Remote Staffing for Remodeling Contractors: How to Scale Without Burning Out | Shy Poosti

You're good at what you do. Good enough to stay busy. But at some point, you can't be the tradesman, the estimator, the admin, the follow-up guy, and the CEO all at once. Something has to give — and if you don't build systems and get the right people in place, what gives is your growth.

In this episode of the Digital Remodeler podcast, host Carl Willis sits down with Shy Poosti from Hard Hat Helpers, a remote staffing agency that works exclusively with contractors and home service companies. Shai breaks down how remote staffing actually works, what it costs, which roles make sense, and how to set it up so it doesn't become another thing that falls apart.

What's covered in this episode:
✅ Why most contractors are both overloaded AND disorganized — and how remote staffing addresses both
✅ The moment contractors finally reach out for help (and why they waited too long)
✅ The shift every growing contractor has to make — from tradesman to CEO
✅ The most commonly placed remote roles: dispatchers, bookkeepers, drafters, and office admins
✅ Why dispatchers alone can transform your schedule efficiency and crew profitability
✅ Roles contractors assume can't be done remotely — that actually can
✅ The one role Shai strongly recommends against for remote staff (and why)
✅ What separates contractors who succeed with remote staff from those who struggle
✅ How to build culture with a remote team — not just hand them a task list
✅ What healthy onboarding actually looks like and how to document your processes simply
✅ The real economics: remote staff at $12–$14 per hour, saving up to 70% vs. a local hire
✅ Why Hard Hat Helpers maintains a 96% retention rate when most contractors can't keep anyone
✅ Remote staff vs. AI — and why it's not an either/or conversation
✅ What to have in place before you bring on your first remote hire

You can't delegate chaos. But if you build the foundation first, remote staffing can become one of the most powerful growth levers in your business.

🔹 Connect with Shy Poosti — Hard Hat Helpers:
🌐 hardhathelpers.com
📱 Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube: @HardHatHelpers

🔹 Ready to build a smarter marketing system for your remodeling business?
Schedule a free strategy session with Remodeling Marketing Team 👉 https://www.remodelingmarketingteam.com/get-started
📞 888-350-7859

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Stop Driving. Start Closing
Stop wasting time on tire kickers. Qualify and estimate remotely with AI-powered video technology.

What if you could remotely qualify leads, create accurate estimates, and manage multiple projects—all without ever leaving your office?

That's exactly what LiveSwitch does for remodeling contractors.

Stop Driving. Start Closing
Stop wasting time on tire kickers. Qualify and estimate remotely with AI-powered video technology.

Stop Driving. Start Closing
Stop wasting time on tire kickers. Qualify and estimate remotely with AI-powered video technology.

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Transcript

Welcome And Remote Staffing Overview

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Digital Remodeler Podcast. So glad you've chosen to join us today. And with me is Shy Poosty. He's with Hardhat Helpers. And Shy, so glad you've chosen to join us today. Appreciate you having me on today. I really appreciate it. Absolutely. So our topic today is remote staffing for contractors and home service companies. And uh, Shy, you and I had a good conversation the other day. We're going to talk about some of the great advantages of hiring remote. We're also going to talk about how you can screw it up. And so glad you're with us. And let's get started. Give everybody just kind of the quick background of how you got started and what Hardhat Helpers does. And then we'll get really in-depth into our topic.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Yeah, yeah. Well, first off, really thank you again for having me on. I'm super excited for the call today. And yeah, just a little bit about myself. My name is Shai, obviously, but I pretty much have been in the staffing agency industry for about seven years, six, seven years now. So it's been a lot of like hands-on learning throughout the process, the ins and outs of what works, what doesn't work. Uh, what kind of led me to jumping into this is actually I wasn't really in this kind of space before. I really didn't even know how I ended up here. I was on track for veterinary school. I had gotten accepted, ultimately decided not to kind of go that route. And instead, I kind of jumped into a business with a couple of my friends that they had started. It was in the staffing space. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But kind of looking back on the journey that I've had throughout the last few years, it's been a lot of fun and a lot of learning. I mean, I'm super glad I ended up taking that step. Looking back, my my fiance now is actually in veterinary school, had just finished, and I got a first-hand experience as to how tough that would have been. And I realized that for me, this is definitely where I'm meant to be. Probably would have ended up flunking out with all that studying that they had to do there. But yeah, it's it's been a lot of learning, like I was saying. And we we kind of started out in this industry with a lot of people not really even knowing what remote staffing really was. I mean, a lot of people thought it was just like call center, and that was really just the extent of what overseas staff can do. And this was just right after COVID. So it was right getting introduced to kind of like working from home environment. So it was kind of like people got forced into it. So it was like almost like a perfect combination of like right, right product,

