“In the end MRC has been a really nice supplement to our team. We’re not solely dependent on one avenue for our field staffing. We try to diversify from different pools. The work output from the recruits is decent, and that’s a tricky thing with this program versus H2-B. With the Puerto Rican recruits, they’re pretty good workers, but you can help make them better if you have a really good training program internally and you’re working with them and coaching them.  Overall my experience so far has been positive with Clay and MRC.” 

“It’s a risk, there’s no doubt about it. But, you have to trust the process that Clay has in place and give it a whirl and see what happens. In today’s workforce, it’s all a risk no matter which way you look at it – whether it’s an American person, whether it’s an H-2B program that is an uncertainty every year, or it’s Puerto Ricans that we’re bringing in with MRC. What reassured us about Clay is that he interviewed us as much as we interviewed him. I asked for a bunch of his references and I called almost every one of them. And all the way through it everybody always reassured me that if they ever had issues Clay always took care of it. In any business venture that you have, you always look at it as a partnership and MRC has been exactly that for us.

“The people that Martin Recruiting and Consulting have been sending to us have great work ethic. They show up every day no matter what. They’re here, they’re not walking off the job and that’s what is really important to us. They are very happy, talkative and welcoming to everybody. I think the caliper of people that they’re sending us, especially customer service wise is amazing. Every time I walk by they’re saying ‘Hi, Have a nice day! Good morning!’ We’re going to continue to smooth out the logistics and streamline the process to make this more successful.” 

“If you are willing to go through the process of getting the recruits here, meaning assisting them with getting established including the housing and airfare and different things – then do it. They are great guys. We haven’t had any issues. But, it really depends on your bandwidth with that assistance. You do have to pay the fees to get them here, get them acclimated etc. You get most of that back through deductions, but there are costs that you hold onto for awhile or incur, but it’s well worth it for highly qualified staff over the long haul.” 

“I think one of the key things with us is that we’re able to adapt to what our Puerto Rican recruits need and want. We are very respectful towards them. We were really lenient on mistakes at first because the guys didn’t have the exact experience that we needed, but they are willing to work and reliable. Some of them have even become really good friends to us. We’ve had our ups and downs, but I think if you realize that things aren’t going to go exactly as you expect them and you’re able to transition when things do go wrong, you’ll be successful.”

“I highly recommend that you visit with your current team members at length to talk about them about how this is an important step on growing the business and that it creates opportunities for everybody. Explain that it’s not a threat and while it’s not going to be perfect, we can work through the learning curve and the challenges in this model. Because this scenario is part of the future of our company and we are committed to this viable business model that MRC provides.” 

“The initial recruits we got were not as skilled in the green industry, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing because we were able to train them how we do our work, rather than train out bad habits they already had. We conducted a 3 full-day, intensive company wide training. It was really important to me that our existing employees understood how critical our Puerto Rican workforce was to our success. We plan to expand our training into a week-long training next season. The time we spent on the front end really saved us a lot of hassle and headache over the course of the season and it was money well spent from a business aspect. We try not to work under the fear that people might leave and train them to the best of our ability which has served us well.”

“We furnished everything in the housing from beds, to linens, everything. And actually, I filled the refrigerators before they arrived because I wanted them, when they got here, to feel like somebody cared – that’s just the way we operate our company. We spend a lot of time off-hours with our staff. We’ve taken them to semi-professional ball games, where a couple of guys threw out the first pitch… I’ve had parties at my house for the holidays with all the guys. We recognize how hard it is to leave your home and come halfway across the country here with people you don’t know, and so at least 1 to 2 times per month we get together as a company and do a fun activity so they know that we care about them. We want them to be here long term, whether they go home for 3 months and come back; our goal is that we’re getting reliable employees that we’ve trained. If we can encourage them to come back there is a savings with MRC and there’s a saving with training and recruiting, etc. So our goal is to make them as comfortable as possible and want to come back.”