#244 How to Hire the PERFECT Employee Every Time

The video is not how to hire an employee. The video is how to hire the perfect employee, the A-player that moves the business forward. What does success look like? What do we think that candidate would look like?

But it's also like, hey, you are the right personality type for this exact role.

Totally. Who is the human being and what are the attributes of that person that would make them successful?

Because that's another part of it too, right, is how you're managing your Indeed profile. You just let it sit for weeks. Nobody's going to see it.

What we want to have is clean expectations. Is our compensation good? Is our benefits good? Welcome back to Owned and Operated. I am your host, John Wilson. During the day, I run a $30 million HVAC, plumbing, and electric company in Ohio. Today I'm joined by Jack Carr from Jackquisitions. Today we're talking about how to hire the perfect employees, the ultimate hiring guide. Make sure you watch till the end because the last one's probably the best.

What's going on, John?

Let's do it. Hiring people, man. 2025, we're here. It's a weird hiring year.

Yeah. No, I mean, it is definitely a weird hiring year. I think it's because leads have been weird. But how do we hire people is the real question.

Yeah. Going into 2025. The best people, right? So 2025 is weird. Economy's weird. Consumer stretch. There's news every day about it. How are we bringing on the A-players that are going to move our business forward? Are you tired of chasing reviews and watching competitors outrank you on Google? Well, Big Reputation has your back. They're an AI-powered review and SEO platform built just for home service businesses with automated review generation, AI keyword-rich responses and heatmap local search tracking, you'll finally get the visibility and reputation you deserve. Plus, they integrate with all major CRMs you already use. And the best part? Setup is free and your first month is on the house. Book your demo in the description below. bigreputation.ai. So we're going to be talking about the 4 steps to hire the perfect employee, the ultimate hiring guide. So step 1, Sweet.

I mean, step one, before you start even looking to post on Indeed or you start going out and, you know, ruffling feathers at the supply house, first step, best step is to take a look inward.

Yeah.

Say, what does my company actually offer? Start doing some market research, start trying to figure out if you were a technician, would you choose you? Would you choose you?

Yeah.

And then how do you make that happen?

Yeah.

Like, how do you change your offering before you start offering to make sure that that's applicable?

Yeah.

A great example that I always see is if you had some money to spend towards, hey, we offer a life insurance policy for all of our people. Do technicians actually want that? Do they sign up for that?

Do they know that?

Do they know that?

Yeah.

And making sure that you figure those items out before you start, because if you start, you're going to waste some time. You're going to waste money spending on Indeed for not the best technicians.

Yeah. Yeah, totally agree. Like, is your pay good? Is your benefits good? Like, can you hire? Can you retain? And to me, this, uh, I think the framework for hiring that just makes a ton of sense to me is hiring is marketing and sales.

It is.

It's just marketing and sales to internal customers instead of external customers. So when we're thinking about hiring, it's the same thing. Like, hey, why would a customer want to work with us? Why would a technician want to work with us? Why would a call taker want to work with Yep. Like, what are the features and benefits of working with Wilson? So they've got great pay, they show up on time, the pricing's good. Like, it's all the same thing, it's just a different customer base— the technician, the employee.

Yeah.

So yeah, I think we all put a ton of thought into, uh, how we're thinking about how we show up to customers, our pricing, how we price jobs, how we sell jobs— is the same thing. Is our compensation good? Is our benefits good? Are Are we physically in a safe location that people want to show up to work, or are we in the cheapest place we could find?

Do the trucks look good? Do I have to drive around in a beater that could break down?

Do I have to drive around? That could endanger my life.

All day long.

If someone's not willing to invest in my safety with newer vehicles, what else are they not willing to invest in?

Yeah, I think that's huge. And I think it's a forgotten step. I mean, it sounds silly, but like, oh, we know that technicians are paid $32 and we're going to offer kind of a half healthcare, and then that's all we're going to do.

Yeah.

But I guess this moves kind of into step 2 though, is it's actually showing that and being forward with that. And there's kind of 2 ways.

Marketing it.

It's you market it.

So, how do we build something that people want? And then how do we tell the whole world about it? Step 2, branding and sales. How do we introduce the world to the fact that we have jobs?

Yep. I mean, it's funny because during the workshop, we were comparing Indeed to like an aggregator, but they're very similar.

Or Indeed to GMB.

Or Indeed to GMB, excuse me.

Yeah, yeah, totally.

They're very similar. Like GMB, it's your storefront.

Yeah. Yeah.

For customers. Indeed is your storefront.

Yes.

For technicians.

Yes.