Shai’s Path And Contractor Fit

SPEAKER_00 2:30

right timing type of thing. And then that ended up kind of taking us really into this industry. And yeah, I mean, uh, here we are today. I mean, eight years later, seven years later, I don't even know how long it's been, but it's been a long while.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, when you begin to to see that you know, remote staffing really was a perfect fit for contractors, uh, where did that light bulb really kick on? I mean, obviously, you could have chosen a lot of verticals, a lot of niches. What made it really appear to you, man, this is a perfect fit for contractors?

SPEAKER_00 3:07

I mean, honestly, that's a great question. To be honest, when we when I jumped into that staffing industry with my friends, it was basically a general staffing company. There was no niche specific audience that we were serving. We were just placing any staff in any business. And then we really got to see what businesses it really worked for, what businesses it didn't work for. And one of those businesses that it really worked for was the contracting, home services type of space. And that's kind of where the light bulb went off. Once that company ended up getting acquired, um, I kind of transitioned out and ended up starting my own thing, hard hat helpers, um, because I realized that there was a huge market in this area. And a lot of the people that we were dealing with on the day-to-day, like I was saying, and this was like five years ago, they didn't really know what remote staffing was. And when we started this company about two, three years ago, still a lot of the people in this space are just getting introduced to it. So it was kind of like we realized that like our product really served well for this industry. I mean, as you can imagine, there's a lot of busy home service business owners out there.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Absolutely. So let's let's talk about some of those pain points, you know, if you will. So, you know, what are contractors usually struggling with by the time they call you? What's the what's the breaking point where they finally say, all right, I'm gonna reach out to Shy because I need help? What's what's the what's the pain point generally that's got them finally reaching out to you?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

They're just overworked. I mean, I mean, you can imagine a lot of them spend a lot of times on different job sites and or just working the hands-on stuff. And that means that they're ignoring or putting aside a lot of that admin work, back end work, follow-ups, all of those things that they'll pile up because at the end of the day, they're the business owners, they have to get to it. And they end up going home, getting home, and they have a bunch more work to do, and that's kind of where they realize that they need help. And a lot of other common areas is probably the fact that they've been dealing with a lot of hiring and going through the processes,

The Breaking Point: Admin Chaos

SPEAKER_00 5:10

and it's not an easy process to go through. And and those are kind of the main areas as to where clients kind of see our services fitting in. I mean, not to mention the price is always a great point as well.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yeah. You know, I think that this is an important discussion for us, too, because there comes a point in the the contractor's life where you're good, you're good enough that you get busy, but there's gonna come a place where you've got to make the shift from being the tradesman to being the business owner. And to do that, you're gonna have to get out of the field, but you're also not gonna be able to do everything yourself. And and that becomes that breaking point where you can't be the jack of all trades, you can't be the one doing everything. And so here's an interesting question for you. Most of the contractors you deal with, are they actually overloaded or are they just disorganized?

SPEAKER_00 6:10

To be honest, I think it's a combination of both. Um I think a lot of them, like you're saying, they are they're coming from the trade, transitioning into building a business. So a lot of them are just focused on how can I get a client, do the job, and then they open their eyes and they realize they have a business and they haven't really set up the proper systems and things in place to make it so it's streamlined and easy for them to get to certain points and stay organized. So it ends up kind of adding to the point where they feel overwhelmed, overloaded a lot quicker than they usually would have.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

That that's important. And what do you you see are some of the biggest time drains that the owners you're working with are dealing with?

SPEAKER_00 6:56

I I think that it's it's a lot of the fuck the the back end work, the follow-ups and stuff like that, like things that kind of just end up piling up. Like they get a call, they miss it, they have to end up following up with it, they have to update clients, they have to get payments. A lot of that admin work just piles up and it compounds, it doesn't just disappear. So when they put it off one time, two times, it ends up multiplying, and then you've got days and weeks going by where things needed to get done. So um a lot of that admin work just ends up kind of piling up on their on their on their front end, their back end, all of that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Yeah, and you you used a word that I think is is super important, and that's systems. So it piles because there's no system, and it it becomes the tyranny of of the urgent, wouldn't you say? Yeah, exactly. And so I think this is a critical component because of that that tyranny of the urges. This has been my experience with our clients, and I'm sure it's what you see. A lot of contractors stay stuck doing everything themselves because there's no system, there's there's nothing to hand off because there's not a system to teach anybody. Yeah, is that kind of your experience?

