Run it with less chaos · Every business
Finding and Keeping Good Crew Members in the Trades
Contractors and home service companies find their steadiest crew members through their own people, test them on a paid day in the truck and keep them with a written first month, and each of those steps rests on research an owner can check.
At a glance
- Contractors report a thin pool of ready candidates: in the Associated General Contractors' 2025 workforce survey of open-shop contractors, 59% said available candidates were not qualified to work in the industry.
- Construction laborers and helpers earned a median of $46,680 in May 2025, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 137,000 openings a year for the occupation over the coming decade, most of them from workers leaving rather than new jobs.
- In a study of personnel records from nine firms in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, workers referred by current employees were substantially less likely to quit, and in trucking they had lower accident rates.
- For an illustrative crew of eight, two helpers leaving in a year cost about $17,300 to replace.
Part 1 | The best applicants are already standing next to your crew
Most trades owners know the moment. A helper quits on a Thursday, a remodel is half done and the owner posts on a job board that night, then hires whoever can start Monday, with the inner voice saying Anybody who shows up sober and on time will do. That standard fills the truck, and it also explains why the same seat in the truck tends to open again by fall.
The research points to a better first move. A study of personnel data from nine large firms in call centers, trucking and high tech, published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, found that applicants referred by current employees were more likely to be hired and to accept offers, performed about as well as other hires on most measures, had lower accident rates in trucking and were substantially less likely to quit, which made them more profitable mainly through lower turnover and recruiting costs. A crew member who recommends a cousin or a friend from a past job is putting their own standing behind the referral, which is one plausible reason the pattern holds on a job site too.
That figure is also a reason to hire for habits rather than experience. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists short-term, on-the-job training as typical for construction laborers and helpers, so a reliable person with no trade background can learn much of a helper's work on the job.
Part 2 | Test candidates on a paid day in the truck
A work sample is one of the strongest predictors of job performance in the selection research, with an average validity of .33 in a 2022 reanalysis in the Journal of Applied Psychology, and in the trades it has an obvious form: a paid day riding along with the crew. Pair it with a short structured interview, the same questions in the same order for every candidate, which the same review ranked first among hiring methods at .42.
Checklist. What the lead watches on a paid ride-along day
- Arrives at the shop or first job on time, with the gear asked for.
- Asks questions before guessing on a task.
- Greets the homeowner or site contact and keeps the work area clean.
- Carries materials and cleans up without being told twice.
- Takes a correction without arguing, then does it the new way.
- Before heading home, can say what the crew did and why.
Interview questions for a crew member
- Tell me about a time you were running late to a job. What did you do?
- Describe a mistake you made on a job site and how it got fixed.
- Tell me about a time a homeowner or customer was unhappy. What did you say?
- What do you want to be doing in this trade two years from now?
Part 3 | Keep them with a first month that has a plan
Departures cost real money even in a trade with lower quits than most. Construction averaged a 1.8% monthly quits rate in 2025 in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' JOLTS data, below the private-sector average of 2.2%, yet a helper who leaves still takes months of training with them.
| Crew size (Assumption) | 8 |
|---|---|
| Helpers who leave per year (Assumption) | 2 |
| Annual pay, construction trades helpers (Cited benchmark (BLS median, May 2025)) | $43,260 |
| Replacement cost, jobs under $50,000 (Cited benchmark (Center for American Progress)) | 20% of pay |
| Cost to replace one helper (Calculated ($43,260 × 20%)) | $8,652 |
| Cost to replace two helpers (Calculated (2 × $8,652)) | $17,304 |
Illustrative example; replace every assumption with your own numbers.
A first month that holds people has three pieces. Pair the new hire with one lead for the whole month rather than whoever has room in the truck; write down the ten tasks a helper must do well, with a date by which each one is checked off; and pay the referral bonus to the crew member who brought them in once the new hire passes 90 days, which gives the whole crew a reason to help the new person through the hard first weeks.
The referral ask, for the Monday crew huddle
"We have an opening for a helper starting [date], paying [price] an hour. If you know someone who shows up on time and learns fast, even without trade experience, tell me this week. If they're still with us after 90 days, you get [amount]."
How you compare
- Industry pace: construction's 2025 monthly quits rate of 1.8% held for a year comes to about 22 departures for every 100 workers, so a crew of eight would expect roughly two.
- Where your crew came from: list your current crew and mark who came by referral; if your longest-tenured people mostly did, that is your best source.
- Your own baseline: count helpers hired in the last two years and how many are still with you.
Questions to ask this week
Who on my crew would I hire again tomorrow? Ask each of them who they know.
What would a candidate do on a paid ride-along? Pick the job and the lead now, before you need it.
What ten tasks should a helper master in the first month? Write them down with a check-off date for each.
The next step is to make the referral ask at your next crew huddle and set the bonus amount you will pay at 90 days.
About this research: This article draws on the Associated General Contractors' 2025 workforce survey of open-shop contractors, a study of employee referrals in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, a 2022 reanalysis of selection research in the Journal of Applied Psychology, Bureau of Labor Statistics wage, outlook and turnover data and a Center for American Progress review of turnover-cost case studies. The AGC figure covers open-shop firms that answered the survey, not every contractor. The worked example is illustrative.
Sources
- Associated General Contractors of America. 2025 Workforce Survey Results: Open Shop. 2025. 522 responses.
- Burks, S. V., Cowgill, B., Hoffman, M. and Housman, M. The Value of Hiring through Employee Referrals. Quarterly Journal of Economics 130(2), 2015. Personnel data from nine firms.
- Sackett, P. R., Zhang, C., Berry, C. M. and Lievens, F. Revisiting Meta-Analytic Estimates of Validity in Personnel Selection. Journal of Applied Psychology 107, 2022. Summarized by SIOP.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Construction Laborers and Helpers, Occupational Outlook Handbook. May 2025 wage data; 2025 to 2035 projections.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Annual Average Quits Rates by Industry, JOLTS Table 22. 2025.
- Boushey, H. and Glynn, S. J. There Are Significant Business Costs to Replacing Employees. Center for American Progress, 2012.
Related reading: Hiring Your First Technician for a Home Service Business · Passing Job Notes Between the Office and Field Crews · The Systems Long-Running Home Service Businesses Have in Common · Hiring for Attitude, Training for Skill: A Hiring System for Service Businesses · What a Bad Hire Costs a Small Business
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