Why You Can’t Find Good People: The Hidden Recruiting Gaps Inside Most Skilled Trades Companies
If you’ve been saying any of these lately…
“Nobody wants to work.”
“We can’t find good people.”
“Young workers just don’t care anymore.”
“We’re hiring constantly but no one sticks.”
…you’re in the same boat as almost every skilled trades company across North America.
But here’s the truth you might not want to hear:
The problem isn’t that there are no good people. The problem is that the systems inside your company weren’t built to attract or keep good people.
Let’s get into what’s really going on — and what you can do to fix it.
1. You Have an Internal Clarity Problem
Most owners think recruiting starts with a job posting.
But hiring good people starts long before the posting ever goes live.
What we see inside most trades companies:
Roles that aren’t clearly defined
No documented skills expectations
Inconsistent job descriptions
No clear pathways for growth or movement between roles
Supervisors who can’t explain what “good” even looks like for each role
Onboarding that is incomplete or non-existent
Good candidates don’t want vague. They don’t want to leave their career to chance. They don’t want to join a crew where the expectations shift day to day.
Clarity is attractive.
2. You Haven’t Mapped What “Success” Looks Like in Each Role
You can’t hire for a target you haven’t defined.
When we provide our fractional HR service, we ask:
What are the must-have skills for each role?
What’s the difference between a strong performer and a weak one?
What behaviours matter most on your sites and in your office?
What does “ready for promotion” actually mean?
Most companies don’t have answers. They’ve never slowed down long enough to define them. You’re busy getting work done.
Without this clarity, you end up hiring the wrong people over and over again, then blaming the labour market.
Let’s be honest. You can’t find good people if you haven’t defined what “good” means.
3. Your Onboarding Might Be A Bigger Problem
Did you know, 69% of employees will stay at least three years if onboarding is great?
Most companies treat onboarding like an afterthought.
Day 1:
Here’s your safety vest.
Here’s your radio.
Shadow Bill for a bit. He’ll show you the ropes.
Try not to break anything or cut your finger off.
It’s not enough.
Job site onboarding needs structure like any other job in any other industry.
Field and office staff onboarding needs clarity so people can get to work quickly and feel confident and productive fast.
New hires need to feel supported, not thrown into the deep end.
If you feel the need to fire people within the first 60 days, you may have a recruiting problem. But, if they’re underperforming or leaving within 90 days, you likely have a retention problem. And, you’re probably not supporting their onboarding in order to retain them.
4. Hiring Out of Desperation
It’s hard to hire thoughtfully when you’re already short-staffed.
Supervisors and managers often tell us:
We needed someone yesterday.
I took whoever showed up.
We don’t have time to train them anyway. I need ready to go people.
Desperation hiring creates a revolving door. You fill the seat today, but you’ll probably be filling it again in three months. A healthy organization doesn’t hire out of panic. It hires with a plan.
You can’t plan without understanding your internal goals for hiring, projecting your future hiring needs and knowing exactly the type of person and the skill set that you need for each role.
Your talent pipeline equally important as a client pipeline.
5. Your Culture Might Be Turning Good People Away
I know—this one stings. But hear me out…
A skilled trades company with:
gossip
disrespect and bullying
unclear expectations
weak communication
conflict avoidance
“us vs. them” dynamics
leaders and supervisors who doesn’t know how to lead
…will struggle to keep great people no matter how hard they recruit.
Culture is not HR fluff or DEI nonsense. It also isn’t ping pong tables and coffee pods in the lunch room.
It’s your main retention strategy. It’s the essence of your business; the epitome of your values. It’s how people feel, how they’re treated and how customers are treated.
When culture is strong, hiring is easier.
When culture is weak, hiring feels impossible and retention is even less likely.
6. You Haven’t Captured the Knowledge That Makes Your Crew Great
Senior people are retiring and walking away with the gold.
Younger workers don’t know the gold and they don’t have the skill set developed yet.
Processes vary crew-to-crew, site-to-site.
Most companies don’t have:
documented procedures
clear “how we do things here” explanations
training videos
competency checklists
mentoring systems
Every new worker is left guessing. And when people guess, they fail. When they fail, they quit or they are fired. Either way — you’re back to square one.
7. A Needs Assessment Shows You the Real Hiring Problems — Not Just the Symptoms
Before you sink more money into Indeed job posting advertisements, job fairs, recruiters, or signing bonuses… you need to know what’s actually stopping good people from staying.
A Needs Assessment done by our team at Boost goes behind the scenes in your business to audit your:
role clarity
leadership readiness
culture
communication patterns
onboarding quality
training structure
processes
documentation gaps
safety and compliance risks
decision-making bottlenecks
It’s the difference between guessing and knowing.
Between hoping and fixing.
Between spinning in circles and hiring the right people for the long term.
You’ll get all the answers that have you scratching your head.
8. You Can Absolutely Attract Good People — But Not Until You Fix What’s Under the Surface
You’re not struggling because your company is broken.
You’re struggling because you just don’t know what you don’t know.
And that’s fixable.
Good people want to work in places that:
have clear expectations
communicate well
treat workers with respect
have organized onboarding
provide growth and development
have supervisors who know how to lead
don’t feel chaotic
You can create that environment. We help companies do this every day. But it doesn’t happen by accident. It starts with clarity. We help you grow.
Ready to Find (and Keep) the Right People? Start Here.
You don’t need another job posting.
You don’t need another recruiter.
You don’t need to lower your standards.
You need to understand the real gaps holding back your workforce.
Book your Needs Assessment discovery call today.
We’ll look under the hood, find the root causes of your hiring challenges, and give you a clear path forward.
👉 Book your call now — I’m sure we can help you build the kind of company great people want to work for.