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Yes, yes. I mean, a lot of them just end up kind of just going into the motions, and like I like I was saying, they don't build those proper systems in place and then they open their eyes, they've got clients, projects, and they don't have those systems in place. So, yeah, that that overwhelmingness that kind of kicks in a lot a lot sooner than it would have.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yeah, what which which dog is barking the loudest today? Exactly. Yeah. So oh also, here's another interesting question. Do you find that some owners are just afraid to let go of control?

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Yeah, uh they think they could do everything better themselves. I mean, it's uh it's the classic, who knows better than me, it's my business type of scenario. So it's hard to delegate out, know what to delegate out, trust these people enough to be able to deliver the same quality of work that you are. So I can understand it's it's a it's a scary thing to you've built this business and now you have to pass off something, trust somebody else with a certain part of it. And if they don't deliver, you can end up either losing a client, losing a job, losing money, whatever it is. So it's it's really hard to kind of let go of certain things. So I can totally understand why they're afraid to take that step.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Yeah. So let's talk about you know, this transition. I mean, we've kind of hit this pain point, your your business is growing, you're good at what you do. But at some point, you're gonna have to make this move from technician, tradesman to thinking like a CEO, which means you're gonna have to let go of something. And so this is where we get into this conversation. Do you hire internally and you bring this option of working remotely? And so that brings up this first question, you know, what roles really work best remotely? And so, from your perspective, what positions are you placing the most right now from remote workers?

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Yeah, I'd say one of the more common positions that we place across home service companies is going to be a dispatcher. It's probably uh makes up like 40% of our business is about placing dispatchers. I mean, every home service type of company, from contractors to electricians, plumbers, everything in between under that home service umbrella, uses some form of dispatching. So it ends up being a very popular role that our clients opt for, as well as bookkeeping is a very popular one as well. And and drafting is a new and up-and-coming one that we've been seeing in the past year that's kind of been becoming really popular. I'd say between bookkeeping and drafting, they together probably make about 25%. And then the rest of that percentage is pretty much split pretty evenly around the other positions that we play. So, and we're not position specific, so it's really just at our client's needs. So things like marketing to sales, but again, the more common roles is going to be dispatching, bookkeeping, and drafting. And then again, those admin things, just a random office admin, office manager type role is also super common.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Why do you think dispatchers are such a popular role? But it's uh it's to one, maximize your schedule first and foremost. I mean, especially if you've got multiple team members, it's hard to keep track of your schedule and your team's schedule, especially when they're both overloaded. So it's one maximizing the schedule. It's also you're on the job site, so you're unable to answer a lot of these follow-ups, calls, and keeping people kind of accountable when they're being on their own job sites and stuff like that. So it ends up being something that people are looking to kind of pass off because they need to stay organized on that front. They need to have people in certain places at certain times and stick to those times so they can maximize

Roles To Delegate Remotely

SPEAKER_00 11:54

their profits. They're not having a driver just sitting around two hours, three hours waiting for the next job. It's really staying organized and maximizing that driver or that dispatcher's or I mean that technician's schedule. So they're really getting the most bang for their buck for every single employee that they have.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Yeah. Are are there certain roles that you know contractors assume can't be done remotely, uh, that really actually can?

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Almost every single role. I mean, you'd be surprised. They they pretty much have skepticism towards every single role, just because they're so used to doing everything in person that they just I I it's just a they just assume that majority of this stuff has to be done in person. Obviously, things that they think can they can delegate out the easiest would probably be like marketing and then looking at maybe some basic admin stuff, uh, but they don't realize that you can pass off the drafting, the estimating, the dispatching, and stuff like that to remote people. They don't technically have to be in office to do this job. Even an office manager, the name office manager doesn't necessarily need to be in office because the majority of the tasks don't have to do with walking the day-to-day in the office. It actually has to keep with keeping the people on the team accountable and keeping things moving and flowing properly.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

