The fast-growing cannabis industry faces some very big challenges today.
Compliance, high-turnover rates, neglected company cultures, and the urgent need for qualified professionals to fill a wide range of potential roles – from CMOs and CFOs to agricultural specialists and chemists, etc.
Cannabis companies are struggling to find experienced, skilled talent – and they’re struggling to effectively train their people.
This is why Green Flower – the world’s leading cannabis education and training platform – is so excited to announce a new partnership with one of the top talent recruitment firms in the industry: CannabizTeam.
“We are thrilled to build this meaningful partnership with CannabizTeam, to bring trusted cannabis education and training to their job seekers and clients, and we are very excited that our students will have a trusted resource to help them gain employment and placement in the cannabis industry,” notes Green Flower founder and CEO Max Simon.
“With so many people looking to enter the cannabis industry today, and so many companies looking for the highest quality talent, this partnership will bring real value to everyone involved!”
Connecting the Right Talent with the Right Cannabis Companies
CannabizTeam founder and CEO Liesl Bernard brings more than 20 years of experience in global executive search and staffing to the cannabis space.
Bernard’s previous work and success with Fortune 500 companies help form the foundation on which CannabizTeam is thriving in the global market today – bringing a finely-tuned ability to understand the needs and cultures of each client and the best fit for every placement.
“It’s such a wonderful feeling when you make that connection for someone who felt like they were in a dead-end corporate career, and now they’re with a booming cannabis company where they can have a huge impact,” Bernard notes. “For a lot of people, that’s a new lease on life, and it’s really propelling companies to become successful very quickly when they get the right talent.”
Founded by Bernard in 2016, CannabizTeam works with hundreds of cannabis companies across all aspects of the industry, placing more than 1,000 people per year in the U.S. and now Europe.
With offices in San Diego, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, and hopefully London later this year, the three CannabizTeam recruiting lines include executive search, full-time employees, and the newly launched CannabizTemp, which specializes in hourly-paid temporary placements, including project-based or consulting talent.
“These cannabis companies are growing so fast and they need expertise and talent, people who have the ability to not only provide the technical experience and skills but who are also looking for an opportunity to nurture their entrepreneurial skills, which they never get to do in the corporate environment,” Bernard says.
The Secrets to Successful Cannabis Recruiting
Part of the big picture when recruiting for roles in cannabis, Bernard explains, is to also interview for emotional intelligence, adaptability, and entrepreneurial mindset versus just skill set and experience.
“With so many different obstacles that cannabis companies are facing, this could be a highly stressful environment for the wrong person – or it could be super exciting and challenging for the right person, and that’s part of what we do in finding people who can thrive in this industry,” Bernard notes.
And for the job candidates who do have the right traits, previous experience or training with cannabis is still quite often a rarity, she says.
“That’s why we’re so excited about this partnership with Green Flower in that we can now help candidates form that baseline education and have solid knowledge about the industry before we send them to an interview or help them start a career in the cannabis industry.”
Bernard explains that her team is constantly looking for people who understand compliance or who know how to cultivate. Using Green Flower certificate programs as a means to elevate baseline knowledge in these areas quickly and effectively is “fantastic,” she says.
“It’s also an opportunity for us to help people who want to transition into this industry. If they take the Cannabis Fundamentals Certificate Program, we can then place them a lot easier because we could tell our clients they’ve completed some level of cannabis industry education, and they’ve shown an interest in doing that.”
Bernard sees equal opportunity for her clients using Green Flower as well. “A lot of our clients would really like the enterprise offerings because that would allow them to elevate the baseline education for everyone on their team.”
Green Flower: Helping Professionals Succeed in Cannabis
The Green Flower team believes that trusted cannabis education is the key to empowering businesses, investors, advocates, researchers, and enthusiasts.
Since its creation in 2015, Green Flower has partnered with leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, and icons from around the industry to create e-learning content that helps people get more involved with cannabis, advance their careers, train their teams, and replace myths with facts.
Green Flower has helped companies of every size and millions of people learn more about cannabis – and is just getting started.
Whether you’re interested in growth and education for your team, growing your own career, cannabis medicine, starting a business, investing in the space, cultivation, changing outdated laws, or anything else cannabis-related, Green Flower can arm you with the education to make it happen.
Get the cannabis knowledge you need to succeed, wherever, whenever with Green Flower.
