A Survey of Recruitment & Selection Practices inFlorist Crop Production Firms

Many florist crop producers have reported difficulty with attracting qualified employees to positions within their businesses. The purpose of this study was to define the difficulties florist crop producers face in attracting qualified workers.Managers of 72 florist crop production firms in Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania participated in a telephone survey designed to gather information on recruitment and selection issues for florist crop producers. The survey results revealed that recruitment practices were not used as frequently as they could be. It also appeared that managers were doing a better job with the selection process than they were with the recruitment process. In addition, compensation appeared to be closely linked to the ability of employers to effectively recruit job applicants.-One third of the employers surveyed indicated that attractingqualified employees to the business was not difficult, while two-thirds indicated that attracting qualified job applicants was either somewhat or very difficult.1The study found that florist crop production firms with more than 12.5 FTEs (full-time equivalents) used recommended, more formal recruitment and selection methods more frequently than producers with fewer FTEs. When comparing businesses by how difficult managers said that attracting qualified workers is, there were significant differences. Those who said attracting qualified applicants was not difficult operated significantly larger businesses. In addition, managers who said attracting workers was not difficult were more satisfied with the quality of their workers and their rate ofemployee turnover and perceived that their employees were more satisfied with their jobs.Improved recruitment practices coupled with a competitive wage and benefit package appear to be keys to improving the ability of employers to attract the most qualified workers for positions within the business.-