Holiday Lighting: Recruiting & Hiring

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Recruiting and hiring staff for holiday lighting services can be difficult, especially if contractors are using newspapers to draw these extra personnel in and are wording their ads incorrectly.

To aid contractors in this plight, Plantscape outlined ads that work and those that don’t at their Christmas Decorator’s Workshop May 30 through June 1.

ADS THAT WORK:

• “Crafts and hobbyists: earn extra cash for Christmas holidays helping to decorate homes. Overtime and weekend work required. May lead to permanent position.” More likely to get people who are artistic, good with their hands but willing and able to mass-product materials and do physical work.
• “Carpenters/electricians needed to help build and set up props for Christmas decorating. Heavy lifting, valid driver’s license required.” These craftsmen come in handy for larger jobs, and are often out of work and looking for extra money at this time of year.
• “Landscapers wanted.” Likely to get people who are used to hard, physical work and able to drive trucks. Great for outdoor decorating.

NEWSPAPER ADS THAT DO NOT WORK: 

• “Artist to help with Christmas decorating.” You’ll get fine art students or graduates who are immature, don’t want to work long hours and only want to be creative and artistic.
• “Drivers wanted.” Most drivers only want to drive, don’t want to load, unload or help out with installations.

The author is Managing Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at nwisniewski@lawnandlandscape.com.