How HR Can Restore Interactive Communication
In this rapidly growing cannabis industry, dispensaries and their HR professionals are grappling with the unending quest for talent – but not just any talent. Quality standards must be met, and they demand candidates with excellent, targeted skills in the newly developing cannabis industry. Among the capabilities hardest to find interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate and collaborate effectively across all levels of the cannabis business.
That should not be hard to achieve when you are focused on assessing and developing self-awareness among employees as well as communication/verbal skills. This indicates that at a minimum, these ‘soft skills‘ are critical in today’s business world and represent capabilities that cannabis companies value at all levels.
There is a concern with the impact the digital age is having on new talent, many HR managers wonder if new recruits will communicate with fellow humans as well as they do with gadgets and devices. How will they handle conflict, influence others and manage others when they have learned much of it only through technology-based relationships? That is assuming, of course, that people actually work together in the future.
HR managers often take notice when an employee whose workspace is down the hall sends an email message on a vital issue instead of arranging to speak firsthand with someone from HR, a common experience at many firms that are losing the communications skill set because of the obsession with smartphones, texting, and email.
So what can HR do? After all, HR isn’t responsible for the widespread use of technology in companies. HR managers see their role as framers of policy and defenders who keep their organization out of legal trouble. But they also recognize a responsibility to oversee the talent pool.
Certainly, HR plays a key role in assessing the talent of a new generation of future leaders. In fact, many senior executives at cannabis companies large and small regard HR as central to these evaluations. But they also call upon HR to devise ideas on how to overcome any skill deficiencies in future and current talent.
A major concern is the Millennials and Generation Z who have been populating the workforce. HR is asking, ‘Do these future leaders, raised in a technology-based society, have the interpersonal skills to be future leaders? Do they value these skills?‘
Traditional Performance Reviews Not the Answer
One way to measure these skills is through regular performance reviews. But many HR managers will tell you that review forms have become outdated and generally do not adequately gauge interactive skills. Instead, they are recommending regular dialogue and feedback meetingswhere coaching and communication are stressed.
HR is huddling with company leaders to advise them on when and how to structure these vital sessions. This generation deeply values conversation with their leaders – they want to get to know their leaders. And even though they are digital, they value face-to-face communication, particularly around lots of feedback from their managers.
HR has a bigger role than ever in coaching and guiding the new generation of workers to become better leaders. HR needs to understand the employees’ career goals and ambitions. One of the informal functions of an HR professional is to advise senior managers and see to it that the ability to communicate is ingrained in the company’s culture.
to run a major project or launch a new product. Somehow, this major shortcoming was not uncovered until it was almost too late.
If the cannabis business as a whole and the executive team do not value these interpersonal skills or do not focus on them, the interaction will not happen. And they should be linked to the competencies required to fulfill the organization’s strategy. Indeed, communication and interaction are tied to the success of the company.
HR’s Leadership Role
To be effective in restoring interactive communication as a top skill set, HR must take a leadership role and assert itself to top management. Industry experts say that HR leaders must form partnerships with senior executives, including the CEO, to formulate plans that both see to the needs of current employees and make the company culture attractive to new employees, thanks to HR’s focus on communication.
Employees want to know about management policy, rumors they have heard. It is a way to gain insight on what the company and industry are doing, what I think about mega-mergers and how they affect our company, what’s on people’s minds.
Communication and working collaboratively with others are always high on the list of skills necessary to succeed, regardless of the cannabis industry job, and HR is at the forefront of the cannabis company’s communication efforts. The head of HR attends all division meetings and is involved in everything.
Many business observers continue to worry that effective and valuable face-to-face communication capabilities may be going the way of typewriters and fax machines. It’s HR’s special task to see to it that these skills not only do not disappear but are restored to their proper place in the organizational, human capital value chain.
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Compliance for Non-Cannabis Companies It is no secret that in the past few years, cannabis has emerged from hushed conversations among friends into boardrooms filled with savvy investors. Cannabis’s evolution from contraband to capital is, in large part, a result of comprehensive government regulations that have legalized medicinal and/or adult-use cannabis around the world.
