HL Services team celebrate fifth anniversary

• HL Services celebrates its fifth year in business
• Specialist knowledge of the sector essential for today’s climate
• Education and training pivotal to the growth of the industry

BALI Registered Affiliate member HL Services is celebrating five years of being in the business of helping clients find experienced and qualified staff, from entry-level to senior management positions, within the Grounds Maintenance, Horticultural and Landscaping sector.

We opened our doors with the aim of serving clients, locally and nationally, struggling to find the appropriate staff to design, build, manage and maintain their grounds. Sourcing appropriate and qualified staff in this sector can be challenging. As a specialist in this area, we are uniquely placed with an extensive network of contacts within the sector and this has allowed us to successfully help our clients fill their roles. We’ve been privileged to help a range of clients including premier league football clubs, a world-famous sporting venue, many schools, cemeteries, councils, facilities, and residential and commercial sites with staff at every level of their organisation.

• The last five years have brought new challenges to the UK economy, the staffing market in general and for the Grounds Maintenance, Horticulture and Landscaping industry in particular. Demand, however, for supervisory and, especially, key management positions has increased significantly and competition to attract this level of candidate is fierce. As this sector grows, in addition to new vacancies, businesses have been keen to retain their existing workforce and management infrastructure. This has seen them call on HL Services experience within the staffing sector to assist with engagement and retention programmes.

We’ve found our role evolving from simply providing staff; we form partnerships with our clients to provide a holistic staffing function. We’ve helped our clients with advice on reducing staff turnover and increasing retention rates, helped with pay structures and reward schemes, and even provided advice on marketing, both generally and with a view to attracting experienced management-level candidates. Our experience and depth of understanding of the sector have allowed us to successfully deliver a value-add service to our clients to which they have responded warmly.

• A lack of uptake from school and college leavers has left the apprenticeship and entry-level positions increasingly difficult to find suitable candidates for. Recognising the increasingly large gap between candidates and vacancy numbers, HL Services Ltd is involved with The BALI Chalk Fund which provides funding for skills training and education across the landscape industry with the aim of upskilling the existing workforce and attracting new people to this dynamic sector.

Getting the next generation interested in the landscaping sector is essential, and, too often, the sector is overlooked through lack of awareness as to the diversity of career paths on offer. There are so many areas to interest those who enjoy working in a spatial field, with an eye for design or an interest in presenting our natural environment in the most sustainable and aesthetically pleasing light possible. We’re keen to show the younger generations how varied the sector is and the diversity of roles open to them from the hands-on jobs up to business management level. It’s an important and vibrant sector and we’re dedicated to helping it grow.