LandCare, a formidable presence in the commercial landscape management sector, has successfully overhauled its talent acquisition framework through the strategic adoption of Workable, an applicant tracking system (ATS). This transformative shift addresses the complex hiring needs of a vast, geographically dispersed workforce, encompassing 76 locations across 23 states and employing approximately 4,000 individuals during peak seasons. The transition from a limited, plugin-based system to a comprehensive, user-friendly platform has yielded measurable improvements in hiring velocity, candidate quality, and the overall strategic influence of the talent acquisition (TA) team within the organization.
The Landscape of Talent Acquisition in a Distributed Workforce
Operating one of the industry’s largest field-based workforces presents unique challenges for talent acquisition. LandCare’s hiring requirements span a diverse array of roles, from crucial branch administrators, production managers, and account managers to corporate functions like finance, IT, HR, marketing, and operations, alongside periodic executive searches. The majority of the workforce, however, comprises crew-level positions, managed locally at the branch level, necessitating a robust, yet adaptable, support system from the central TA team.
Before the implementation of Workable, LandCare grappled with an antiquated and inefficient recruiting process. The organization relied on a UKG plugin that, according to Alex Kline, Director of Talent Acquisition and Employee Services, functioned more as a "processing tool than a true ATS." This system was manual, limited in scope, and fundamentally incapable of supporting the high-volume, efficient hiring demanded by a scaling national enterprise. Kline vividly recalled the limitations, stating, "It was a very antiquated process. There was really nothing about it that allowed us to manage our recruitment effort through that system. We were managing it kind of outside and then just processing everything through it."
A significant pain point was job postings. The UKG integration restricted job advertisements solely to LandCare’s internal careers page. Any additional external platforms, such as LinkedIn or Indeed, required separate, painstaking manual posts. As LandCare continued its growth trajectory and the velocity of hiring became increasingly critical, this fragmented and labor-intensive approach proved unsustainable, hindering both reach and speed in attracting vital talent. The commercial landscape industry, characterized by seasonal demands and a competitive market for skilled labor, requires agility in recruitment, a factor severely constrained by the legacy system. The need for a centralized, streamlined, and scalable solution became paramount to maintaining LandCare’s operational capacity and growth ambitions.
The Search for a Solution: A Deliberate Evaluation Process
Recognizing the urgent need for a modern talent acquisition platform, Alex Kline spearheaded an exhaustive search. His role, leading a team of six recruiters responsible for exempt-level, corporate, and executive hiring, also involves serving as subject matter experts and advisors to branches handling their own crew-level recruiting. This dual responsibility underscored the need for a solution that could cater to both centralized strategic hiring and decentralized operational recruitment.
Kline’s evaluation process was thorough and meticulous, beginning with an initial pool of approximately 10 different platforms. This was systematically narrowed down to five, then three, and finally two finalists. The selection criteria were stringent, prioritizing not only robust reporting capabilities and a comprehensive suite of tools for talent acquisition professionals but also an intuitive user experience. This latter point proved to be the decisive factor, given LandCare’s unique operational model. A significant portion of LandCare’s hiring managers operates in the field—on job sites, in vehicles, and away from traditional office desks. For these managers to genuinely engage with and adopt a new hiring platform, it needed to be accessible and straightforward, requiring minimal onboarding and training.
While a competing finalist offered features that initially excited the recruiting team, Workable ultimately emerged as the clear choice. Kline articulated the critical differentiator: "If we would have put the other platform in front of our hiring managers, we would have never been able to get the buy-in from them that we have now. Workable makes it so simple for them." Workable’s ability to provide the necessary reporting functionalities alongside an exceptionally user-friendly interface for field-based managers was the winning combination. It offered functional depth without introducing prohibitive complexity, ensuring widespread adoption and integration into daily workflows across the extensive LandCare network. This strategic decision highlighted an understanding that even the most feature-rich system is ineffective if its primary users cannot easily interact with it.
Phased Implementation and Strategic Rollout
The successful integration of Workable into LandCare’s operations was largely attributed to a meticulously planned and executed phased implementation strategy, personally overseen by Alex Kline. Functioning as the project manager for the rollout, Kline collaborated closely with Workable’s dedicated implementation partner, Kashaw. This partnership was characterized by a highly responsive and "symbiotic" relationship, as Kline described, where challenges and requirements presented in the afternoon often saw viable solutions by the next morning.
Rather than attempting a simultaneous overhaul of all elements, Kline strategically delegated components of the implementation. The central talent acquisition team focused on building out comprehensive candidate communication templates, ensuring consistency and professionalism across all interactions. Concurrently, the HR team took on the crucial task of aligning the organizational structure within Workable with the company’s existing Human Resources Information System (HRIS). This careful alignment ensured a seamless candidate flow and data integrity across both systems, minimizing potential disruptions and maximizing operational efficiency from day one.
