If you’re like most owners, you just want someone who shows up, pulls their weight, and doesn’t poison the crew. It shouldn’t be too much to ask.
But here’s where things quietly fall apart. You post the job. You interview candidates with extensive experience. And six months later, you’re standing in the shop thinking, “How did we miss this?”
They had the skills. But they didn’t have the behavior.
This is the breaking point for most growing construction, trades, and ops-heavy businesses. You don’t need more resumes. You need to hire for culture fit, not experience.
The Real Problem Isn’t Experience
When you’re buried in work, short-staffed, and losing money by the day, experience feels safer. You convince yourself that if someone has done the job before, everything else will sort itself out.
But, that’s not always the case.
We’ve watched companies hire the “most qualified” technician who:
- Won’t follow processes.
- Disrespects supervisors.
- Pushes back on every change.
And suddenly, your top performers are frustrated, your managers are exhausted, and you’re dealing with drama instead of growth.
Your company doesn’t need more experienced workers. You need to hire the right fit for your team and your company.
Culture Fit Isn’t a Feeling
If you can’t explain what culture fit looks like in action, you can’t hire for it.
Culture fit in construction doesn’t mean:
- “Feels like one of us”
- “Has the right vibe”
- “Would grab a beer with the crew”
That’s how bias sneaks in and how bad hires slip through.
Hiring for culture fit only works when core values are defined as behaviors you can see, hear, and measure. Not slogans. Not framed posters on the wall.
How Exit Interviews Can Help
Imagine a construction company that can’t keep a foreman. On paper, the hires are great: years of experience, strong resumes, good references.
But every time they leave, the Superintendent shares the same feedback:
- “They didn’t listen.”
- “They did things their own way.”
- “They didn’t respect the process.”
- “The crew didn’t respect them.”
Digging deeper, the company’s core values were:
- Accountability
- Teamwork
- Excellence
Nice words, but useless for hiring. Those values are table stakes. Would you do business with a construction company that didn’t strive for excellence? Would you join a crew without accountability and teamwork? Of course not.
By taking the time to create impactful, behavior-based values, the whole dynamic shifts:
- Accountability becomes: Own the Process, Own the Outcome – Take responsibility for every step, ensuring precision, accountability, and unmatched craftsmanship.
- Teamwork becomes: Committed to Outcomes – We are passionate about our commitment to each other, the company, and our clients. We ALL win when we work together, unified as a team.
- Excellence becomes: Stand Behind the Work – Excellence is in every choice we make. We own our work, protect our name, and build to a standard that lasts.
Once the values are solid, it becomes much easier to interview to find candidates who are truly the right culture fit. For example, questions aligned with the new core values might look like this:
- Own the Process, Own the Outcome: Tell us about a time when a project didn’t go as planned. How did you take ownership of the process? What did you do to make sure the final outcome still met the standard? – This scenario shows if a candidate is willing to take responsibility without blaming others. It also shows their attention to the process, not just end results.
- Committed to Outcomes: Describe a time when the success of the team depended on everyone pulling together. What role did you play? – This scenario shows whether the person has a team-first mindset or an individual achievement goal. It also lets them tell you how they show up under pressure.
- Stand Behind the Work: Tell us about a time you had to put your name on a finished piece of work. How did you know it was truly done? What did you do if it didn’t meet your personal or company standards the first time? – This answer will shed light on their personal pride in workmanship. It also shows how they think about the big picture and how their work relates to the company’s vision.
When you ask a candidate for real world examples that are related to your behavior-based core values, suddenly, interviews change. The questions change. The conversations change. And of course, the hiring decisions change.
Interviewing like this is beneficial to your company, but also to the candidates. It gives people the opportunity to understand what it looks like to be part of the crew. When culture fit in hiring becomes the priority, turnover drops and engagement skyrockets.
Why Owners Struggle to Hire for Culture Fit
Most owners aren’t bad leaders. They’re just stretched thin. Running jobs, managing people, protecting margins, putting out fires… The list goes on and on. It’s easy to pull out the old interview questions and rush through the process to check it off your list.
But when you do that, hiring becomes transactional:
- “Can they do the job?”
- “Can they start Monday?”
- “Will they stay long enough to get us through this season?”
Long-term growth doesn’t come from filling seats. It comes from building teams that multiply your leadership instead of draining it. And that only happens when culture fit is defined clearly enough to assess, before the offer is made.
Culture Fit Hiring Starts with You
Your company already has a culture. It’s time your hiring aligns to it.
The behaviors you tolerate are your real values. The people who succeed long-term reflect them. The people who fail usually clash with them.
When owners take time to define values as observable behaviors, hiring is faster. Interviews are clearer. Decisions are easier. Managers stop guessing. This is why culture fit hiring is a profit lever.
The Cost of Getting This Wrong
According to SHRM, “one in five Americans have left a job due to bad company culture.” But, bad culture hires don’t just quit. They:
- Drive away good employees.
- Burn out managers.
- Undermine leadership credibility.
- Ruin momentum during growth phases.
And the most expensive part? You usually don’t feel the impact until months or years later.
What This Means for Growing Businesses
If your business depends on people, and most construction, trades, and ops-heavy service businesses do, then culture fit hiring is non-negotiable.
It’s the difference between scaling with confidence and constantly rebuilding your team.
Experience matters, but behavior decides who lasts. It’s a lot easier to teach someone how to do the job than it is to change the way they act.
Ready to Fix Hiring Without Adding Overhead?
If you’re tired of guessing, re-hiring, and hoping the next person “just works out,” it’s time to stop winging culture fit.
Book a call with us to walk through how to define your core values as observable behaviors and build a hiring system that protects your culture and your profit. Your company deserves the clarity that makes hiring easier.
