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We advertise through the Jobcentre (free but a pain as you seemingly to need a different government gateway ID for each government service you use!) and have had a good amount of success recruiting through Gumtree (which is a paid for service).
We have used recruitment agencies in the past but with varied success, they are unlikely something we would use in the future.
We now always take people on for a trial day (fully paid of course) after interview but before a formal offer of a job is given.
Hope that helps.
Nick
We have done the same as Nick, but with an initial one month temporary contract, with a view to a permanent contract.
I always explain to potential employees why we do this. This seems to act as a good way of initially separating the serious candidates from the idiots, as the serious ones understand the benefits from both sides of the agreement. Within the initial 4 weeks of employment it is very easy for someone to leave employment and for an employer to dismiss an employee if they are not working out etc.
We don't have employees out on their own working. We have team leaders who have been with the business for a lengthy period of time. They have a team of either 1 or 2 gardeners with them on any given day.
The struggle we have is the level of horticultural knowledge is terrible. We have advertised for gardeners in the past, but the overall majority of applicants have had lots of experience in landscaping and commercial work. Horticulture is a dying skill.
If you have time to invest, find someone keen and wanting the job, regardless of qualifications. We employed someone this year, no experience or qualifications but a fabulous CV....They are absolutely brilliant and I will be looking at a team leader position for them within the next year.
Good luck!
we try to recruit locally, using local forums etc, and seems to work well. however you will have to kiss a few frogs before you find a good one. dont get downhearted. all mine start on a trail basis and we review and extend it as we see fit. ive got three good ones and ive been through 6 in the last 18 months trying to find the elusive 4th one. As soon as you get an inkling that they are not right, your gut instinct i normally right.
Are there many hurdles to get over when employing someone, or do you require them to be self employed and sorting out their own tax etc. I've often wondered about taking on an employee, but the hassle seems greater than the benefit at times. I'd like to take someone on a self employed basis to make less hassle for me but I'm worried about them taking the client 'away' from me as a result of my hard work and advertising!
They're not self employed if they're working for you full time. It's illegal to do this and you as the employer will be the one faced with penalties for doing so.
With recent changes to determining employment status, this HMRC online tool is useful and uses the same criteria they would use if investigating you.
The rules have been tightened up for tax avoidance reasons (NICs/PAYE etc) and "employee rights" protection over recent years.