Apologies for somewhat off topic but I'm hoping some of you bosses have some advice when it comes to finding employees? I'm incredibly short handed with my Tree Service and I am struggling to find anyone to work. I was going to post an add on Indeed but that is $40 per application which seems steep. I just ran a Facebook add to see if that would attract anyone.

Any advice?

I know a couple local fellas that have a tree service with the same problem. Just darn hard to find people with some skills that want to work, then to be reliable.

The age old conundrum! Good luck with that. I know some folks near Milaca that might be able to help. where are you?

About the only thing anyone in your shoes can do is downsize and raise your prices to stay afloat. There has been a lot of damage done to our society over many decades to lead us to where we are at today.
Trump/Noem 2024 orta be a good start to get back on the right track.

Any local colleges with forestry or silviculture programs?

Our best employees came from people we knew. Not necessarily in a related field when they came to us. 2 came from bat jobs where the customer was young and seemed interested in the work.

I'm In the annandale area.

I'm downsized as far as I can go. I'm offering 20 with no experience, if someone can lean on a rake and untangle a rope they can make 20 a hour and it goes up considerably from there.

Sent this thread to my buddy, we'll see what happens.

It's not only you, Most are in the same boat. I see McDonald's is paying 18.00 hr. Guess they figure why break your a$$ in the heat when you can stand with air conditioning & calling NEXT. We were in Maine, dunking donuts was offering 20.00 hr. Also,I don't know if it's just here, I see a lot of clients are still working from home since covid.

I have Problems trying to hire Predator Trappers( wildlife techs) to work. They want a check,but don't want to do the work.

I've seen a few companies a couple of hours away that needed workers for their tree service too and they only got 1 or 2 people to respond to the post. I would rather work outside rather than inside any day but now that I have my license I haven't found anyone hiring.

Its just hard to find people that want to work. You have a big population of people where your at. Just getting the right ones is the problem. A problem the whole country is dealing with.

Some in the last couple of years are getting conditioned to getting better paid to stay at home. Or have a situation that bails them out enough with no real need to worry. Cut off the fluff income and take away all the bailouts then see how things will fly.

No incentive to have to actually "work" for normally reasonable wages if they don''t like what is offered or really don't want to work that hard..

I'm having people comment on my help wanted add saying "I'll think about it for $45 an hour" When I was in my early 20s 70 or 80 hour weeks were not abnormal during the summer, now young guys want less than 40 hours and Fridays off and to be laid off all winter. I wouldn't hesitate to give the right guy $50 an hour but most of these clowns asking for 50 aren't worth 20.

I've been deep diving on demographics, and the inflation it will probably cause. Theres a real good chance we will be paying much higher wages real soon.

Unfortunately for those thinking they are worth that now, is that they won't be worth that when wages rise to that level.

Why work your butt off in the hot/cold when you can flip burgers for $20+/hr? It's insane, "LETS GO BRANDON!!!!!"

5 years of flipping burgers and you'll still be flipping burgers. 5 years working for me and an 18 yo went from couldn't drive a pickup to a class A commercial liscense, equipment operating skills and 28.75 per hour all on the books with addional $1,000 Christmas bonus. Company supplied cell phone and random cash bonuses.

They don't know that, or likely care. Whatever is the easiest!

For that one hour of work that you are offering $20, how much do you make on that hour? Why should somebody come work for you? Can they make an honest mistake and not get fired? Try offering paid meals in with that $20 and I bet you get good candidates coming out the woodwork, because it's a different benefit. All you gotta do is go by the MN per diem rate of $42 per day, it equals out to $5.25 added per hour for an 8 hour shift, and $50 per day in high localities or $6.25 added per hour. Good luck!