Ryan Englin on Service MVP Sales Training Podcast: The Core of Hiring Success

I sat down with Joe Crisara on the Service MVP Sales Training Podcast to talk about why most contractors don't have a hiring problem. They have a retention problem disguised as a hiring problem.

Joe and I got into it right away. He asked what the biggest mistakes contractors make when recruiting, and I gave him the honest answer. The number one mistake is reactive hiring. A tech quits, the owner panics, digs up whatever job ad they used two years ago, Googles some tips, and takes whoever shows up. That reactivity kills them because they never have time to slow down and make sure they're bringing on the right person.

The other issue is that most contractors just don't like this part of the business. They want to fix things. They want to build things. They don't want to sit in an office sorting through applications. So they ignore it or assume they'll figure it out like they always have. And it costs them.

We talked about the mindset shift that changes everything. Recruiting is a marketing activity. The same principles you use to attract customers work for attracting employees. Define who you're looking for. Build a message that speaks to them. Put it where they'll see it. Most contractors have zero marketing aimed at potential employees. Their careers page is an afterthought. A tiny blurb buried at the bottom of their website. If it exists at all.

I challenged Joe's audience to think about employee testimonials. Almost every contractor has customer testimonials. How many have employee testimonials? That's one of the easiest ways for a candidate to understand what it's like to work at your company. And if you're nervous about what your people would say, that tells you something important about where your culture actually stands.

Joe brought up a great point about owners rolling out the red carpet for new hires while neglecting the people who built the company. Here's the truth. Most contractors I see don't even celebrate the new people. They skip that too. And that's where the real conversation starts. Onboarding is not an event with a start and a stop. It's a process. You need to be re-onboarding your people all the time. Your company changes. Your people change. If you're not re-engaging them on a regular interval, they drift. They disengage. And eventually they leave.

I told Joe the story I tell everyone. Go ask your accountant how many W2s you issued last year. Then compare that to the number of people on your team right now. The gap between those two numbers is your real problem. That's the W2 test, and it reframes everything. You don't have a hiring issue. You have a keeping-people issue.

When people leave, nine times out of ten it's a culture issue. A leadership issue. A communications issue. I know that's hard for owners to hear because they want to believe they're running a great operation. But if your people are walking out the door, it's time to look in the mirror.

We also talked about the idea that employees sacrifice three things to come work for you. Family, friends, and fun. If you can replicate any of those at the workplace, people start to feel like they belong. When a coworker calls and says "You missed it today, we had a blast on that job," that's when your people start fighting to show up. But that doesn't happen by accident. You have to be intentional about creating it.

Joe wanted to know about the interview process, so I walked him through how we approach it. We use an applicant tracking system to automate the screening so the owner isn't buried in 300 applications. The system handles the first pass. Automated questions. Integrity assessments. Behavioral assessments. Calendly links for scheduling. All of it runs without the owner chasing anyone.

Then I broke down the two parts of the interview. Culture fit and position fit. Culture fit is whether this person aligns with who you are as an organization. Position fit is the skill set. The wrench-turning. When most contractors tell me they can't find anyone good, what they really mean is they can't find anyone who fits their culture.

I don't love asking questions in interviews. I love processes. I tell candidates "early is on time and on time is late" and schedule the interview for 7:30. First question on the scorecard: did they show up early? I tell them to show up dressed and ready to work. Do they have boots on? PPE? Faking a process is harder than faking an answer. That's the whole point.

We closed with the alignment offer concept. Before the offer letter gets signed, you sit down and talk through every expectation that will create friction. I compared it to moving in with my wife and learning there's a right way to fold towels. None of it is a dealbreaker on its own. But unspoken expectations create death by a thousand paper cuts. Imagine sitting in the driveway before you move in and getting all of it out on the table. That's what the expectations meeting does for a new hire.

If you liked this conversation, I go deeper on every piece of this system on Titans of the Trades.