Hiring the Right People
Your people set the ceiling on how big and how good your company can get.
Hire for attitude, train for skill
You can teach trade skills; you can't teach reliability, work ethic, and character. Hire for those first.
The cost of a bad hire
Rework, turnover, lost customers, and dragged-down morale make a bad hire expensive. Slow down and hire deliberately.
Find good people
- Referrals from your best employees and partners.
- Apprenticeships and trade schools.
- A reputation as a good place to work (the best people have options).
Going Deeper (Intermediate)
Hire for attitude and values, train the skills. Define the role and what "great" looks like before posting, run a structured interview, check references, and remember the cost of a bad hire — turnover, low morale, rework, and lost clients far exceed the wage.
Advanced / Pro-Level
Building a hiring machine in a tight labor market:
- Always be recruiting — a pipeline beats panic-hiring when you're slammed.
- Employer brand (pay, culture, growth) and grow-your-own via apprenticeships.
- Work-sample / trade tests and behavioral interviewing ("tell me about a time…") predict performance better than gut feel.
- Onboard well to keep them (most turnover happens early).
- Stay legal — consistent, job-related criteria; avoid discrimination. A-players attract A-players; one great hire raises the whole crew.
Practice Challenge
Two candidates: a highly skilled installer with a history of conflict, and a solid-but-less-experienced worker with great attitude and reliability. Who's usually the better hire and why? (Answer: usually the attitude/reliability hire — skills can be trained, but a bad attitude poisons the crew and drives turnover; the cost of a toxic A-player often exceeds their output.)
In Practice
A contractor hires the most skilled applicant despite a terrible attitude — and the whole crew's morale tanks. Hiring for attitude and reliability (and training skill) builds a better team.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Hiring for skill while ignoring attitude
- Rushing a hire out of desperation
- Skipping references
Takeaway: Hire for attitude and reliability — skills you can train, character you can't.
Educational content — not legal, financial, or accounting advice. Run your numbers with your CPA.