Though ancillary companies generally are not required to adhere to all the same regulations cannabis licensees must observe, they should, nonetheless, ensure the cannabis businesses with which they work meticulously comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances. Because the cannabis industry is so highly regulated, working with non-compliant operators can lead to hefty fines and, in severe cases, company closures. Furthermore, cannabis-related revenues from non-compliant operators often intimidate banks and credit unions due to concerns they could be handling proceeds of illegal drug transactions. Working with compliant cannabis operators is a key way an ancillary company can demonstrate its cannabis-related revenues come solely from state-legal transactions. Thus, for ancillary companies, linking cannabis-related revenue to state-legal transactions is of paramount importance. Do Your Research Shaped by factors like time, money, and the type of goods or services provided, the level of due diligence used to evaluate potential and existing cannabis clients is an internal decision for every ancillary company. While comprehensive procedures may present slightly higher upfront expenditure of time and money, the long-term payoffs, including bankability for both the ancillary company and its cannabis clients, are priceless. The first step to ensuring a cannabis business’s compliance is verifying the business’s licensure status. It is highly inadvisable for an ancillary company to work with or provide services to an unlicensed cannabis business. Most states with a robust licensing framework publish lists of the state’s licensees online, making licensure verification quick and simple. Ancillary companies also can require cannabis businesses to provide copies of their business licenses and, when applicable, license renewals. A cannabis business’s refusal to cooperate with an ancillary company’s due diligence efforts, especially after receiving an explanation of the policies behind such efforts, is a red flag that should make an ancillary company reevaluate its relationship with the cannabis business. Ancillary companies regularly should reconfirm their cannabis clients’ licensure statuses and keep clear records of such reconfirmation. It is also prudent practice for an ancillary company to require its cannabis clients to immediately notify the company of any enforcement actions or changes to licensure status. Ancillary companies also should pay close attention to the owners of their cannabis clients. While every state has a slightly different definition of an owner for a cannabis licensee, the designation generally centers around an individual’s control over or position or equity interest in the licensed entity. Ancillary companies should collect basic identifying information about those listed as owners of a cannabis licensee and verify that such individuals:
It is also prudent practice for an ancillary company to require its cannabis clients to immediately notify the company of any owner arrests or convictions that may affect a cannabis client’s licensure status. Success in highly regulated industries like the cannabis industry also requires thorough operational and sales records, as the records greatly help to demonstrate a licensee is operating compliantly and its revenues are derived solely from state-legal transactions. Consequently, an ancillary company should ensure its cannabis clients keep meticulous records of every batch of cannabis or cannabis product they produce, as well as every business transaction in which they participate. It is also prudent for ancillary companies to require their cannabis clients to, upon request, provide access to certain categories of business records. One of the best ways an ancillary company can continuously verify its cannabis clients’ compliance is to require such clients to perform periodic compliance audits using a platform tailored to the cannabis industry. Ancillary companies should analyze the results of the audits to ensure their cannabis clients closely follow all applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances and correct any minor compliance issues. It is also prudent for ancillary companies to keep records of such audit results for all cannabis clients. The compliance measures suggested above are only one variation of the many available to companies that work with cannabis businesses.
While an ancillary company may implement measures that are more or less firm, ensuring the ongoing compliance of cannabis clients should be an ancillary company’s highest priority.
Writing a Resume for the Cannabis Industry
Knowledgeable and professional cannabis cultivators are highly pursued assets in the contemporary business world. For those growers ready to make the transition into the legitimate cannabis industry, a proper cultivation resume will be required.
Competency-Based Hiring and Recruiting
When crafting resumes designed for the open market, growers should focus on competency-based resume styles. Competencies should be thought of as specific skills and behaviors that contribute to success in the workplace. Competency-based resume writing focuses on skills and knowledge obtained through practical experience, rather than work history.
For a grower, a resume emphasizing competencies can translate the skill-sets of past experience growing cannabis underground into marketable assets. As an example, familiarity with regulating climatic fluctuations in a greenhouse environment would be considered an occupational competency.
Industry Experience
Constructing an informative cannabis cultivation resume is a different process than building the traditional resume. Because this is a novel job market, the majority of candidates will not have formal, commercial cannabis-growing work experience. As a result, during the hiring process, companies will be most attracted to candidates who can explain their cannabis industry knowledge effectively.
You should be as specific as possible in your resume to highlight applicable skill-sets for any given position. This is because, according to the competency-based model, potential employers are most interested in specific actions that candidates have taken in the past which are applicable to future occupations and endeavors.
For example, if an experienced greenhouse cultivator would like to move into a lead-grower position in a commercial greenhouse setting, in-depth knowledge concerning pest control will be an essential competency. Pest control in a cultivation setting requires the foresight to avoid potential problems, as well as the ability to effectively solve issues as they arise. Descriptions of competencies and abilities on a resume should always begin with verbs. To illustrate, the phrases “Advanced a deep appreciation for sterilization in a greenhouse environment” as well as “Eradicated or avoided harmful pests, mildews, and molds with organic sprays” market the pest management competency well by highlighting competencies through specific actions.
