Vangst, a cannabis industry recruitment business, issued a report in September that draws something of a flow chart for the growing employment base in the cannabis industry. These new employees up and down the cannabis supply chain must be coming from some other line of work, right?
The top sector from which cannabis employees arrive is retail, according to the report, and the dispensary environment offers a neat translation of that customer-service skill set.
The backdrop of this data is what many have termed “the Great Resignation,” which took the credit for at least some of the 47 million Americans who quit their jobs in 2021. That figure is important, because Vangst notes that 33% of cannabis employees have been in the industry for less than a year.
What that rapid churn into the industry means is that on-the-job training can become more nuanced, more tailored to individual companies’ needs. Vangst suggests that employers might look for a softer set of job qualifications, such as “adaptability,” “grit,” “solution-oriented thinking” and “mission-driven work ethic.” Those traits can be drawn out in the interview process or during the probationary training periods that many dispensaries or cultivation businesses use to introduce new hires to the work.
The same goes for employers themselves. Adaptability is vital, because employee turnover remains fairly high in these early years of cannabis.
“Despite being an extremely fractured market due to federal prohibition, the industry is rapidly becoming more professional,” the report states. “Venture capitalists, stockholders, and funds want returns; large multistate operators, or MSOs, are optimizing the retail experience, forcing local independents to do the same to stay competitive; consolidation is happening at a large scale.”
Here are a few tips to capitalize on those trends.
1. Onboarding is a critical opportunity. Be thoughtful about this process.
David Belsky, founder and CEO of FlowerHire, an executive talent firm headquartered in Los Angeles, says that your onboarding process should offer a comprehensive welcome to the company. This is your team’s first real intersection with a new employee, and it’s the perfect time to set the tone for how the company culture looks and feels and sounds. Get new hires involved right away through action-oriented onboarding programs.
This is also a great opportunity to educate men and women on the front lines of your company. Provide your retail staffers will in-depth information on the market and the products they will be selling. This will benefit your bottom line.
“If onboarding is strictly around compliance-related matters, and it’s stale, that’s a missed opportunity,” Belsky says. “Especially in the retail environment, education needs to be front and center.”
2. Get out ahead of turnover.
According to 2022 data from Headset, 55% of dispensary employees will resign in a given year. Even more to the point, a quarter of all newly hired budtenders will be out within the first month of work. Beyond the foundation that onboarding allows you to set, your team must also find ways to plant seeds for the long haul. Turnover can be a painful process for any team.
“Invest in your leadership training,” Belsky says. Human capital should not just be thought of as “human capital,” but rather as a deeply personal asset. Be clear about your values and communicate them to your team. And make sure your business demonstrates the importance of executing on those values. There, in the execution of a mission statement, is where you’ll find high performance and workplace affinity. Your management team needs to be up-to-date on where the company needs to go, and those leaders should in turn identify the company’s future leaders.
More often than not, the person most qualified for an open job is the person who was working directly beneath the employee who resigned. Look within for your growth channels.
3. Use QR codes to turn consumers into team members.
Still struggling to find employees in the first place? Before onboarding and training, you must, of course, find new hires. What better place to seek those workers than your very own dispensary?
“People are super excited about working in cannabis still,” Belsky says. “There’s a great opportunity to capture a workforce just by making it accessible.”
When marketing your open positions, make sure to use tactile advertising materials within your store. Better yet, set up a QR code for those materials and send interested candidates directly to your job listing online. People are very familiar with QR code technology these days, and it’s a simple way to get people who are already interested in your company to look a little closer.
Jacob Petersmark, vice president of cannabis staffing agency The United Green, says companies should always be aware of the many places prospective employees turn to find jobs. Social media, even with its dubious relationship with the cannabis industry, can be super helpful—and can even be integrated into your store’s use of QR codes.
Outside of your store’s walls, Petersmark says LinkedIn has become a valuable tool in the cannabis industry. It’s the most professional-leaning social network, and as the cannabis space becomes rapidly more sophisticated, it’s being seen as the place to be for industry execs and prospective staffers—the place where cannabis professionals meet. Don’t sleep on it.
4. Keep up with hourly wages and cost of living in your local market.
Adjacent to the Great Resignation is another economic story: one of rising inflation in the U.S. When bringing new employees onto your team, you would do well to remember those broader macroeconomic trends and how they will influence decisions on an individual basis.
Just a few years ago, Petersmark and his team were seeing $11 or $13 per hour for budtenders in most markets. Now, they’re seeing wages closer to $16 or $18 per hour. This is great news for candidates, but your team must budget appropriately not just for that baseline but also for growth over time. Regular inflation-based raises are helpful here, too.
Kelsea Appelbaum, vice president of partnerships at Vangst, says cannabis is something of a leader in this space, actually. “If anything, more mainstream retail and service-focused employers are catching up to the pay structure that budtenders and trimmers have long enjoyed—well above minimum wage,” she says. “We believe that good-paying cannabis jobs entering a state or municipality creates competition in the labor market and other businesses are just beginning to figure that out.”
And yet those more mainstream retail and service-based employers aren’t saddled with the risk that comes from the cannabis industry and its federally illegal nature. This is not a small matter, and your team will need to handle this delicate conversation with care when recruiting new employees. As part of that conversation, strong compensation is obviously a great starting point.
“Our 2022 Salary Guide Survey found that a significant percentage of current cannabis employees were initially hesitant to join the industry due to the stigma that still surrounds the plant and its sales,” she says. “In an uncertain economy, it can also be tough to lure somebody away from a secure, high-paying job into a startup industry.”
The benefits can go beyond salary, too, of course. Appelbaum notes that companies are getting creative with benefits offered to employees.
“PTO, VTO, cannabis-friendly culture, employee discounts and health insurance are growing more and more common,” she says. “But some companies are even doing things most people might associate with tech giants—like gym memberships, on-tap kombucha, on-site meals.”
