In the conversation
Ryan Englin on Trades Talk: Hire Better People Faster
Key takeaways
- Most companies never define what "better" means before they hire. They say they want better people but never write down the behaviors, soft skills, and intangibles that actually matter. Define better first. Everything else follows.
- Your job ad reads like a window sticker on a $150,000 Corvette. It lists features and pay. Chevy would never run that as a Super Bowl commercial. People switch jobs for emotional reasons. Sell the experience of working for your team, not a bulleted list of requirements.
- Two out of three applicants never hear back from an employer. We taught this generation it is okay to ghost, and then we complain when they ghost us. If you want people to put in effort, put in effort first.
- If you want candidates to show up authentic in the interview, you have to be authentic first. Companies hide their worst employee and clean up the office before interviews, then get angry when the new hire is nothing like the person they interviewed.
- The labor shortage is a myth. There are plenty of people willing to do these jobs. The problem is they do not want to do them for you. Pencil-whipping your hiring process and burning people out creates the turnover you keep blaming on the workforce.
- Stop casting a wide net. Find your tribe. Attract people who align with your values, your destination, and your purpose. The riches are in the niches, and that applies to recruiting just as much as it does to serving customers.
I went on Trades Talk with Justin White and Maggie to unpack the ideas behind my book and the Core Fit Hiring System that drives everything we do at Core Matters.
We started where I always start. The origin story. My dad was an owner-operator who believed going out on his own would give him more money, more time, more freedom. It gave him 12-hour days and weekends at the shop. I told him at graduation I wasn't joining the family business. Went corporate. Learned how businesses actually grow. Then started a marketing company to help contractors like him get more customers. That's when I discovered the real problem wasn't more customers. It was more good people.
I told the story of my HVAC client in Phoenix. July. 120 degrees. They were booking AC repairs three weeks out because four trucks sat empty in the yard with no techs. I applied marketing principles to their recruiting. Three weeks later they filled all four trucks and ordered two more. That moment changed my entire career. Recruiting is a marketing activity. Period.
Justin asked about forecasting hires, especially for seasonal companies. My answer: before you assume you need more people, ask yourself if you have the right people. One good person can do the work of three not-good people. Be strategic about who you keep in the slow season and who you let go. Seniority alone isn't the answer. Technical skill and leadership matter.
Then we got into the meat of it. The Core Fit Profile and what "better" actually means. Most owners tell me they want people who show up on time, have a strong work ethic, take care of the customer, and clean up the job site. That's all intangible. All soft skills. All behavioral. And most companies have never written it down. The reason they haven't is because they haven't defined what their company believes, what it stands for, what it values. That's the Core. Behaviors, destination, and purpose.
I broke down the three parts of a core vision. First, acceptable behaviors. Some call them core values. I believe a core value is a verb. Something you can see. Something people take action on. Integrity? Show me integrity. You can't. You have to define it further.
Second, the destination. Where is the bus going? Jim Collins says get the right people on the bus. I take it further. Once you know where the bus is going, you still have an empty bus. Fill it with employees who are so excited about the destination that when the bus breaks down, they don't get off. They get out and help push.
Third, purpose. The modern workforce wants to know they get out of bed and make an impact. Impact on their community, their family, their team. That's the why.
Here's the part that matters for applicant flow. People don't leave jobs. They leave people. Yet 99 out of 100 job ads say nothing about who you'll work for. They read like a window sticker on a $150,000 Corvette. A bulleted list of features and a price tag. Chevy would never run a window sticker as a Super Bowl commercial. They sell the lifestyle. The emotion. The status. Recruiting is the same exercise. If we believe people switch jobs for other people, we need to show them why we're better people to work for.
Maggie asked about getting candidates to be authentic in interviews. This is my favorite part. The interview process is where everything comes together. I shared two questions I love. First: "What are you obsessed with?" I don't care about the answer. I want to see the passion. Second: "What is something most people get wrong about you?" That one opens doors. And here's the rule. Any question you ask a candidate, be prepared to answer it yourself first. Go there before they do. Set the ceiling of vulnerability. When you're authentic, they'll be authentic. When you hide Jimmy in the back and clean up the office before the interview, you lose the right to complain when they put on a mask too.
We talked about the generational shift. The trades didn't stop being cool. They just didn't keep up with the cool factor that knowledge work created. Boomer parents told their kids to get degrees and work for Facebook or Google. Now here we are. 46% of Americans get college degrees. Why are we fighting for that 46% when 54% didn't choose college and nobody is talking to them?
Justin asked about exit interviews. My take: don't do them unless you plan to act on what you hear. If you're thick-skinned enough to listen and actually change something, they're gold. If you're going to justify and rationalize, save everyone's time.
We wrapped with my trade secret. Stop worrying about being everything to everyone. Find your tribe. Attract them. The riches are in the niches. That applies to your customers and your people.
If you liked this conversation, I go deeper on all of these ideas on Titans of the Trades. Subscribe for more conversations like this.
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