Filling Cannabis Job Openings: How to Find Qualified Applicants

While the cannabis industry has been established for some time now, it is still one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. As such, cannabis organizations need to be able to continue to scale and grow their business. That means finding qualified applicants to fill cannabis job openings.

Here is everything you need to know in order to find qualified applicants:

How to Find Qualified Applicants to Fill Cannabis Jobs

In order to find qualified applicants to fill your cannabis job openings, you need to know what type of role you are hiring for, what skills to look for, and the best time to hire.

In this article, we'll answer all of those important questions, as well as go over some other tips and best practices for hiring quality talent for your cannabis business.

Types of Cannabis Jobs and Roles

There are many different types of cannabis businesses, and each one is likely to have multiple different roles within its organization.

Some examples of types of cannabis businesses include:

Within these different types of organizations, there are different roles each with their own highly-valued applicant attributes.

Here are some of the more common roles, and some attributes to look for in candidates for each:

Executives & Leadership
- This includes lower-level management all the way up to C-suite executives. The larger the organization, the more executive and leadership roles you'll need.
- Your executive and leadership team should not only have solid "role" and industry experience but should also have a passion that draws them to the cannabis industry.
Finance
- This includes roles for bookkeeping, revenue forecasting, cannabis payroll processing (of course), and more. For the cannabis industry, finance roles require a substantial amount of experience.
- With strict compliance laws and requirements, finance professionals who are quick-thinkers, and who are adaptable should be highly valued.
Marketers
- The cannabis industry is competitive, and you need fresh ideas in order to promote your product or services. Cannabis organizations may find a need for traditional, or digital marketing experts.
- The good news is your marketers don't need heavy cannabis industry experience to be effective.
Cultivators, Growers, and Manufacturers
- These roles can include things such as master growers, workers to care for and plant seeds, chemistry experts, and more. There are many different types of roles depending on the exact nature of your organization.
- For instance, growers and cultivators may want to look for applicants with farming experience or degrees, with cannabis expertise as a plus.
- Cultivators may want to look at similar applicants with chemistry and other science degrees.
Operations
- In such a highly regulated industry, organizations should look for operations applicants with experience in overseeing facilities that manufacture or sell highly regulated goods.
- Backgrounds in manufacturing FDA-regulated products and products that are safe for human consumption should be highly valued.
Sales
- You may need a sales rep to go to dispensaries to promote your product for retail distribution. While knowledge of the product and the industry as a whole is certainly a plus, a proven salesman will be able to demonstrate an ability to learn how to sell any type of product.
- You may need a regular retail associate if you are a dispensary. Retail management experience should be highly valued, such as experience launching new concepts and experiential in-store brand activations.

Tips and Strategies for Filling Cannabis Job Openings

Aside from following best practices, and taking the following things into account in your candidate search, choosing the best cannabis HR software is also important, as the right solution will have important recruitment and onboarding tools for you to use.

Here are some core tips and strategies to consider when searching for the best talent for your cannabis organizations:

Understand the Unique Needs of Your Organization

Take the type of cannabis organization out of the equation, and each cannabis business may still have vastly different needs than the next.

Because the industry is so highly regulated, needs can change based on the laws and requirements of your state, and the general size of your organization. A small dispensary in one of the more tenured legalized states, such as Colorado, will have much different needs than an established multi-state operator trying to get set up in a recently legalized state.

The needs of an organization will also change as the organization grows, much more so than your average company. As a result, creating standard operating processes and procedures, such as a standard organizational chat, can prove challenging.

To hire effectively, it's important that hiring managers ensure clear and exact responsibilities for a role, and ensure that an onboarding process is prepared for that new hire once chosen.

Find Transferable Skills for the Cannabis Industry

As discussed earlier when it comes to hiring specific roles in the industry, finding applicants with transferrable skills is crucial.