This deliberate, phased approach proved highly effective. The central TA team achieved full operational capability on Workable within a remarkably swift six weeks. Following an intensive two-week period of internal use, during which workflow details were refined and edge cases documented, the platform was officially launched to the broader business. This methodical rollout culminated in full company-wide adoption within eight weeks of the initial implementation. The rapid yet controlled deployment underscored the platform’s intuitive design and the effectiveness of LandCare’s internal project management, laying a solid foundation for its future impact on the company’s hiring landscape.
Unveiling Impact: Enhanced Visibility and Credibility
One of the most significant, and somewhat unexpected, outcomes of Workable’s implementation was the profound clarity it brought to the business regarding the scope and complexity of talent acquisition efforts. By providing hiring managers with direct access to the platform, they gained unprecedented visibility into their own job pipelines, allowing them to witness firsthand the extensive effort invested in every single hire. This transparency proved to be a game-changer for the TA team’s internal standing.
A compelling example involved LandCare’s marketing director, who, after posting a graphic designer role, received an overwhelming 2,000 applications in a single month. Prior to Workable, the sheer volume of this initial influx, and the subsequent meticulous filtering process, would have remained largely invisible to the hiring manager. With Workable, the marketing director could now track the entire journey: "For her to understand that yes, you may only be seeing five candidates you like to talk to, but this is the level of effort that went into it. Out of 400 candidates, we disqualified 350, scheduled calls with 50, only 30 showed up, we liked 15 of those, 10 made it through the behavioral assessment, and those are your top five," Alex Kline recounted. This detailed insight fundamentally altered her understanding of the TA team’s work.
This newfound transparency had a cascading positive effect. It not only fostered a deeper appreciation for the TA team’s expertise and dedication but also significantly strengthened relationships between TA and the various departments they serve. By demystifying the recruitment process and illustrating the rigorous vetting involved, Workable effectively elevated the function’s credibility with leadership, earning the TA team "a lot of street credit in the business." This shift from a perceived administrative function to a strategic partner capable of demonstrating tangible, data-backed value represents a crucial evolution for LandCare’s talent acquisition department.
Tangible Metrics: Measuring Success in Hiring Growth and Efficiency
The implementation of Workable in the fall of 2023 marked a definitive turning point for LandCare’s hiring operations, with the impact on recruitment metrics becoming immediate and progressively compounding year over year. A direct comparison of hiring volume for four core branch-level positions illustrates this dramatic improvement. In 2023, the last full year under the legacy UKG system, LandCare successfully hired 122 individuals for these roles. Following Workable’s deployment, this number surged to 136 hires in 2024 and further increased to 138 in 2025. This sustained growth in hiring volume underscores Workable’s capacity to facilitate greater talent acquisition at a national scale, directly supporting LandCare’s operational expansion and staffing needs.
Equally critical was the improvement in efficiency. The time to hire, a crucial metric reflecting recruitment agility, moved in the opposite direction. From 2024 to 2025, LandCare experienced a remarkable 23% decrease in its average time to hire. This significant reduction means that not only was the company able to bring in more talent, but it did so substantially faster, without compromising the quality of candidates reaching hiring managers. This dual achievement—increased volume and accelerated speed—is a testament to the streamlined workflows and enhanced collaboration enabled by the new ATS.
Furthermore, LandCare has observed an improvement in employee turnover rates since the implementation. While Alex Kline prudently noted that turnover reduction is often attributable to a confluence of factors, he acknowledged that Workable’s contributions were undeniable. The ability to move candidates through the pipeline more swiftly, reach a broader pool of talent, and provide hiring managers with genuine, real-time visibility into their recruitment efforts has collectively contributed to better hire quality. When hiring managers are more engaged, better informed, and can make faster decisions, it naturally leads to more suitable placements and, consequently, stronger retention outcomes across the organization. This holistic improvement demonstrates how an effective talent acquisition system can positively influence broader human resources objectives.
Operational Transformations: Streamlined Processes and Field-Centric Tools
The adoption of Workable has ushered in a new era of operational efficiency and strategic advantage for LandCare, particularly through its streamlined processes and innovative field-centric tools.
