Mike Andes explains how hiring bottlenecks shift from finding workers to filtering them as unemployment rises. Text reminders boost interview show-up rates, structured questions and video submissions pre-screen candidates, and automated systems speed filtering. Without these systems, quality drops and hiring becomes a numbers game.
If you started your business in 2020, 2021, 2022, you likely experienced a very specific constraint. Demand was abundant. Leads poured in. The phone was ringing off the hook. The primary bottleneck was labor. The hardest part was not getting work. It was finding people to keep up with it. We were supply constrained. We could not find employees. As the labor market softens and unemployment ticks upward, the constraint will not be, can I find anyone at all? The constraint will become, can I filter effectively? Instead of struggling to get 3 applicants, you might get 50 or 60 in a few days. Text reminders dramatically increase interview show-up rates. You can create an applicant customer type and set up automated reminders. Structured application questions filter candidates before you waste time on in-person interviews. Use video submissions. Screen for professionalism and communication before you even schedule an in-person meeting. When applicant volume rises, interview Hiring more people is not the solution. Filtering faster and selecting better is the solution. The operators who install hiring systems now will move more quickly, while others drown in applicant noise. Hiring becomes a numbers game if you have no system. Quality drops when you blindly invite 50 people to an interview. Show rate drops. At the same time, as labor becomes more available, demand does not automatically increase. Demand becomes competitive.