While some roles still require a solid understanding of the cannabis industry, many roles, such as certain retail, sales, operations, marketers, cultivators, and manufacturers can benefit from transferrable hard skills.

To reuse an example from above, an applicant with experience in overseeing facilities that manufacture or sell highly regulated goods, and / or with a background in manufacturing FDA-regulated products likely has many hard skills that can be applied and become useful in the cannabis industry.

Finding applicants with transferrable hard skills is even more important, given the fact that the industry is still relatively new. There aren't as many potential hires out there with a substantial amount of experience.

Soft Skills Are Always Transferable

Transferable skills don't just apply to hard skills. In fact, soft skills are almost always transferable.

So while you may be looking at the skills of an applicant in regard to how well they'll be able to perform their proposed duties, don't forget that soft skills matter just as much if not more, just like any job.

Understand Compensation in the Cannabis Industry

Because of the complexities of the industry, and how unique and different each organization is, the responsibilities of the same role may vary from company to company. And thus, so does compensation.

Other variables that can affect compensation in the industry include funding, burn rate, pace of growth, and the state of operations.

What makes compensation most challenging in the industry, is that since cannabis is still federally illegal, the government does not track pay data. So, no concrete data exists for comparison or to identify an industry standard. Any information is self-reported.

Some experts recommend considering lower pay for entry-level / part-time positions or for those who have yet to work in the industry. This is built around the idea that lower comp is worth first getting into a new and exciting industry that’s full of opportunity.

Either way, employers should consider cannabis compensation software to help manage compensation within their organization, and have a better understanding of what to offer new hires.

Ease Hesitancies of Working in a "Startup" Industry

One of the tougher parts of hiring in the cannabis industry is that the industry itself is still relatively new. Because it's new there is a perceived amount of instability in the industry. This can deter potential applicants, including some of the most experienced.

Whether you believe that the industry is stable or not, there are certainly reasons to hesitate joining it. With evolving regulations, you never know what new law or requirement may change the way you work indefinitely.

Additionally, as a result of the rapid growth if the industry, mergers, and acquisitions can be quite common. If one involves your company, you may never know where that'll land you.

Finally, some people may be hesitant to work in the industry due to the stigma that comes with it. While many Americans say cannabis should be legal for medical or recreational use, many still take issue. This type of stance can worry and stop applicants from joining the cannabis industry.

It's important to prepare yourself or your hiring managers on how they should address these potential road blocks, and should make a point of doing so during the initial interview process.

Best Time to Hire for Cannabis Job Openings

While the above information is crucial, it can also be helpful to simply understand when the best time to hire is when it comes to cannabis businesses.

Some things to consider are:

Best Months for Hiring: January and February seem to be the most common months for hiring in the cannabis industry, similar to other industries. Companies finish budgets toward the end of the year, often freeing room for new hires.
Best Day for Hiring: The best day to hire, is the day you get an application from a qualified applicant. Like sales, the faster the turn around the more likely you are to get in touch with an applicant. Most people apply earlier in the week, so it's best to keep up with reviewing submitted applications as such.
Best Time for Hiring: When it comes to making hiring decisions, it's best to wait for the end of the day before reaching out to an applicant. They are more likely to be done with their current job / shift if they have one, and if not, more likely to see it first thing the next day.
Best Time to Start Hiring: Three months is a pretty standard timeline when it comes to finding a job in the cannabis industry. As such, hiring managers should consider giving themselves at least a three-month window to try and find a new hire for a position before the need becomes urgent.

Get Help Filling Cannabis Job Openings

Looking to learn more about cannabis payroll and the cannabis industry? Businesses can check out these cannabis industry statistics as well as common cannabis payroll questions, and more, by checking out our blog.

Assistance in hiring is something that any cannabis payroll company should be able to provide, and if not, could be one of the reasons to switch cannabis payroll companies. At Evolve HCM, our Cannabis Recruitment Software allows businesses to quickly build and maintain a top-tier workforce.