We've watched contractors hire the same way for thirty years. It doesn't work anymore.
Job boards return resumes, not candidates. Contingency recruiters charge percentages and disappear. DIY hiring eats your week and still leaves the seat open. There's a better way — and it's how we work.
The hiring problems we see — every week.
Five problems show up in nearly every conversation we have with a commercial trades contractor. If two or three sound familiar, the model we've built will resonate.
Open seats sit too long.
30, 60, 90 days with a job posted and no qualified candidates coming in. Meanwhile, the rest of your team covers the work.
Contingency fees punish you for hiring well.
Pay 20-30% of salary for a senior hire and the same again if they leave at 11 months. The model rewards turnover.
Every search starts at zero.
Every time someone quits, the recruiter rebuilds the pipeline from scratch. No memory, no continuity, no leverage.
Generalists don't know the trade.
The best people in the trades aren't on Indeed. Recruiters who don't speak the work can't find them, much less qualify them.
DIY hiring eats your week.
You're already running the business. Job posts, screening calls, and ghosted candidates aren't the best use of your time.
We think the recruiting industry is broken.
Most recruiting firms are paid to fill seats — not to keep them filled. They get paid when someone is hired, paid again when that person leaves, and paid a third time on the replacement. The economics of the contingency model reward turnover, not retention.
We don't think that's a fair deal for the contractor paying the bill, and we don't think it's how a real partnership should work. So we built something different: a flat monthly engagement that gives you a continuous pipeline of vetted talent in your specific trade, in your specific market, before you need them.
When someone quits, we don't start over. The next two or three candidates are already in conversation with us. The shortlist exists. The cost is the same as last month. That's the deal.
— Michael Carter, President, Talent Solutions
Three ways to hire. One that actually works.
Honest comparison across the three options most contractors weigh: traditional contingency recruiting, in-house DIY hiring, and a pipeline-driven partnership like ours.
Compared to what you might be doing today.
We do not pretend the alternatives are bad — we explain when each one fits, when ours does, and let you decide.
Contingency Recruiters
20–30% of salary, per placement. We compare the cost, the incentive misalignment, and the math at three hires per quarter.
Read the comparison →Staffing Agencies
Temp / contract-to-hire mark-ups, buyouts, and the loyalty problem when your "employee" reports to the agency, not to you.
Read the comparison →Internal Recruiting
The most invisible cost on a P&L. We break down what DIY recruiting really costs — and when outsourcing actually pays for itself.
Read the comparison →Every hire from zero is a tax on your team.
Every week a seat sits open, the rest of your people are covering for it. Every contingency fee you pay is money that didn't go toward growth. There's a better model. Let's build your pipeline.