That's good. Are there any specific roles that you you would say absolutely you don't want to consider for remote?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

I I'm a big believer in outbound sales doesn't work well for remote. It's tough, it's far and few between. I'm not saying it's 100% doesn't work, but it's definitely one of the ones that when it comes to retention, it's almost like a revolving door, whether it's on the client side or on the agent side. As you can imagine, it's a very measurable position. So if they're not delivering in a month or two, they're getting cut and it takes a while to build up an outbound pipeline. So it's really a tough kind of scenario that they get tossed up into. So we don't really recommend that role too often. Obviously, if the systems are set up properly, we may consider it, but it's definitely one that we almost strongly recommend against. Okay, good.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

And then, you know, what makes one contractor successful with a remote staff and another contractor struggles? What's the differentiator?

SPEAKER_00 14:16

I mean, what I was just saying, pretty much the the systems, having the proper SOPs in place, training material, making sure that these, like I like I said, we'll consider a cold outbound role if the systems are in place. They've got people in this role maybe already seeing results delivering, so they could just kind of plug this person in and kind of do the same stuff. But it's really important to have those systems in place to ensure that these people are going to be successful. At the end of the day, they're not in office, so they can't always just go knock on your door for every little thing that they need or just kind of wave you down as you're passing by. They need to have some sort of material to kind of go in reference every single time they have some sort of question or something like that, because that way they're not wasting your time asking every single one of these little nuanced questions. They can always reference some of these guides or materials that you have.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Yeah, I I think it's an important thing. You and I talked about this, you know, on our preliminary call, because we work with a predominantly remote team and and having good SOPs, good systems in place will make or break you. And if you have poor systems in place, your remote team will expose that very quickly. So yeah, I think that's critical. What have you noticed, you know, on this this next question about certain types of companies that adapt faster than others? So so your companies that really quickly adapt, what makes the difference with them? Is it is it back to systems and SOPs, or or is there even maybe a mindset that makes the difference?

SPEAKER_00 15:53

I think it's a combination. I think obviously having those SOPs and training materials make it makes it so you can really just plug these people in and the systems are already in place. They don't have to kind of come in and one create the systems, also simultaneously learning the role. But it's also having an open mindset to be willingness to delegate these tasks out, trust these employees because you've properly gone through the vetting process and made sure that these people are gonna be a good fit for the role. So you have to almost trust your instincts in a sense that these people are gonna be able to deliver the job that you are kind of delegating them out to do. So it's having trust in their capabilities, but yeah, and then also having those proper systems in place.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah, and I kind of want to I kind of want to go a little beyond this. You know, we we've talked systems and SOPs, but but how about creating culture? How do you how do you encourage

SOPs, Onboarding, And Remote Culture

SPEAKER_01 16:46

your uh your companies to develop culture beyond just systems and SOPs? Because we want to, you know, I think it's important not just to have here's how you do the task, and but how do you encourage your hiring companies to create a culture around these remote staffing positions as well?

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Um, I think it's important to one, get to know your staff, see what they like, what they don't like, what their goals are, so you can really kind of guide them in that direction, delegate tasks that make sense for where they want to be in the future, whether it's within your company or somewhere beyond that, but ultimately really allowing them to have those opportunities, but also kind of having that ability to be like, we can take a little bit of time out of work to kind of one celebrate a birthday or this or here's a holiday thing. But all of these things really make a difference. I mean, at the end of the day, people think that because these are remote employees that you shouldn't integrate them into your team like you would an office employee, but it's super important to do that because it really makes a difference into how they feel about the role, how they feel about the company. They're gonna be more driven to treat this like it's their own, come in and crush it every day. So you want to set that tone. You want to make sure that they they like coming to work, they like their their employer. At the end of the day, that doesn't mean that you have to bend over backwards and and and kind of adjust to uh everything and be in that sense. But ultimately, it really makes a difference when you are open to kind of getting to know them and and establishing a rapport with them and and actually making sure that they actually like coming to work and like who they're working for because it does make a huge difference in the effort that they put in each day.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

That's good. And let's talk about, you know, you're you're getting ready to bring on some remote staff. How do you get organized for that? What are some of the organization steps you need to be taking before you bring that remote person on?