One Click, 15 Job Boards
Perhaps one of the most impactful operational shifts has been in job posting. The antiquated UKG plugin confined job roles almost exclusively to LandCare’s internal careers page, necessitating tedious, separate manual posts to every other external platform, such as LinkedIn and Indeed. Workable has revolutionized this, allowing LandCare to distribute job postings to over 15 leading job boards with a single click. While LinkedIn and Indeed remain primary sources for candidates, this broader distribution carries a significant brand awareness benefit that Alex Kline values beyond mere application numbers. "Just having your brand out there in all the different areas ultimately drives applicants to you in other ways as well," Kline explained. This expanded reach not only increases the volume of potential candidates but also strategically enhances LandCare’s employer brand visibility across the talent market, a critical factor in a competitive industry.
The Mobile App: Essential for the Field
For an organization like LandCare, where hiring managers are frequently on job sites, in company vehicles, or otherwise away from a traditional desk environment, the Workable mobile app has proven indispensable. It serves as the primary interface for many field-based managers, enabling real-time decision-making that was previously impossible. When a candidate progresses to a new stage in the workflow, the hiring manager receives an immediate notification on their phone. They can then click directly into Workable, review resumes, provide feedback, and signal approval or pass on a candidate instantly, all without requiring a laptop or returning to an office. This eliminates delays and empowers managers to act decisively. Alex Kline himself utilizes the mobile app daily, regularly approving offer letters from his phone. He highlighted its profound impact, stating, "That is probably one of the biggest highlights of the system. Our hiring managers – that’s all they use." This mobile-first approach is crucial for bridging the gap between corporate HR functions and the realities of a field-based workforce.
Reporting That Travels: Beyond Native Dashboards
LandCare leverages Workable’s reporting capabilities in a sophisticated, dual-pronged manner. For immediate operational insights, the team relies on Workable’s built-in reporting features, which provide a quick pulse on key recruiting performance indicators such as hiring velocity and time to hire. These native reports offer invaluable day-to-day visibility. However, for more in-depth strategic analysis and custom reporting, LandCare takes advantage of Workable’s robust data integration capabilities. The team pulls Workable’s raw data directly into Power BI, enabling them to run highly customized reports through their internal data warehouse. This flexibility allows for a granular analysis that supports strategic decision-making beyond what standard dashboards can offer. Kline noted, "It’s easy to communicate with the internal mainframe of Workable. We’re able to pull that data into Power BI and run very custom reports." This adaptability, combining native ease-of-use with advanced external analytics, perfectly reflects why Workable was the right fit for LandCare’s complex model.
Enhanced Candidate Experience: Self-Scheduling and Custom Questions
Workable has also significantly improved the candidate experience and internal screening efficiency through features like self-scheduling links and custom application questions. Self-scheduling links are consistently praised, receiving positive feedback directly from candidates. The ability to receive a stage-advancement email and immediately book a Teams interview without the typical back-and-forth communication has meaningfully streamlined the process and enhanced candidate satisfaction. This efficiency benefits both parties, reducing administrative burden for recruiters and providing a smoother, more professional experience for applicants.
Custom application questions add a crucial layer of precision to the screening process, especially vital at LandCare’s scale. These questions are utilized to gather specific, actionable data, such as sourcing attribution from LinkedIn messaging campaigns, which helps the TA team understand the effectiveness of different outreach efforts. Additionally, for intern candidates, custom questions allow them to indicate their preferred region of the country. This practical information helps to accurately route and prioritize candidates without adding manual steps for recruiters or branch managers, ensuring that talent is directed to the most appropriate opportunities efficiently.
Broader Implications and Industry Resonance
LandCare’s journey from a manual, limited recruitment system to a nationally coordinated, data-driven talent acquisition function with Workable offers a compelling case study for the commercial landscape industry and other distributed, field-based organizations. The success story underscores the critical need for user-friendly, mobile-optimized technology that genuinely engages hiring managers, particularly those who operate outside traditional office environments.
The competitive advantage gained by LandCare is clear: the ability to engage field managers with minimal training transforms recruitment from a bureaucratic hurdle into an integrated, collaborative process. This shift has not only streamlined operations but also significantly elevated the strategic influence of the TA team. LandCare can now demonstrate its impact with hard data, move candidates faster through pipelines, and broaden its talent reach across more than 15 platforms with a single click.
The numbers unequivocally tell a story of profound transformation: a 23% faster time to hire, 138 hires across four core branch positions in a single year, and a talent acquisition team that has earned unprecedented credibility with leadership because the platform made their extensive and vital work transparent and visible. LandCare’s experience with Workable resonates with broader trends in talent acquisition, emphasizing the increasing importance of technology that supports agility, data-informed decision-making, and seamless integration for a diverse and mobile workforce. Without question, LandCare would recommend Workable, having experienced firsthand its transformative power in shaping a more efficient, effective, and strategically aligned talent acquisition future.
