How to Recruit Workers in Rural Areas: 7 Strategies for Employers

Recruiting workers is difficult for many employers. Recruiting workers when your business is located in a rural area can be significantly harder.

Manufacturing plants, construction companies, hospitality businesses, agricultural operations, landscaping companies, and other employers outside major population centers often face the same challenge: there simply aren't enough qualified workers within commuting distance of the job.

Employers respond by increasing wages, posting more jobs online, offering referral bonuses, attending job fairs, or switching recruiting agencies. Those strategies can help, but they don't solve the underlying problem when the local labor pool itself is too small.

If your company has struggled to hire workers locally, it may be time to stop competing for the same limited group of candidates and expand where you recruit.

Recruiting workers in rural areas often requires employers to look beyond their local labor market. Companies can expand their recruiting geography, offer relocation assistance, and recruit workers from other U.S. locations, including Puerto Rico, where workers are U.S. citizens and do not require a work visa to accept employment on the U.S. mainland.

Why Is It So Hard to Recruit Workers in Rural Areas?

A rural labor shortage is fundamentally different from a normal recruiting problem.

In a large metropolitan area, an employer may have hundreds of thousands—or millions—of people living within commuting distance. Rural employers may have only a fraction of that population available.

Rural labor shortages can be especially challenging for employers hiring for roles such as:

• Manufacturing and production

• Machine operation

• Assembly

• Warehousing and logistics

• Construction and skilled trades

• Landscaping

• Hospitality

• Food production

• Maintenance

• Second and third shifts

You may have good wages, benefits, and a strong company culture and still struggle to fill positions.

You can't recruit workers who aren't there.

That is why rural employers often need to think beyond traditional local recruiting.

1. Determine Whether You Have a Recruiting Problem or a Labor-Pool Problem

Before spending more money on job advertisements or another recruiting agency, ask a simple question:

Are enough qualified and interested workers actually living within commuting distance of your business?

Look at your recent recruiting results.

• Are you receiving very few qualified applicants?

• Are the same candidates circulating between several local employers?

• Are workers repeatedly leaving for another employer offering slightly higher wages?

• Are second and third shifts especially difficult to fill?

• Have positions remained open despite months of advertising?

If the answer to several of these questions is yes, the problem may not be your recruiting process. Your local labor market may simply be exhausted.

At that point, posting the same job on another website isn't likely to fundamentally change the result.

You need to expand the geography of your recruiting.

2. Recruit Outside Your Local Market

Companies routinely recruit executives, engineers, nurses, and other professionals nationally.

There is no reason employers can't take a similar approach to recruiting hourly workers.

Instead of limiting your search to candidates who already live 20 or 30 miles from your facility, consider recruiting workers from areas with a larger available workforce and helping successful candidates relocate.

This changes the recruiting question from:

"Who can we find near our facility?"

to:

"Where can we find qualified people willing to relocate for a good opportunity?"

That is a much larger labor pool.

3. Recruit Workers From Puerto Rico to Expand Your Labor Pool

One option that many mainland employers overlook is recruiting workers from Puerto Rico.

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, which means they do not need an H-2B visa or other work visa to accept employment on the U.S. mainland.

For employers struggling with rural labor shortages, Puerto Rico can provide access to candidates interested in relocating for the right opportunity.

Employers may be able to recruit candidates for positions including:

• Production workers

• Assembly workers

• Machine operators

• CNC operators

• Forklift operators

• Warehouse workers

• Construction workers

• Landscapers

• Hospitality employees

• Maintenance workers

• Skilled trades

For companies specifically struggling to fill production positions, Isla Talent also provides manufacturing recruitment services connecting mainland employers with workers from Puerto Rico.

The key is not simply finding candidates.

It is building a recruiting and relocation process that gives those candidates a realistic opportunity to succeed after arriving.

4. Make Relocation Part of Your Recruiting Strategy

If you recruit outside your region, relocation cannot be an afterthought.

A worker may be interested in your job but still have several major questions:

• Where will I live?

• How will I get to work?

• How much will moving cost?

• When will I receive my first paycheck?

• What happens when I arrive?

This is especially important in rural communities where public transportation may be limited and rental housing may be difficult to find.

Employers that successfully recruit workers from outside their local market should think through:

Housing: Identify affordable housing before workers arrive.

Transportation: Determine how employees will reliably get to and from work.

Travel: Decide whether your company will pay for or assist with initial transportation to the job location.

Onboarding: Have a clear plan for workers' first several days.

Community integration: Help employees understand where to find groceries, banking, healthcare, recreation, and other necessities.

The goal isn't simply getting someone to accept the job.

The goal is helping that person build a life that makes staying at the job realistic.