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Yeah, I mean, I think it's having the training material in place. So, like whatever role you're going to be sourcing for, make sure that you have proper outlines for these roles. So that way when you do onboard them, you train them, you have something for them to reference. Obviously, we were mentioning that before, but um, it really is important. The more information you and the more detailed that standard operating procedure, the SOP is, the more like you're gonna be able to have like the time to kind of do your own stuff and allow them to kind of just focus on the work. They won't be bothering you as much. So they can really reference this stuff. So the more detail that it has, it really makes a huge difference. But also making sure that you understand the scope of the position too. I mean, a lot of the times business owners they've gotten the chance to kind of play around with every single role within their company. So it's important to understand the scope of that position so you can measure what a good person in that role looks like versus a bad person in that role. The last thing you want to do is kind of just prolong someone in a role because you want to continuously try to make it work. But at the end of the day, if you have a lot of these things in place, you'll be able to identify these things right out of the gate. So you're saving a lot more time and money. Um, and also for them, you're you're saving them time from having to kind of go through the processes ultimately to kind of lose a job after they've been with you for so long. So it's really important to have these things in place so you can really develop a strong long-term partnership with these employees.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Oh, that's good. Yeah, what what would a healthy onboarding process look like? How would you direct a company to just set up their onboarding process?

SPEAKER_00 20:14

It's it's again, it's probably dependent on the role and how how far into the the task that they're going to be delegating out, what tools they're gonna be utilizing. But I I think it's important to be very hands-on, especially during the beginning, understand that it does take time to get people ramped up. At the end of the day, you're you're sourcing these people within the role so they have already got the capabilities, but it's also making sure that they understand how you know you like things, how your company does things differently than their previous employer. So it's important to kind of have that time and and like I said, get to know them, build that rapport. The best way to do that is at the beginning, so you can really build a strong relationship and foundations for what the future of that partnership is gonna look like. So, yeah, I'd say that it's it's super important to kind of uh delegate out some time or block off some time to really meet with these people, spend some time going through the material and alongside making sure that you have a very in-depth SOP. We'll always ensure that this uh employer employee relationship is going to be set up for a good long-term uh relationship.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Good. And then what are some simple ways that you can document processes? How how do you encourage you know your hiring clients to document their processes?

SPEAKER_00 21:33

I would say there's a few easy ways. There's obviously there's third-party tools that you can use that you can as easily as just getting on the uh going like literally you click record, you just go through the processes and it kind of jots down every single step of the process. Obviously, those tools cost money. So if you want to kind of go on a more budget friendly route, just go through the process yourself, see what you're doing. If you're kind of emailing this person, you're pulling this. Template, reference all of these things, make sure you have links to all of these different areas. So we we provide it at our company, we provide a slight guideline onto how they can do these things, but it's really just along those lines, making sure that they include all of the credentials that are needed for the position to be successful. Any FAQs that are going to be referenced so that way the position, like I was saying, so that way they're not wasting your time too much with having to go through all of that stuff. They can kind of just reference a lot of that stuff. At the end of the day, it's frequently asked questions. So it's probably going to be the top 10 questions that they're going to ask, and to be probably laid out in that document. So it's important to have a dedicated area so they can easily reference that stuff rather than having to sift through all the material just to kind of uh identify what they're looking for. But yeah, it's important to have links and references to all of these different materials that they're going to be utilizing within the position, templates. And then, like I said, important to really meet with them and go through the material with them, make sure that they understand your perspective on things so they can really do it how you like it.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

That's good. Now I want to circle back around just uh for a minute to to outbound sales and and the mistakes there, because I know that that's something you're probably getting approached with quite a bit. Everybody wants outbound sales and remote people to do that. And and why does, you know, you you said our already that's the one thing you discourage people from, plus they already have processes in place. Why does outbound sales fail so often with remote staff?

