Recruiting Process Steps
The recruiting process steps most home service owners skip are the ones that would have saved them the most money. I hear this from owners all the time who think they already know how to hire employees, but they are really just guessing. They post a job, get a few resumes, and hope for the best. That is exactly how one bad hire turns into six months of cleanup.
I sat down with Paul Sanneman, founder of Contractor Staffing Source, and loved hearing how his whole company started. He hired one person in his garage to help his coaching customers with recruiting. That one hire grew into a team of about 50 people who now place 15 to 20 hires a week and keep a 94 percent retention rate, almost double the industry average. In this episode, Paul walks through the exact steps his team follows for every hire, from the job ad to a full employee onboarding process, and why skipping even one of them is where most home service owners get into trouble.
What You’ll Learn
- Why most home service hiring problems trace back to skipped recruiting process steps
- How one bad hire can quietly cost you tens of thousands of dollars
- The hiring myth that keeps good owners stuck hiring fast and firing slow
- What most owners miss about responding to an applicant within a minute
- A background check question most owners forget to ask
- How to write a job ad that gets qualified applicants instead of duds
- What it actually takes to hit a 94 percent retention rate
- Why onboarding needs months, not days, if you want it to stick
Key Moments…
[2:52] The Employee Retention Rate Behind The System
[4:24] Hiring Myths That Keep Contractors Short Staffed
[7:34] Why It Takes Up To 300 Resumes To Find One Hire
[10:44] The Hire Fast, Fire Slow Trap
[14:11] Writing A Job Ad Using Real Recruiting Process Steps
[16:46] Why Responding In Real Time Wins The Best Applicants
[22:18] Why You Cannot Skip A Background Check
[24:30] Building A Six-Month Onboarding Plan With AI
[38:26] The HVAC Owner Who Sold To Private Equity And Regretted It
The Myths Keeping You Short Staffed
Paul told me the labor shortage in home services is mostly self-created. Most owners hire fast because they are desperate. Then they fire slowly because letting someone go feels harder than living with a bad hire. That pattern repeats itself over and over. It is one of the biggest reasons the same seat keeps opening back up.
He also pointed out that finding one great hire usually means going through 250 to 300 people. If your process cannot handle that kind of volume, you will always feel like good people do not exist. The real problem is usually the funnel, not the market.
The Real Recruiting Process Steps That Work
Paul walked me through the exact steps his team uses on every single hire. None of them are optional.
- Write a job ad that actually sells the job, not just the wage
- Post it everywhere and respond to applicants within minutes, not days
- Run a behavioral assessment and a skills test before you ever get on a call
- Do a video interview, then a live Zoom interview if things still look good
- Check references and run a background check before making an offer
Paul said skipping straight from a resume to an offer is how most bad hires happen in the first place
Why A Background Check Is Not Optional
Once someone makes it through the interviews, Paul still runs a background check and calls references before an offer goes out. For a lot of small crews, contractor recruiting comes down to whoever answers the phone first, and that is exactly the gap a background check protects.
That excitement to fill a seat is exactly what a bad hire counts on. A clean interview does not guarantee a clean history. A background check is one of the cheapest recruiting process steps you can take.
What Real Onboarding Actually Looks Like
Paul does not treat onboarding as a first-day event. For him, the employee hiring process does not end until someone is fully trained, which can take months. He now uses AI to help outline exactly what a new hire needs to learn along the way.
That structure is what turns a good hire into a long-term employee. Without it, even someone who was a great fit on paper can quietly decide within the first few weeks that the job was not what they expected.
One Piece Of Advice Worth More Than Any Hiring Tactic
Paul shared a story about an HVAC owner who sold his business to a private equity company and ended up moving away from his own town. His longtime customers kept reaching out about the service going downhill. He could not stand hearing it anymore.
That story is the risk every small business runs if it never nails down how to hire employees for a small business the right way, since the wrong people at the top eventually show up in the work itself. Paul said the mentor who taught him the most in his career used to tell him to work harder on himself than he worked on his business. That mentor has passed away, but Paul still repeats it to every owner he coaches. A business only grows as far as the person running it is willing to grow.
About Paul:
With over 40 years of experience, Paul has created several business coaching companies and consulted more than 400 construction companies. Contractor Staffing Source is the product of this experience and his most profound inspiration, as well as a solution to the most common issue his clients face; finding good people.
Paul’s dedication to working with residential contractors stems from his belief that they are the most exciting and ethical business owners. He is passionate about helping them build successful teams so they can make more money in less time and have more FUN.
Paul holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and a Master’s Degree in Education. He studied metaphysics as a post graduate and has facilitated and attended numerous seminars in personal growth and business success over the years. Check out Paul’s latest album with the Beach Road Band, Mostly for Kids.
Connect With Paul Sanneman:
Visit Paul’s Website
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Connect with Contractor Staffing Source on LinkedIn
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