5. Sell the Opportunity, Not Just the Job

Rural employers sometimes assume their location is automatically a disadvantage.

It doesn't have to be.

For the right candidate, rural communities can offer benefits that major cities cannot:

• Lower cost of living

• Affordable housing

• Less traffic

• Short commutes

• Outdoor recreation

• Safer or quieter communities

• Opportunities for overtime

• Stable, long-term employment

• Career advancement

If you're asking someone to relocate hundreds or thousands of miles, a job description alone isn't enough.

Show candidates what their life could look like.

Include information about the community, housing costs, overtime opportunities, benefits, career advancement, and what employees enjoy about living there.

You aren't just recruiting someone for a position.

You're recruiting them to a community.

6. Pay Attention to Retention

Relocation recruiting only works if employees stay.

That makes retention especially important during the first 30, 60, and 90 days.

Check in with relocated employees regularly.

• Are they comfortable with their housing?

• Is transportation working?

• Are they receiving the hours they expected?

• Do they understand workplace expectations?

• Are supervisors communicating effectively?

• Are there issues outside work that could cause them to leave?

Small problems can quickly become major retention problems when an employee is living far from home.

Companies that actively support relocated employees during the first few months can give themselves a much better chance of building a stable workforce.

Employers can also learn more about what helps relocated workers stay long term when developing their onboarding and retention strategy.

7. Stop Repeating a Local Recruiting Strategy That Isn't Working

One of the biggest mistakes employers make is continuing to invest in the same local recruiting strategy after the local labor pool has been exhausted.

A company has 20 open positions. It posts them locally but doesn't get enough qualified applicants.

It increases the advertising budget. The positions remain open.

It hires another local recruiting company. The same candidates apply.

Eventually wages increase, overtime increases, supervisors become frustrated, production suffers, and existing employees become burned out.

At some point, employers have to recognize that the issue may not be recruiting.

It may be geography.

If your company needs 30 workers and there are only 10 realistic candidates available in your local market, another job advertisement isn't going to create the other 20 people.

Expanding your recruiting geography can.

Recruiting From Puerto Rico With Isla Talent

At Isla Talent, we help mainland U.S. employers recruit and relocate workers from Puerto Rico for direct-hire positions.

We work with companies in manufacturing, construction, landscaping, hospitality, and other industries that have struggled to find enough dependable workers in their local markets.

Our team recruits candidates directly in Puerto Rico, screens them based on each employer's requirements, coordinates interviews, and helps employers plan the relocation process.

Because Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, employers can recruit from Puerto Rico without relying on the H-2B visa lottery or waiting for a temporary foreign-worker visa.

Employers considering both approaches can learn more about recruiting from Puerto Rico vs. the H-2B visa program.

For companies located in rural or labor-constrained markets, recruiting from Puerto Rico creates another option when the local workforce simply isn't large enough.

Is Recruiting From Outside Your Local Market Right for Your Business?

If you've been struggling to fill the same positions month after month, ask yourself:

Do we actually have a recruiting problem—or have we run out of people to recruit locally?

If your local labor pool is the problem, expanding your recruiting geography may be one of the most effective ways to build the workforce your company needs.

And Puerto Rico may be one of the best places to start.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can companies recruit workers in rural areas?

Rural employers can expand their recruiting geography instead of relying exclusively on candidates who already live within commuting distance. Recruiting workers who are willing to relocate, providing relocation assistance, and promoting the advantages of the local community can significantly expand the available labor pool.

Where can employers find workers willing to relocate?

Employers can recruit nationally and target regions where qualified workers may be interested in relocating for stable employment, competitive pay, overtime, affordable housing, and career opportunities. Puerto Rico is another potential recruiting market for mainland U.S. employers.

Can U.S. companies recruit workers from Puerto Rico?

Yes. Mainland U.S. companies can recruit employees from Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and can accept employment on the U.S. mainland without requiring employer-sponsored work authorization.

Do workers from Puerto Rico need an H-2B visa?

No. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and therefore do not need an H-2B visa to work on the U.S. mainland. This makes recruiting from Puerto Rico a different workforce strategy from hiring temporary foreign workers through the H-2B program.

How can employers successfully relocate workers to rural areas?

Successful relocation starts with addressing housing, transportation, initial travel, onboarding, workplace expectations, and community integration before the employee arrives. Employers should also maintain regular communication during the employee's first 30, 60, and 90 days.

Struggling to Recruit Workers in Your Local Market?

Isla Talent helps U.S. employers recruit and relocate qualified workers from Puerto Rico for direct-hire positions.

If your company is struggling to fill manufacturing, construction, landscaping, hospitality, or other essential roles, contact Isla Talent to discuss your hiring needs and determine whether recruiting from Puerto Rico is right for your business.