SPEAKER_00 23:34

I think a lot of the times it's like a thing that people want to try and they just don't ever have the time to really do it. And or they did it themselves, so they know it could be done, but really there's a different drive that's lit under the business owner versus some random employee sales, outbound salesperson. So it's it's really just like having that system in place makes a huge difference, but also like the target of people you're reaching out to, those leads that you're gonna be dealing with on the day-to-day, the quality of people that you're reaching out to, the offer that you have in place, all of these components really make a difference into the position. And at the end of the day, it's a super measurable role, like I was saying. So, like if they're not delivering, they're gonna get cut. And a lot of the times it takes time to develop an outbound pipeline. It takes where it would take like a month on an internal pipeline, it could take two, three, four, five months. At the end of the day, you're reaching out to these people outbound. They have to look into you, make sure that you meet their requirements, the pricing, all of this stuff makes sense. And they probably didn't even really have that idea to begin with. So it's really just laying the foundation and continuously being consistent and persistent with those follow-up. So I I we strongly recommend against it because a lot of the business owners don't have those proper systems in place and they haven't really done it to understand that it does take that amount of time and that amount of effort. So uh we strongly recommend against it. I mean, and at the end of the day, like when it comes to like the people in the United States and who they're dealing with on the day-to-day, if they get a call from a number that they don't recognize and it's again somebody from another country, it there's a nine times out of ten chance that they're gonna think it's a spam call and they're just gonna hang up before they even get the opportunity to say a few words out of their mouth. So it's really important to make sure that you have the proper lead quality, you have proper systems, because at the end of the day, it really does make a difference with all of those components. You don't really just want to throw someone in the role and

Outbound Sales Mistakes

SPEAKER_00 25:32

kind of hope for the best because that's really gonna be a recipe that doesn't work.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Yeah, yeah. I think it's uh and that's why I wanted to go back to this. I think a lot of home service business owners, a lot of contractors, they're just desperate for leads, and and so they see this as a cheap, easy way to maybe generate some activity, but they don't have proper foundations in place and and it just becomes a disaster. So that's why I wanted to go back and hit this one again. You you can't delegate chaos, and if you don't have good systems in place, all you're gonna do is is exasperate that. So let's let's get into the the economics here, because I think people are gonna be surprised at the economics. Let's let's talk numbers, let's talk the the realities of what remote staffing actually costs. And I think people are gonna be surprised. You were telling me just the breakdowns of of what it costs. When you when you place somebody, what is that client actually paying for that placement?

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Yeah, for our company, we charge it's a range, again, it's dependent on the role, but they're never really paying anything more than $14 an hour. The lower end position is $12 an hour. So it's a very tight range, not that it's like a massive range, but it does depend on the position. And that includes a a horde of benefits and additions, not just the staff and their pay rate, but it also includes benefits for the staff. It includes us helping you out with managing, monitoring, and all of these various components to really ensure the success. Because at the end of the day, we've been doing this for a long time. We know what kind of bases we need to cover to ensure that this relationship with the remote staff is going to be as successful as possible. So we're kind of there to kind of hold your hand throughout the whole process and make it as easy as possible for you. So you don't really have to kind of go through that process all your own, but there is that option as well. So, but yeah, there's a ton of savings. I mean, where you would you usually save about 70% for what you're would hire locally. So most of the times, uh, drafters, office admins, all of these things were able to get at about 70% less than what you would pay for a local hire. So you're saving around $50,000, $60,000 annually. So whether that's going back in your pocket or back into the business, there's a lot of money on the table. Um, so it's important to really know that because it really will allow you to really scale your systems a lot quicker. Because if you do want to really grow faster, you really have to do and be aware of these kind of things that are out there and these tools that are available for your business, like remote staffing and other things that we've discussed here today.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Yeah, that's that's important. And you know, it's it's also interesting to note, and you you brought this statistic up to me on our earlier call, that your retention rate's around 96%. And you know, so that's something also that I I think sometimes gets overlooked. And I know even even, you know, in in our organization, our average tenure is over six years. We don't turn over employees.

Costs, Retention, AI, Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 28:48

And, you know, I talk to to my friends that own traditional brick and mortar companies here locally, and their biggest complaint, they can't retain people, and hiring just drives them crazy. And I have the opposite problem. You know, my my people don't go anywhere. And and so it's a very interesting, you know, conversation. And and so, you know, here's uh, you know, a question for you why do you feel like you have such high retention rates when so many people are struggling with retention? I mean, that's a common, especially in in the trades and in home services, that's a common complaint. Why is it not such a struggle?

