Ryan Englin on The Site Shed: Creating a Recruiting Engine

I sat down with Matt Jones on The Site Shed to walk through the seven stages of building a recruiting engine for trade contractors.

This was the second episode in a creative recruiting series Matt and I did together, and we got granular. We didn't stay at 30,000 feet. We walked through the entire Core Fit Hiring System from start to finish, and I want to lay out the key pieces here.

Everything starts with Core. If you want to attract good people, you first have to become attractive to good people. That means getting crystal clear on your vision and your values. Not the cookie-cutter stuff people pull off a Google search. Not "honesty" and "integrity." Those are permission to play values. You don't get a seat at the table without those. They're not differentiators.

I told Matt that when business owners say "I can't find good people," what they're really saying is two things. I can't find people who value what I value. And I can't find people who care like I care. That is a values and vision problem. And it is fixable.

We spend eight of our twelve program weeks on Core alone because it's the hardest part. Most owners have never been challenged on their values. I've had clients tell me they hated me for eight weeks during that process. Then they say it was the most worthwhile work they've ever done.

From Core we move into Find. This is where we build what I call a Core Fit Profile, which is an employee persona built entirely on behaviors and traits. Not demographics. You can't legally hire based on age, gender, zip code, or family status. So we focus on observable behaviors. How does this person exemplify your core values? What does your best employee actually do that makes them your best employee? We run behavioral assessments on that person and build the marketing plan around cloning them.

Then we move into Automate. When you do the marketing right, you will 10x your applicants. You don't have 10x the time to manage them. That's where an applicant tracking system comes in. It posts to thousands of job boards simultaneously. It screens and fast-tracks high-quality candidates based on criteria you set. It disqualifies people who don't meet your non-negotiables. This is not optional. This is infrastructure.

Next is Hire. And an interview is not 15 minutes. I had a client whose entire hiring process was: if they show up for the interview, that's 90 percent. If they can catch the keys to the truck, that's the other 10. They were not kidding.

Our four-stage interview process is built around behavioral observation, not rehearsed answers. We test for behavior, not just skills. Do you care? Do you give a damn? What are you going to do when someone pisses you off? We put candidates through real scenarios because faking a process is harder than faking an answer.

Inside of Hire we also teach the pullback offer. Before the offer gets signed, you pull it back and have an open, honest conversation about expectations. This is the number one thing that prevents bad hires. I told Matt about an exit interview I did where a great employee left after 18 months. The reason? The company promised quarterly evaluations. They never delivered a single one. Six quarters of waiting. That employee quit in their heart long before they gave notice.

If someone leaves in the first 90 days, it's a hiring issue. After 90 days, it's a leadership or culture issue. That's where we draw the line.

Then comes Onboard. We teach the 2412 Launch. First two weeks: zero percent accountability to work output. You pour into them. You mentor them. You teach them how to think like you think. Weeks one through four: introduce processes and systems. Weeks one through twelve: prepare them to own those processes independently. The checklist is employee-led, not manager-led. Almost everything we do in onboarding and engagement is employee-led.

After Onboard comes Engage. The simplest way to keep people engaged long term is to have a one-on-one conversation at 90 days and ask one question: what do you want to do with your life? Not what do you want to do for me. What do you want to do with your life. You want to start a nonprofit? Let me help you. Study after study shows that employers who invest in people personally see higher engagement, higher retention, and more profitability. It doesn't cost extra money to have that conversation.

Finally, Assess. If you're not measuring the system, it's just talk. When you follow the process and set proper expectations, people stick around. When you skip steps because you're in a hurry, people leave. You need the data to prove that to yourself over and over.

That's the full system. Core. Find. Automate. Hire. Onboard. Engage. Assess. Every piece connects back to Core because the core is the gear that drives everything else.

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