Ryan Englin on Teamwork - A Better Way: Hire Better People Faster

I sat down with Christian Napier and Spencer Horn on Teamwork A Better Way to talk about why the trades are still struggling to find people. And why the answer has nothing to do with AI, recessions, or waiting for the labor market to flip.

Here is the reality. People have more options today than at any point in history. The gig economy, online businesses, delivery apps. The barriers to starting something on your own are basically zero. And when people have options, they choose the ones where they don't have to deal with what they've been putting up with. It's not that people don't want to work. People don't want to work for you. That's a hard sentence to hear. And it is fixable.

The conversation started with a question about whether AI and an economic downturn will solve hiring problems for trade contractors. My answer is simple. No. Even when the economy turns, industries that have had labor shortages for the last decade will still have labor shortages. Because the problem was never the economy. The problem is that these companies aren't attractive to the people they want to hire.

Spencer shared a story about a landscaping business owner named Patrick who speaks Spanish, connects personally with every worker, and genuinely cares about his team. His employees say working for him is unlike anything they've experienced. That's the point. It's not about having the fanciest trucks or the highest pay. It's about human connection. It's about giving people a place where they feel like they belong.

We talked about how employers have forgotten that people work to live, not the other way around. When you ask someone to leave their friends, their family, and the things they do for fun for 40 or 50 hours a week, you need to provide connection, belonging, and something worth showing up for. If you don't, someone else will. And your people will leave.

I walked through the Core Fit Hiring System and how it came together. It started when an HVAC contractor in Phoenix told me to stop sending leads because he had no techs to run them. Four trucks sitting empty in the yard. We applied marketing principles to their recruiting and filled those trucks in three weeks. That experience changed everything for me.

The system has seven components. Core is your employer brand. Your values, vision, purpose. What makes you attractive. Find is knowing who you want. Not just a job description, but the behaviors, goals, and traits of the right person. Automate is building the systems that filter and sort so you're not drowning in 400 applications. Interview is where we spend real time with candidates. Not 30 minutes checking boxes. Real conversations about who they are and where they want to go.

I told Christian and Spencer that our interview process is the single most disruptive piece of what we teach. People don't leave jobs. They leave people. If that's true, then the interview needs to present you as someone worth working for. Not just a company with an open position. Stop running through a checklist asking if they can do this and do that. Start sitting down and having a conversation about the journey you're going on together.

I used the Jim Collins bus analogy. Collins talks about getting the right people on the bus. Last time I checked there were 50 more seats on that bus. And if the people you attract get on and realize the bus isn't going where they want to go, they get off. Have those conversations before you make the offer. Not after.

Spencer brought up the Zappos story where the HR person drives the airport shuttle and watches how candidates treat each other. Same principle. The first interview is the best version of that person you will ever see. If you spend 15 minutes with someone and think "where have you been my whole life," you didn't interview anyone. You fell in love with a dating profile.

We also covered the retention side. Onboarding is not systems training. It's not compliance. It's building and re-energizing the relationship. Our 2412 Launch is a 90-day onboarding program. And onboarding doesn't stop at 90 days. The person you onboarded two years ago is working inside a company that has changed. If you're not constantly re-onboarding, you're losing people.

I talked about the Growth Accelerator Program. It's a three-year program designed to help employees get from where they are to where they want to be personally. Not professionally. Personally. What are their life goals? Do they want to buy a house? Start a nonprofit? Invest in that, and watch how much they invest back in you.

Christian asked about reconciling the cost of hiring the right people when budgets feel tight. My answer is straightforward. If you're hiring the right people, there's a return on investment. If someone you pay $50,000 generates $300,000 in value, there's room to share in that win. The right people want to know they're sharing in the win. Just because you can't hit the base salary doesn't mean you can't afford the right person.

The book is Hire Better People Faster. It breaks down all seven components with tactical, how-to instruction. Read it with a marketing lens. The people who embrace recruiting as a marketing activity are the ones who get unbelievable results.

If you liked this conversation, I go deeper on all of these topics on Titans of the Trades.