Ryan Englin on Home Service Headquarters: Why Most Contractors Struggle to Hire and How to Fix It

I went on Home Service Headquarters with Jack Schnettler to talk about why most contractors struggle with hiring and what it actually takes to fix it.

We started where I always start. My story. I grew up watching my dad get consumed by his business. Six, seven days a week. Twelve, fourteen hour days. A brick phone in the 80s he thought was cool because it meant he was always reachable. I told myself I'd never do what he did. Went to college, spent a decade in banking and sales, then launched a marketing company to help people like my dad get more customers. Five years in, I realized the problem was never lead generation. Nobody had ever taught these owners how to hire, onboard, or keep people. That's when I pivoted Core Matters to focus entirely on the people side of the business. That was ten years ago.

Jack and I dug into the Core Fit Blueprint, the seven-phase system we walk every client through. I broke it down: from stopping the bleeding in phase one all the way to scaling with confidence in phase seven. The phases everyone wants are three and six. Phase three is organizational design, right people in the right seats, real job descriptions that empower instead of punish. Phase six is building your bench, a pipeline of pre-qualified candidates so you never scramble on job boards again. I told Jack about a remodeling contractor in Kansas City who stopped posting jobs entirely after building their bench. They have twelve people ready to go at any moment. No ads. No Indeed spend. No panic.

The phases nobody wants are one and two. Nobody wants to stop the bleeding. Nobody wants to look inward. Nobody wants to do the hard work of becoming an employer of choice. They want the benefit without the effort. That never works.

I shared our best success story. A construction client came to us needing to hire 50 people in 90 days. They were 140 employees and had been burning their team out for nine months on a marquee project. We helped them fill every seat. Eight years later, they do nearly the same revenue with 80 employees, went from 5-6% net margin to 18%, and had essentially zero turnover last year. The owner introduced me once by saying, "Everything Ryan teaches is counterintuitive and that's why it works."

I also shared the worst story. Four guys running a siding company. Most toxic leadership team I've ever seen. All high dominance. All wanted to crush each other. They wouldn't change. We walked away after three months. They're not in business anymore.

We spent real time on something I don't see enough people talk about: the cost of employee disengagement. Rework, safety issues, tardiness, sloppy job sites, water cooler talk. These are all symptoms. I did the math. Take your top-line revenue, multiply by 8.4%. That's what disengagement rips off your bottom line every year. A $10 million company loses $840,000. That's not a rounding error. That's real money. Jack shared his own story about an electrician who had to come back to fix work they didn't complete the first time. That callback didn't just cost the repair. It cost the new job that tech didn't get to take.

We talked about recruiting as a marketing activity. Most contractors build websites and ads that scream "we're available 24/7, emergency service, on call all the time." Homeowners love that. Job seekers read it and think, "I'm going to have no life." I walked Jack through the flip. What if your marketing highlighted how well you treat your people? Background checked techs. Elite training. Great trucks. Well-rested crews. That message attracts the homeowner and the tech. Same ad. Two audiences. Less spend. Higher conversions. It's a win across the board.

Jack asked about the biggest piece of advice I'd give any contractor. Here it is. Build a Core Fit Profile for your ideal employee. Write down every trait, behavior, skill, and background you want in your all-star hire. Then step back and ask yourself one question: are we the kind of company that could attract that person? If the answer is no, now you know exactly what to fix.

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