How Team Engine Helps Landscaping Companies Hire Smarter

In a recent episode of the Green Industry Profits Podcast, host Joe Policastro (from Cycle CPA) sat down with Carlos del Pozo of Team Engine to discuss how landscaping companies can solve their biggest bottleneck: finding, hiring, and keeping the right people. From sourcing strategies to employee communication tools, Carlos outlined a practical and scalable playbook for workforce management in field-based industries.

Why Hiring Is the Real Bottleneck

Carlos emphasized that for many landscaping companies, the main constraint to growth isn’t sales; it’s labor capacity.

“They actually are constrained by people… by having the capacity and talent to be able to pursue the opportunities that are in front of them.”

While many businesses focus on sales and marketing, Carlos encourages owners to treat hiring and retention with the same strategic urgency. That includes rethinking how you structure your recruiting process, communicate with candidates, and build systems that scale—areas where Team Engine’s recruiting automation software makes a measurable impact.

Rethinking the Starting Point

Before you even post a job, Carlos says the first challenge is defining the role.

“It’s surprisingly challenging… even figuring out what to call the role. Most people treat it as a list of requirements to find a unicorn candidate. That’s just not realistic in this job market.”

As a solution to this challenge, Team Engine’s AI-powered job posting tool analyzes a company’s website to generate tailored, compelling job ads that resonate with real-world candidates. Each post is designed to reflect the company’s brand and make a strong case for why someone should want the job. This approach helps companies improve candidate quality and accelerate hiring, especially when paired with texting software for recruiting and automated follow-ups.

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

Most companies rely on a single source (like Indeed or employee referrals) to find candidates. But that’s not sustainable.

“You shouldn’t be putting all your eggs in one basket. But it’s tricky to manage multiple sources manually. That’s where software can help.”

Team Engine automates job distribution across multiple platforms (including Indeed, Craigslist, Facebook, and ZipRecruiter) while centralizing all applicants into one dashboard. That way, companies can cast a wider net without doubling their effort.

Apply Sales and Marketing Tactics to Recruiting

Carlos compares the recruiting funnel to a sales pipeline:

“You start hearing sales and marketing words: channels, funnels, speed to lead, conversion rates. The same principles apply to recruiting.”

For example:

• Don’t rely solely on referrals; treat them like one channel in a diversified portfolio.
• Think about conversion rate, not just applicant volume.
• Match the ask to the stage of the process; avoid overwhelming applicants early.

Team Engine bakes these tactics into the platform, tracking where applicants come from, how quickly they move through the funnel, and helping teams follow up instantly via text so no one slips through the cracks. This combination of channel tracking, automation, and fast communication positions Team Engine as one of the most effective recruiting platforms for teams in the green industry.

Reduce Candidate Drop-Off with a Smarter Hiring Funnel

Carlos encourages companies to scale their investment in applicants as they move deeper into the process.

“Too many companies ask applicants to jump through hoops on day one, like personality assessments. That’s a mistake.”

Team Engine lets you structure your hiring process around progressive steps, starting with short pre-screen questions and moving to interviews and paperwork only when the candidate has demonstrated interest and fit. Automated workflows and reminders keep the process moving without overwhelming applicants or hiring managers. Team Engine’s texting software for recruiting supports this staged approach by making early communication fast and low-effort, effectively reducing candidate drop-off and keeping them engaged without overwhelming them.

Text Messaging Isn’t Optional… It’s Essential

In the green industry, your ideal candidate probably isn’t checking email. They’re on the job. That’s why Team Engine emphasizes SMS communication for both recruiting and employee communication.

“Texting bridges the gap. It’s asynchronous, it’s visible, and it’s how people prefer to communicate.”

Team Engine makes SMS the default mode of communication, which is why its texting software for recruiting has become such a critical part of the hiring process for field-based businesses. Every message is tracked, searchable, and tied to the employee record, so communication happens naturally, frequently, and doesn’t get lost.

Build a Playbook for New Hires

Hiring doesn’t end when someone shows up for work. Companies need structured communication to engage and retain new employees.

“Have a minimum experience mapped out: key communications, feedback touchpoints, uniform checks, benefits reminders, check-ins. Just having something is a huge step.”

With Team Engine, you can build and automate a consistent onboarding experience across all new hires to trigger messages, check-ins, and reminders based on hire date or role. This type of onboarding automation makes it easy to deliver a repeatable, high-quality experience at scale that supports retention and gives every employee a strong start.

Turn Employee Referrals Into a Repeatable System

Employee referrals are powerful, but often underutilized or poorly tracked.

“Don't just mention the referral program on day one and hope people remember. Systematize it. Ask every new hire for a referral between weeks 3 and 5, when they’re most excited to be there.”

A strong employee referral system not only expands your candidate pipeline, but also increases quality-of-hire by tapping into the networks of your most engaged team members. Team Engine automatically reminds employees to refer friends at key moments, like after they’ve settled into a role and had a positive onboarding experience. Referral leads can be submitted via text and routed straight into the applicant pipeline, reducing friction and speeding up time to hire.

Field Communication Without the Friction

Traditional office tools (Teams, email) don’t reach the field. And relying on supervisors to relay information creates risk.

“You’re just creating more work for already stretched supervisors. We need to take that burden off their plates.”

Team Engine allows office teams to communicate directly with field crews via SMS and WhatsApp. Messages can be sent in English and automatically translated into the recipient’s preferred language. Then, replies come back into one system and are instantly translated back to English, eliminating missed updates and misunderstandings. These types of two-way employee communication tools are essential for keeping distributed teams informed and aligned without relying on manual handoffs or under-utilized channels.

A Feedback Loop That Goes Both Ways

Carlos likened frontline crews to the outer perimeter of a military unit. In the military, leaders often operate from the center of the formation, relying on those at the edges to gather information and report back. But if communication breaks down, critical intelligence never makes it to the people making decisions.

The same is true in field-based businesses: frontline employees are closest to the work, the customers, and the challenges… but without clear pathways for feedback, their insights go unshared and unresolved.

“The companies that win are the ones that can capture the insights of the people on the outside and bring them to the center.”

Team Engine helps companies close that gap. With tools like automated text surveys, scheduled check-ins, and two-way messaging, business leaders can stay connected to what’s happening on the ground… without relying solely on supervisors to relay information. That focus on frontline employee engagement is what enables companies to improve performance, retention, and culture, especially as they scale.

Build Your Growth Strategy Around People, Not Just Processes

“You can’t do the work without the people. So why isn’t this the first thing we solve?”

Carlos urges companies to stop treating recruiting and retention as reactive tasks and start viewing them as core drivers of long-term success. Team Engine provides the infrastructure to support that strategy, giving field-based businesses the tools they need to consistently attract, hire, and retain great employees. 

With integrated solutions for employee onboarding automation, multi-channel applicant sourcing, streamlined communication, and frontline employee engagement, Team Engine gives you a complete system for hiring and managing a deskless workforce. Sign up for a demo to see how.