SPEAKER_00 29:33

I think it's a combination of things. I think one, we really source the staff to have specific experiences with your guys' role that you're looking to fill. So we really provide a more custom fit sourcing. So a lot of the times home service business owners, if they're doing it themselves, they may not have uh as in-depth knowledge when it comes to interviewing and all the different things that they can do to filter out candidates and make sure that they're really picking out the best fit ones. So it's a combination of that, but also what we do here at our company that kind of separates us from a lot of our competitors in this space is that we advocate for higher agent pay rates. So a lot of our competitors really are profit-focused, so they're trying to find the lowest cost staff on the back end so they can maximize profits. For us, we actually pay about two to three dollars more for per hour for the same role. I know it doesn't sound like a lot when you're in the States, but with these overseas staff, that's like basically paying almost 50, 60% more for the same position. So we're getting higher quality candidates more committed to the position in combination with sourcing them specific to your guys' needs. It really ends up being a good combination. Plus, we're really good at vetting our candidate, our clients, making sure that they actually their requirements and what they're looking for, we can deliver that. We don't want to oversell and over overpromise things. We really want to make sure that we can set the proper expectations and deliver that. So our main objective is to build long-term partnerships. And that's because our margins are so small. The only way that we can build long-term partnerships is by placing high-quality staff, making sure that we're, like I said, covering all these bases to ensure that the partnership is going to be as successful as possible.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

Okay, good. So here's here's obviously the question that's probably floating around in somebody's mind. So, so why remote staff when maybe I could just use AI? How how is AI going to affect all of this?

SPEAKER_00 31:25

Yeah, I mean, AI is amazing. Uh, you shouldn't not use AI. There's a lot of things that you can delegate out to AI, but AI can't do everything, and somebody also needs to manage AI. So there's a lot of different areas in where you can fit in remote staff alongside AI to really maximize the potential of both the AI and the staff. So you're really scaling your business a lot faster, optimizing your processes a lot quicker. So I don't want to say it's one or the other. I think both of them are gonna be things that are gonna be crucial and beneficial to the growth of your business.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

That's good. And what advice would you give to a contractor that's considering hiring a remote staffing firm for the first time?

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Make sure you got the systems in place. Like we were saying throughout the call today, it's super important to have proper systems in place. Make sure that you understand the scope of the position that you're looking to pass off. You have set KPIs, expectations for what the role can deliver. So that way when someone does get plugged into the position, you have these things to measure the success of the role. It's not just kind of just throwing the person in the role and hoping for the best, but really setting it up for success. At the end of the day, it's your business, right? You want to make sure that you're setting it up for the most success it can possibly have. So I would say spend a little bit extra time setting up the processes, the foundation, so that way when you do want to bring people in, it's gonna be easy. And plus, it'll take it's a little bit more time up front, but trust me, it's a lot less time on the back end, whether that's gonna be having to turn over staff because they're not understanding the role and or answering a bunch of questions because they they don't have the proper material to reference. So um, it's important to set up the foundation so that way it's gonna one save you a lot more time in the future, but also allow you to kind of scale a lot quicker as well.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

That's good. So, Shai, if somebody wants to learn more about you or connect with you, learn more about hardhat helpers, uh, where can they go and do that?

SPEAKER_00 33:26

Um you can check us out at uh hardhathelpers.com. I'll also provide you some sort of access points. So if in case people wanted a reference from any of your channels, but that's probably gonna be the easiest way. We've got socials, hardhat helpers on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram. I think we have a YouTube also. We're pretty much out there on all different platforms. So somehow, somehow, if you find us, it'll funnel back to being able to set up a call directly with our team to learn more. We don't charge anything for it. It's about 15 to 30 minutes, so you can really address all those questions, concerns, and ultimately decide if it's gonna be a good fit for you or not. Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

And any final thoughts for our audience before we sign off today?

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Yeah, I I think that there's an opportunity to do it yourself out there. There's a lot of companies out there that do it, do what we do. It's important to get an idea of what's out there. I don't want to say just come to us and we're the one-stop shop who can do the job, which we are, but I do think that it's important to understand that there are different routes that you can go. If you wanted to hire directly yourself, you're probably gonna save about $3, $4 more per hour. But that's gonna come with the back end of having to do all of that extra work yourself. So it's really important. And we are the only staffing agency out there, uh remote staffing agency out there that really deals with strictly the home services space. So we've got a lot of experience when it comes to dealing with contractors and different people in this space. So um, whenever it comes to placing these roles and the tools that you guys are utilizing in-house, it's gonna be a lot quicker for us to get your staff ramped up. So it's a it's a win win for you guys and for us.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

That's good. Well, Shy, thank you for joining us today. And uh for our audience, thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Digital Remodeler Podcast. And we look forward to having you again on our next episode.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

Appreciate it, Carl. Hope you have a great rest of your day.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

Hey, thank you.