And for recruiting. I mean, not only technicians, but anybody you're going to hire. And so making sure that as you go through Indeed, you are looking and curating your posts.

Yeah.

To show that and to be forward. And then—

Well, even on the feature side, like GMB is going to be like, hey, here's the times we're open. We run weekends, no on-call. good price, whatever your GMB attributes are.

Yeah.

Indeed's the same thing. I think just look at your job compared to everyone else's job. What do they say? What do yours say? Do they say no on-call? Well, we did this yesterday. I don't have on-call, but we don't put that on our job description, on our job title. So we're doing it wrong. We need to go do that because the next 2 people next to us all said no on-call. So if I was someone looking for somewhere to work, I'd be like, well, I don't want to do on-call. That's sucks. We got rid of it in the first place, but we're not advertising it.

Yeah. And then there was another one we looked at which I found extremely interesting, and that was guaranteed 40 hours, or it was a guaranteed work week.

Yes.

Right. And so I was thinking about that from the standpoint of, if you're a technician and you're leaving your current company, yeah, why are you leaving your current company?

Especially in 2025.

In 2025, in a shoulder season, you're looking for stability. I don't have stability where I'm at. I don't have full job board.

Yep.

And they only put me on one job today. So if I see that And they're guaranteeing a 32 or 40.

Totally.

Like, that's a win. Like, that's what I'm optimizing for because that's why I'm leaving.

Yeah.

So making sure that whatever those benefits are that you came up with, maybe it is no, no on-call, maybe it is the, the how much you're going to spend, maybe it is the, the, the medical, the dental, whatever the 10,000 things you could offer. Once you come up with those things, step 2 is to be very forward.

Yeah, right.

It's to show the world that's what you do and make sure that people are seeing it.

Yeah.

Because that's another part of it too, right, is, is being good with your— how you're managing your Indeed profile. If you just put something up there, you put no paid behind it, you just let it sit for weeks, nobody's going to see it.

Well, I mean, even worse than that, like I've talked with people that are like, dude, we just cannot find anybody. I'm like, oh man, yeah, what do you like? What are you doing? Like, that sounds like a serious issue. Like, you know, it's going to hold the business back. And they're like, well, we put a yard sign out in front of the building. And then I'm like, and what else? And they're like, well, that's it. I'm like, well, how many— like, one plumber a year probably drives by your facility. Like, that's the most ridiculous thing in the world. So just make sure you're where people are looking. No one is looking on your side street where your business happens to be located for a job. Like, that's, that's a ridiculous thing. Now, unless we're going to put one out front of our shop because now 2 people moved onto our street, so we'll try to grab their techs. Better pay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's funny. No, I mean, it makes sense. I think about a lot— the one that we hear, I hear a lot is, oh, I told my technicians that there's a signing bonus.

Yeah.

And that's all. And I'm going, yeah, that's good. It's a good first step or a good additional step, but that's not the only step. Like, you got to— you have to be in front of people. Yeah, it's like word of mouth. You can run a business on word of mouth. It's great business, but you're not going to be able to scale.

Yeah.

So same things apply. It's a lot of the same concepts as scale of marketing. And number 2, And then number 3. Probably one of the most important decisions you can make in your ETA journey is which SBA lender you are going to pick. A lender who will be in your corner to get you closed on the deal, as well as set you up for future expansion. That is why we partnered with Alan Peterson from First Internet Bank. He and his team take a how can we approach, as well as I personally know they specialize in home service acquisitions. Mention the show or my handsome bald head and receive a reduced good faith deposit, as well as a detailed deal review and maybe even a buy side prequalification. No strings attached. Head on over to alanfib.com. That's alanfib.com or click the link below to get connected.

Is your job description relevant? Like, do you know what you're hiring for in the first place? We make this mistake. A lot. We still make this mistake. Now, we've gotten so much better at it over the years. But what we really like, what do we want and is it realistic? Hey, I want the best HVAC installer/service guy/sales guy who can also pick up the phone for me and work part-time. Like, yeah, it's crazy. I'll listen to some of the job descriptions that people put together and it's, it's like 15 literal different, completely different jobs. And they're like, yeah, just hire the— pick up the phone on the weekends and the nights, that'll be great. Also, if you could dispatch during the day. And it's like, my guy, no one wants that job.

Yeah.

And if somebody does accept that job, they're desperate, they're gonna leave in 30 days when they find something not ridiculous. So make sure the job description is relevant to what you actually need them to do. And make sure that it is a tight enough scope of responsibility that you know if they're doing a good job or not. And if you're doing 10 different people's jobs, no one can know if you're doing a good job or not. You're just going to, you know, you're not going to do a good job.

