone is different, and even your closest friends or family can have a very different set up than you have. Even if it might not look like it from your viewpoint. So it is absolutely fine to take their recommendations, but make sure you still remain critical.
Do The Full Recruitment Process
You should never hire someone just from recommendations. You need to, and yes this can be time-consuming, do the work required in the recruitment process. Even if you are ‘only’ looking for someone to work for you once a week!
Having someone work for you, in this case, a gardener needs to be done and set up well. You will have someone working on your private grounds. In your outside space. Where you might also be spending time with your family or loved ones. So making sure the gardener is the right fit is extremely important to know. You want to make sure you interview every single person you consider for the role. And check out their CV and references. Do their old jobs check out? Can you speak to a previous employer to verify the job? Can you see the qualifications they claim to have?
It all might sound really time-consuming, but it is so important and necessary to do all of this! Also, make sure that whoever will be working in your private environment – whether that will be inside or out – has an up to date DBS. Or the equivalent for your country, if you are outside of the UK.
Advertise On Local Websites
Another way to try and hire a gardener in your area is by using local websites. There are plenty of online resources you can nowadays use to advertise jobs. This can even be your local Facebook page, for example.
This can be a great way to connect with people in your area. But there are also some downsides to this. The common problem with advertising like this is that you cannot really control who applies for the job. Even if you are being really specific in your job description, chances are that you will still have many people applying for the job. Many of which might not even at all be suitable for the role!
This can be frustrating, because you will have to manually go through each and every single application, in order for you to not miss out on any good applications! So you might get lots of initial interest. But that doesn’t mean that the quality of applications is any good. So just beware that this can be extremely time-consuming, without too much on an effective outcome!
Get Help From An Agency
A final option for you to hire a gardener in your area is to actually use a reputable recruitment agency. And don’t worry, they do not have to be based in your area specifically! Actually, the larger the reach of the agency is, the more they will be able to help you.
A good recruitment agency will have a very wide network of gardeners – both in your area and outside. They will be able to reach out to any suited candidates for you in a very short period of time. Also, they will make sure that every potential gardener they send to you will be completely vetted and checked. As that is their job! So that will take a lot of hard work and worry away from you. It can be a really worthy investment if you want to save time and get the highest quality of candidates you want to consider. As you might as well get straight to the point and only consider the right candidates. And that is exactly what a good agency will be able to do for you!
How Can Polo & Tweed Help?
Are you ready to get some help in finding, and knowing how to hire a gardener in your area? It can be a very tricky, and lengthy process to try and hire a gardener without any help. Especially if you are under time pressure, or looking for a specific type of gardener. That’s where we can help! Polo & Tweed is here to help out with even the most challenging of recruitment processes! We have a very large selection of fully vetted and checked gardeners on our books already. Which can speed up the process, and it will also take away a lot of the hard work for you. Why not get in touch with us today, to find out how we can help you to hire your new gardener!