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:
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.
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:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
Contact us today to learn more, or check out our cannabis recruitment demo video below.