If you run a landscaping or lawn care company, you already know the problem. Work arrives all at once in spring, and you need trained crews on the trucks the same week. Recruiting software for landscaping companies has one job: get qualified people from application to first shift faster than the season moves. ATS Mako is built for that kind of high-volume, multi-location hiring, with native SMS, an integrated email client, AI candidate ranking, AI voice screening, interview scheduling and onboarding in one system you can brand as your own.
How landscaping and lawn care companies actually hire
Most hiring in this industry is field hiring. The roles are hands-on, the applicants are often working another job, and many of them will never sit at a desk to fill out a long form.
- Crew members and laborers for mowing, planting, mulching and cleanup
- Crew leads and foremen who drive trucks and run job sites
- Irrigation, hardscape and tree care specialists
- Snow removal crews for winter contracts
- Estimators, account managers and sales staff
- Office managers, schedulers and dispatch
Applicants come from job boards, referrals from current crew, yard signs, truck wraps, walk-ins and returning workers from last season. Volume spikes before spring, dips in summer as turnover sets in, and spikes again for fall cleanup and snow. Each branch or territory may be hiring at a different pace.
Seasonal crews: speed decides who you get
The best crew members do not wait. If another company texts them back first, they take that job. The common breakdowns look like this:
- Applications pile up in an inbox while the owner is out bidding jobs
- Calls go unanswered because applicants are on a job site during the day
- Phone screens eat hours that a manager does not have in spring
- Last season's good workers get lost in spreadsheets instead of rehired
- Each branch tracks applicants its own way, so nobody sees the full picture
ATS Mako attacks each of these. Native SMS lets you reply to applicants by text from inside the platform, where field workers actually respond. AI candidate ranking sorts a large applicant pool so managers start with the strongest matches. AI voice screening handles first-round phone screens so your foremen stay on the job. And bulk actions let you move, message or update a whole group of applicants at once instead of one at a time.
Rehire last season's crew first
Your fastest hires are people who already know your routes and equipment. With global search, you can find past applicants and former seasonal workers by name or detail, then text them about the new season before you post a single ad.
Language and shift needs
Landscaping crews are diverse, and the work runs on early starts and weather. Your hiring process has to fit both.
Write messages the way your applicants read them
Messages you send through ATS Mako go out in the words you write. If many of your applicants are more comfortable in another language, write your texts and emails in that language. Keep them short, plain and specific: role, location, pay details you choose to share, and the next step.
Sample first-reply text for a crew applicant
Hi [First name], thanks for applying to [Company] for the crew member job in [Branch]. Can you work early mornings, Monday to Friday? Reply YES or NO. If yes, we will send you a time for a quick call.
Edit the wording, schedule and language to match your crews. Keep it short enough to read on a job site.
Screen around real schedules
Field applicants often cannot take a call at a set time. AI voice screening gives them a phone-based screen without an app, and lets you cover the questions that matter for your roles, such as early start availability, weekend work, transportation and experience with mowers or other equipment. Interview scheduling then books the next step into a manager's open time, so nobody plays phone tag between job sites.
Keep office hires in one place too
Estimators, account managers and office staff often prefer email. The integrated email client keeps those conversations in the same candidate record as your crew texts. Everything sits in one communication engine instead of personal phones and inboxes.
ATS Mako features mapped to landscaping hiring problems
| Hiring problem | What ATS Mako gives you |
|---|---|
| Applicants do not answer calls or emails | Native SMS from inside the platform, plus conversational SMS and automations to keep replies moving |
| Too many applications in spring | AI candidate ranking to surface the strongest matches first |
| Managers lose hours on phone screens | AI voice screening for first-round questions |
| Phone tag to book interviews | Interview scheduling into managers' available time |
| Updating applicants one at a time | Bulk actions to message or move groups at once |
| Good past workers are hard to find | Global search across past and current applicants |
| New hires show up without paperwork done | Onboarding inside the same system |
| Several branches hiring differently | Built for multi-location hiring, with reporting across locations |
| Candidates do not recognize the tool | Fully white-label, so applicants see your company brand |
Built for multi-branch and franchise operations
Many landscaping companies grow by adding branches or territories. ATS Mako is designed for multi-location hiring, so each location can work its own openings while operations leaders see the whole pipeline. Recruiting reporting and analytics help you see where applicants come from and where they stall, by location or role.
Because the platform is fully brandable, applicants see your company name and look, not a third-party tool. If you want to understand what that means in practice, read this explainer on white-label recruiting software.
Onboarding before the first truck rolls
A hire is not done until the person shows up ready to work. ATS Mako includes onboarding in the same system as recruiting, so new crew members move from offer to onboarding without re-entering their details somewhere else. Your office staff can see who is finished and who still needs a nudge, then send a quick text to follow up.
A simple spring hiring workflow
- 1 Text returning workers Use global search to find last season's crew and send a bulk text asking who is coming back.
- 2 Open new roles by branch Post openings for each location so applicants land in the right pipeline.
- 3 Let AI rank and screen AI candidate ranking orders the pool, and AI voice screening runs first-round questions by phone.
- 4 Book interviews automatically Interview scheduling puts qualified applicants on a manager's calendar without back-and-forth calls.
- 5 Offer and onboard Move hires into onboarding and track who is ready for their first shift.
For more hands-on advice on sourcing and retaining field workers, see our guide to hiring landscaping crews at volume. If you also hire for trades like HVAC or plumbing, the page on home services recruiting covers those roles.
One platform instead of a stack of tools
Many landscaping companies piece hiring together with a job board, a texting app, a scheduling link, a spreadsheet and paper onboarding. Each tool costs money and time. You can compare that setup against a single platform with this recruiting stack cost calculator, then check pricing to see how ATS Mako fits your budget.
Staff your crews before the season starts
See how ATS Mako handles texting, screening, scheduling and onboarding for landscaping teams. [Book a demo](/book-a-demo/).