79% of Employees Aren't Engaged (Here's Why)

Most business owners are convinced there's a labor shortage. "There are no unemployed service technicians in our area," they tell me. "We're leaving $1 million per year on the table because we can't find people."

But the biggest problem isn’t usually recruitment, its retention — and it’s holding back so many businesses from growth. 

So to find the solution, I spoke with Ryan Englin from Core Matters. Ryan’s an expert in recruitment and retention for service business owners. He’s literally written the book on it. 

Ryan and I spent nearly an hour discussing how service business owners can retain their best techs and scale their teams. But almost everything boils down to two areas:

Here's a stat that'll blow your mind: According to Gallup, 79% of employees are not engaged at work. So nearly eight out of 10 of your people are just going through the motions.

But Ryan told me something that made me stop and think… Employees that have a best friend at work are six times more likely to be engaged.

Think about what that means for retention. When a competitor calls offering $2 more an hour, they're essentially asking your employee to "abandon your best friend for an extra few bucks."

If someone has a close work friend within your business and feels an emotional tie to their work, they likely won’t take that offer. 

The easiest way to create workplace friendships? Mentorship programs.

Instead of tossing new hires the keys and sending them out solo, pair them with a mentor. 

Here's Ryan's playbook:

"Bring the new guy in and say, 'Hey, I want you to meet John. John's your mentor for the first 90 days. He's got the company credit card and he's taking you to lunch today.'"

Pay the new employee what they'd make on their own route, but have them ride with their mentor for the entire first week. Your company pays for lunch every day. Coffee runs. The whole thing.

By the end of week one, the new hire is asking, "Can I hang out with John some more?"

That connection becomes their anchor within the business. Make sure you think carefully about who you pair new employees with, they should not only be a great tech they can learn from, but also someone who they can form a strong connection with. 

There’s a saying in business, only 5% of your customers are ever ready to buy at any one time. So most marketing is focused on making sure when someone is ready to buy, they think of your business first. Recruitment is basically the same. 

Want to know where the best candidates are? They're not on Indeed or ZipRecruiter.

"Only 3-5% of the job market is on job boards," Ryan told me. That means 95% of potential hires aren't even looking at your job postings.

The best people are employed somewhere else. And the best way to reach them is through your team because every tech in your town likely knows each other and talks shop together. 

But here's where most companies screw it up:

They tell employees, "We're hiring, refer someone and get $500."

Then they give them zero tools. No scripts. No collateral. No training on how to recruit.

It's like telling your marketing team to generate leads without any budget or materials. Of course it doesn't work.

So when you’re hiring, you should 100% offer a referral bonus. But also give your techs some advice on how to sell the opportunity to their friends. 

Every contractor wants the same thing: the 5-year veteran who has been there and done it all.

"They all want the seasoned tech," Ryan told me.

But those guys aren't looking for jobs. They're working and likely getting paid very well to stay in place.

The people who ARE available? Maintenance techs during slow season. Helpers ready to level up. People with the right attitude and work ethic who just need training.

Ryan told me about a client he has in commercial refrigeration who loves hiring maintenance techs and turning them into service techs. These people are hungry to grow, grateful for the opportunity, and way more likely to stay loyal.

To use a football analogy… Sure every now and then you’ll land a superstar free agent like Derrick Henry. But the foundations of a winning team are often built from recruiting and training up rookies who are younger and hungry for success. 

(Yes, I’m drafting this just after watching Sunday Night Football.)

Once you’ve got your team in place and helped them build strong relationships across your business, the final piece of the puzzle is pay. And in my opinion, performance pay is the only way to reward your techs in 2025. 

"You let people choose to be rewarded for the effort they put in," Ryan said during our chat.

Most companies pay everyone the same hourly rate regardless of performance. Work hard or coast… doesn't matter, you get $26/hour.

But with performance pay, everything flips. Your hardest workers can make $35/hour effective rate while average performers stay at base pay. Suddenly you're not just attracting people who want a job, you're attracting people who want to excel.

Ryan nailed it: "If I'm a hard worker and I know it, I'm gonna go find someone that's gonna reward me for that."

The magic happens when techs get fixated on their base hourly rate. A competitor calls offering $28/hour. Your tech thinks they're making $24. But when you show them their last 90 days, their effective rate was actually $35/hour with bonuses.

"Are you sure you want to take a pay cut?" becomes a pretty easy conversation.

Ryan put it perfectly: "You're empowering the employee to have a little bit of control over their income... It's empowering them and causing them to be more engaged. It's not necessarily the money as much as it is giving them control."

When people feel empowered instead of just employed, they don't leave. They dig in.

Another way to look at it is that everyone on your team is an investment… Think about it — if you train someone up for two years, you’ve probably invested $100k of time and resources into them. They learn your systems, build relationships with customers, and understand your culture. You don’t want to let them walk away for another $2/hour. 

That's not just losing an employee, that's losing a massive investment.

The labor crisis isn't about finding more people. It's about keeping the ones you have and making sure new hires feel like they belong.

Build the relationships. Create the culture. Give people a reason to stay beyond just a paycheck.

Because in a world where everyone's fighting for the same small pool of techs, the companies that figure out how to develop and retain talent will be the winners over the long-term.