So from an applicable idea here, does that, does that look like— I know a lot of times we see, hey, I want you to be a comfort advisor. I want you to sell units or sell product or sell something. Then I also want you to service that, that product, fix it. And then I also want you to—

If you could install it too, that'd be great. And then, by the way, do you think you could help pick up the phone? Like, just like that happens a lot. Like, I know service managers being compensated like, you know, base plus bonus, $90,000, $100,000. They're part-time call taking, they're part-time dispatching. I don't think that's the best use of that salary. Yeah, part-time parts people, part-time fleet manager. Like, that's not the best use of that salary. So what's the job description? How am I going to hold you accountable? How am I going to measure you? And what does success look like for your position?

So that's a good point. Do you put that on your job description?

Absolutely.

How do you measure—

We put the metrics.

Like what you're expecting them to do?

100%.

That's— we need to start doing that.

So we— because what we, what we want to have is clean expectations. Like, hey, what you can ex— what that tells What I hope that tells the applicant is what you can expect from us is we are an organized business. We know what success looks like for your position, and this is what it looks like. If you do these things, you will be successful.

And when driving top talent, like there's also— it also culls out a lot of not top talent. Yeah.

Because if somebody looks at that job, they're like, oh, I'm going to be held to a standard.

And well, yeah, even if— and not only held to a job standard, but like Hey, if I'm a— if I can only do $800,000 a year as a CA and your thing says $3 million, I'm not even applying.

Yeah.

Like, I'm looking at that going, that's crazy. That's not even possible.

Yeah.

But that technician that's doing $4 million, he's like, oh yeah, I can hit that.

Yeah.

So you're bringing in confidence right out the gate.

Totally. And the video is how to hire the perfect employee. Yeah. The video is not how to hire an employee. The video is how to hire the perfect employee, the A-player that moves the business forward. So you have to set standards. That you, like, what does the A-player look like? How do we set these standards and how do they know how they're going to be measured? How do they know how they can win? People need to know what they're going to make. We were looking at a job description yesterday during the workshop. The compensation was $60,000 to $250,000. My quick take—

Or $1 to $3 million. It could be anything.

That's crazy. That's crazy. And the employer's probably like, I think I'm showing that there's some opportunity here. And the average employee's gonna look at that and be like, I know that when I apply for this job, they're gonna try to push me at $60,000. They're gonna try to pay me $60,000 for $250,000 worth of work.

Yeah. And, or the other thing I always wonder is like, is it a $60,000 position or is it a $250,000 position?

Totally.

Like those are completely 2 different expectations.

It's a 4 times change.

Yep.

Yeah.

So I mean, I don't even know how they come up with those numbers. It doesn't make sense.

Number 4, most important in my mind, is we have created a good compensation and benefits program. We've got a place that is good to work. We have new trucks, we have like a clean office, we have core values on the wall. Like, we've done the thing. We've told people that the job exists. We've, you know, advertised it, we promote it on Indeed or ZipRecruiter or wherever, maybe a front-out sign out in front of the building. We've made a job description that's relevant to what we're trying to do. And the final one is, are you still using a clunky phone system for your service business? OpenPhone is the modern business phone platform powered by AI that helps you stay responsive, connected, and never miss a call. With shared numbers, call summaries, plus deep integrations with Slack, HubSpot, and more, OpenPhone keeps your team aligned and your customers taken care of no matter what time. Start your 7-day free trial at openphone.com/owned and get 20% off your first 6 months just for being a part of the Owned and Operated crew. OpenPhone, no missed calls, no missed customers. As we think about all of those things together, who is the human being and what are the attributes of that person that would make them successful? Like, what's going to make them tick? We're here to identify A-players. So something that we've just learned, you know, we've hired hundreds of people and something that we've learned in the failures is that we ignored the parts that made them tick. They had a great resume, they had the perfect background, they were well-talked inside our interview.

Mm-hmm.

But we hired them for a position that we expect sales. They committed. They said, yeah, I can hit that expectation that's in the job description. I'm totally down for that. But when we dive into their motivations a little bit, like they're not money hungry, they're not motivated by money. They think they can hit that. They like the idea that there's an aspirational dollar amount that they can drive, but like what makes them tick isn't dollars. So they're not aligned with what we're trying to do.

What comes to mind is when you hire a comfort advisor who's sales only—

Forces a base, 100%.