Clear and concise sentences starting action verbs tell a potential employer your exact competencies quickly. Finally, remember that a marijuana resume is the beginning of a relationship with a cannabis employer. Honesty and integrity in this document will lay the cornerstone of a successful career and listed below are three sections which are included in all resumes.
Skills and Capabilities
These skill-sets should be described under subheadings (included are sample descriptions):
Education and Training
The marijuana grower job market is competitive and college degrees of any form will definitely help candidates stand out in a prospect pool. When marketing education experience on a resume, again look to skill-sets in deciding what elements of one’s education are applicable for a specific position.
For example, the phrase “Used Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and MS Office” shows that a candidate is fluent in modern computer technology, an asset necessary in almost any professional capacity.
Professional History
Candidates for a growing position should include home-based cannabis growing employment on a resume. A proper description of this professional experience is ‘Medicinal Cannabis Cultivator: Entrepreneurial / Non-Profit (2011-Current).’ A tasteful description of this experience is “Produced exceptional organic cannabis for medical dispensaries in California.”
If one’s ‘real-world‘ professional history has nothing to do with the cannabis business, you can still utilize the competency-based model to isolate transferable skill-sets. This concept requires some creativity but can be rewarding. For example, if an applicant works as a line cook in a restaurant, they can exhibit their transferable aptitudes as ‘Perfected multi-tasking abilities‘ as well as ‘Expanded a ‘sense of urgency‘ in the workplace through high-pressure work scenarios.
Summary
As the cannabis industry continues to grow and evolve, the demands of marijuana careers continue to grow more sophisticated. With these changes, cannabis cultivation jobs require candidates who are not only ‘good with plants,’ but can also manage the in’s-and-out’s of a heavily-regulated industry. That being said, there is an undeniable need for those cannabis growers who can work and act professionally in the cannabis space. For those interested in transferring from a home-based grow to a commercial, licensed facility, the primary starting point is a marijuana resume. Once you put your resume together, you will have a far clearer understanding of where you may fit in this exciting new field. Educate Your Dispensary Customers Best Way to Educate Dispensary Customers
After all, the majority of current consumers and likely ones consider having staff with strong product knowledge one of the most critical features of cannabis dispensary. This may feel like a big ask, but it’s absolutely worth fulfilling if you are a dispensary. The reality is that every second a customer spends confused or asking staff repetitive questions is time, money and credibility lost. Moreover, as a dispensary owner, there are very valid concerns about the accuracy and consistency of the information being shared if/when answers are being given to these cannabis consumers. Your dispensary staff is human-beings, not robots – so, how can you ease the constant stress around what advice they are dolling out, without breaking your back…or the bank? The good news is it doesn’t have to be challenging, time-consuming or boring to provide this education. Retailers long ago discovered that properly trained employees not only educate consumers but transforms them into confident, repeat customers. A self-guided, educational exploration isn’t solely beneficial to novice employees, either. But for employees, consistent software updates incorporate the latest research into training, which means employees can stay current with new information. Additionally, both groups can appreciate a more engaging educational experience, in the employee lounge or when the dispensary is slow. With an eLearning solution, a dispensary is able to proactively train employees on what they want them to know now, and in the future. The direction and evolution of the cannabis industry will continue to trendtoward carefully considering compliance and regulation training, as well as the latest research of cannabis. The more educated an employee becomes about regulatory compliance, customer service, the variety of cannabis products and how those affect their body, etc the easier it becomes for customers to order. So, once employees are required to train on different topics, when they speak with consumers they become more educated and equipped with the information necessary to feel confident about their choices. Training Technology to Propel Cannabis Industry By providing up-to-date information and enhancing educational opportunities, dispensaries can engage directly with employee development, which allows them to customize their training experience and deliver better customer service. The current reality is that people have different preferences or might need more steps to understand what exactly it is that they want or need. This is where both education and customer service come together to provide a personalized experience for the consumer. Additionally, the effective interactive eLearning provides an intuitive user interface, remote management, and robust tracking abilities. It also enables cannabis businesses to gather valuable data so they can tailor employee training based on the unique needs, activities, and performance of the dispensary staff. Now armed with insight on who’s engaging with what content, a dispensary can ensure its efforts are entirely maximized as a result of these actionable insights. Analytics allow owners and staff to track feedback, understand their deficiencies, gauge knowledge-levels of the diverse staff and be strategic with their upcoming training plans.
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authorLilly, the gardener. Archives
September 2019
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