The 5 Hiring Mistakes That Kill Small Contractors

A bad hire costs a small contractor 1.5–3x the annual salary in lost productivity, rework, and turnover. Most of these losses are preventable with a more deliberate process.

Mistake 1: Hiring out of desperation

A job starts Monday and you need bodies. You call around, someone says yes, they show up. No background check, no reference call, no real interview. This is how you end up with employees who steal tools, no-show mid-job, or create liability.

The fix: build a bench before you need it. Keep a list of people you've worked with informally — former subs, referrals, day laborers who impressed you. When you need to hire fast, you call people you already know are reliable.

Mistake 2: No written job description

"Field superintendent" means something different to every contractor. If you don't write down what the job actually involves — specific tasks, hours, who they report to, what they own — you'll hire someone who's surprised by the role and perform below expectations.

A one-page job description takes 30 minutes to write and saves weeks of misalignment.

Mistake 3: Skipping the working interview

Resume interviews don't tell you how someone works. Give them a half-day paid working interview on a real job site. Watch how they interact with the crew, how they approach a problem, whether they ask good questions. You'll know more in four hours than in four interviews.

Mistake 4: No 90-day onboarding plan

Most small contractors hand someone a truck key and say "figure it out." The new hire flounders for a month, maybe stays, maybe leaves. A 90-day plan — with specific week-by-week milestones and check-ins — gives them a structure to succeed and gives you a way to identify problems early.

Mistake 5: Avoiding the conversation about culture

Small construction companies have strong cultures. If your crew starts at 6am, works hard, and doesn't tolerate shortcuts — say that explicitly in the hiring process. People who don't fit will self-select out. The alternative is finding out six weeks in.

A better process

Footing's Hiring module includes a Field Superintendent Job Description Template, a 90-Day Onboarding Plan, and an Interview Scorecard — the three documents that turn hiring from guesswork into a repeatable process.

Available to all Footing members in Module 1: Hiring.