And they force a base or a job comes in at 9:00 PM at night. There's 2 types of employees. There's one that's commission-driven, that's hungry, and is going to go, yes, send me that job. I'm going to be out there. I'm going to go sell that. And there's another like, ah, put it on tomorrow. Yeah, put it on my schedule tomorrow. And then between 9 PM, somebody's— somebody's A-player shows up, sells them the unit, and tomorrow you get a cancellation.

Yeah, that's perfect. So I think when, when we've started doing job descriptions, especially jobs that we've never hired for before, We take, I think an ounce of preparation is worth a pound of post.

Yeah.

So we take some time and we just think through like, hey, here's this job description. Here's how we've decided to compensate this job. Here's the benefit. Here's everything about this job. Here's the metrics. What's a success look like? And what do we think that candidate Would look like. Would look like. And it's not always the same. Like, you don't want a sales-hungry, like, alpha driver in your accounting seat, right? So you can't use the same archetype for every position in your company. You want someone pretty compliant in your accounting seat. You want someone dedicated. You want someone who's, who's going to be detail-oriented. That's a totally different, like, profile of human being than a sales manager.

Oh, 100%.

And like a sales manager is a totally different profile from a salesperson. Like sales manager, they need to be a coach. They need to be kind of an alpha. They wanna win, but they need to be a coach. Like when, so when we're trying to identify personality, hey, this guy messed up, like he's having a bad week. What do you do? How do you handle that?

Yeah.

Like what do you think? Uh, and how they answer that's really interesting. Um, we've started coming up with very specific examples. So we had a, we have a position right now, it's called a quality assurance tech. So their whole job is to close down installs. So we don't have callbacks. So the day after we install a job, he visits, checks it basically, good to go.

That's wild.

Yeah. First off, flex. Secondly, when we think about that role, what do we need? We need someone detail-oriented. We need someone highly technically competent. But I bet most contractors would stop right there. Hey, there's 1 to 2 really important things that come next. You're closing up the job. How good are you at talking to customers? Because you are the last person in that home. Like, you got to be the best, most personable person in the world. And finally, when you find a mistake, and it is your job to find mistakes, how will you coach that back?

Mm-hmm.

So what we did is we created some absolute bullshit scenarios. We tried to come up with the dumbest, most annoying possible mistake to follow someone up on. And ask, hey, how would you handle this? So one of 'em was, yeah, they piped the condensate backwards, so it just went the wrong way. What do you think? That happened yesterday. How do you think you'd handle that? And we're looking for someone to say, oh, that's just, how could they pot? That's so stupid. That'd be perfect. You're not the person we were looking for.

I'm not the person, 'cause that's exactly what I said.

Yeah. Well, so would I. So would I. I'd be like, are you serious? You actually piped the condensate backwards? Like, totally. Like, so really, like, are they a fit for the position? You want the most patient, technically on—

Honestly, too.

Coaching person in that seat.

What a great position for some of those older technicians who are trying to get out of the field. They love coaching and they love showing their knowledge. Like, it's a great position.

It's a great position.

Not for me.

Yeah.

Because I would yell at the person and be like, you're an idiot.

Totally.

Don't ever do that again.

Totally. So like, so a lot of it is how do we find out what's going to make them tick? How do we create some scenarios So we understand how they're going to react under stress.

That's super interesting because I assumed it was just going to be like number 4 was going to be culture. Like, are they culture fit? Which is part of it. But that's like a very— I think culture fit on step 4 is part of what you're saying, but it's a sliver. That is a sliver because it's not only that you fit in with the business and people like you and that you work here, but it's also like, hey, you are the right Totally.

This is, I think, the most important and most overlooked step. Yeah, like, what makes you tick as a human being? What makes you unique? And what makes you uniquely qualified for this seat?

Yeah, because we'll do ride-alongs and it's like, hey, this is an installer, it's a ride-along position, or they do a ride-along to see if they're a good culture fit. You know, the other technician likes them, they're knowledgeable, he's knowledgeable, he knows how to install.

I'd have beers with him. Yeah.

But then, or, and yeah, and he's a good installer, but then he gets started and, and there's just something, he's just not, it's a good cultural fit, but not a good fit for that role.

Yeah.

Um, for whatever the 10,000 reasons may be.

Yeah.

And it's just his personality isn't good for X position.

That position. Yeah.

Wild. Yeah, man.

That, that— I'm glad I brought some—

Yeah. You brought some knowledge even to me on this one. Not that I'm super knowledgeable.

So, yeah. Well, I'm glad I brought some heat.

That's good.

So those are the four steps to hiring the perfect employee. The ultimate hiring guide. Twenty twenty five's you know a unique year for hiring, but hopefully this playbook gives some tools in the toolbox.

Sweet. I appreciate it.

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