Hiring the Right People

Introduction

Hiring in a tree service isn’t like hiring for a desk job. You’re building a crew that works near power lines, climbs for hours, handles sharp tools, and shows up in bad weather. If you hire the wrong person, it doesn’t just slow you down—it creates safety risk, customer complaints, and rework.

Think of hiring like a funnel. Your goal isn’t to “get applicants.” Your goal is to get the small percentage of people who can do the work, want to learn, and will follow your safety and quality standards. A tight Talent Funnel keeps you from wasting days on resumes, avoids bad fits, and makes new hires productive faster.

Concept

The Talent Funnel has three parts: Hiring, Training, and The Repellent Job Ad. Together, they attract the right arborists and deter the rest.

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Hiring

In tree services, the “job ad” is really your first crew-fit interview. It must clearly describe the realities of the work: physical demands, schedule flexibility, PPE, hazards, and customer-facing expectations.

A great hiring message does three things:
1) Shows the work clearly (climbing, rigging, stump grinding, bucket work, storm response).
2) Sets the safety bar (PPE, ladder and rope discipline, utility line rules, hazard reporting).
3) Filters by attitude (coachability, punctuality, willingness to follow procedures).

Tree Service Example (What to say instead of “experience preferred”):
“Looking for an ISA-cert trackable climber or trainee who can tie knots safely, follow ground guide calls, and accept coaching on rope systems. Must be comfortable with heights and willing to work early mornings, weekends during storms, and in heavy brush.”

That language attracts candidates who are ready for your world—and deters the ones who want easy hours or ignore safety steps.

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Training

Training is where you turn a new hire into a dependable teammate. In arboriculture, there’s a big difference between “I’ve done tree work before” and “I do it our way—safely, consistently, and with the documentation we need.”

Your training should be both technical and operational:
- Technical: basic climb progression, rope checks, work positioning, rigging basics (if applicable), equipment handling, stump grinder start/stop and containment.
- Operational: jobsite setup, communication signals, hazard documentation, customer protection steps (driveway protection, signage, property protection), and how to close a job properly.

Tree Service Example (Onboarding flow):
Day 1–2: PPE standard, company safety rules, route + jobsite expectations, how we do a pre-job hazard scan.
Week 1: shadowing quality checks, learning the job checklist, practicing cleanup and property protection.
Week 2–3: supervised climb/bucket/rigging tasks based on skill level, with a sign-off before independent work.

This turns training into a measurable ramp, not “watch and hope.”

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The Repellent Job Ad

A Repellent Job Ad is a small test embedded in the posting. It helps you spot people who either won’t follow instructions or won’t take safety seriously.

In tree service, you want signals like:
- Do they read details?
- Do they understand the work rhythm?
- Do they follow directions without cutting corners?

Tree Service Example (simple, fair filter):
“Reply with the two words ‘CHAIN OF COMMAND’ in the subject line and answer: What does a ‘work stop’ mean on a jobsite for you? We don’t negotiate safety.”

People who ignore instructions, rush, or give vague answers usually don’t match your standard.

Conclusion

Use the Talent Funnel to hire for safety, skill, and attitude—not just experience. Write a job ad that matches real arborist work, train with clear sign-offs, and add one repellent step that proves attention to detail. When you do this, you hire fewer people, but you hire better—faster—and your crews become more consistent job after job.