The Bench You’ll Wish You Had

Every January I get the same phone call.

It’s an owner, usually a good one, and he’s in a bind. Somebody quit. Maybe his best tech. Maybe his office manager. Maybe the salesperson who was carrying half the number. They gave two weeks’ notice the first Monday after New Year’s, right after the bonus check cleared.

So now he’s scrambling. He throws a job post up on Indeed. He gets 140 applications, 130 of which are from people who didn’t read the post. He interviews whoever’s available, which is mostly people who are available for a reason. Six weeks later he hires somebody he’s not excited about because he’s tired of doing two jobs.

Then he calls me and asks how to fix his hiring.

Here’s what I tell him. You don’t have a hiring problem. You have a timing problem. You started looking for people the day you needed them. By then, the best ones were already taken.

The fix is something I call the bench. And the time to build it is right now.

Here’s what’s going on in the job market this fall.

Hardly anybody is quitting. The August 2026 JOLTS report put the quits rate at 1.9 percent, and hires have been stuck in a narrow band for over two years. Layoffs are historically low. KPMG described it as a low hire, low fire market. There’s about one job opening for every unemployed person, down from two in 2022.

Most people read that and think hiring should be easy. Lots of people looking, not many jobs. Take your pick.

That’s only half right.

The people who are actively unemployed are one pool. The people you actually want, the great tech, the office manager who runs the place like a Swiss watch, the closer who makes it look easy, are mostly employed. And right now they’re staying put. Not because they love their jobs. Because the market feels shaky and nobody wants to be the new guy if things turn.

So they’re sitting there. A little bored. A little underpaid. A little annoyed at a boss who doesn’t notice them. Counting down to the year end bonus.

And when the new year hits, a lot of them start moving. Indeed’s search data has shown job searches jumping more than 40 percent from the last week of December to the first week of January. Pay was the top reason people gave for wanting out.

That’s your window. Not January. Now. You want to be the one they already know when they decide it’s time.

A bench is a short list of specific people you’d hire tomorrow if you had the spot, and who know you’d hire them.

That’s it. It’s not a stack of resumes. It’s not a “talent pipeline” in some HR software. It’s names. Real people you’ve met, talked to, and kept in touch with.

Pro sports teams do this. They don’t wait until the starting quarterback tears his ACL to start scouting. They know who they’d call before they ever need to call him.

A good bench for a small business is five to ten names for your most important roles. If your best person walked out tomorrow, who would you call first?

If the answer is “nobody, I’d post an ad,” that’s what we’re fixing.

Most job posts are a list of duties. “Answer phones. Schedule appointments. Other tasks as assigned.”

That tells a great candidate nothing, and it tells you nothing about who to hire.

Start with a scorecard instead. One page. For each role on your bench, write down:

The mission. One sentence on why the job exists. “Keep the schedule full and every customer feeling taken care of from first call to final invoice.”

Three to five outcomes. Not tasks. Results, with numbers. “Book 90 percent of inbound calls into an appointment.” “Get the schedule built two weeks out at all times.” “Keep online reviews at 4.8 or higher.”

The five traits that matter most. Not twenty. Five. For a field tech it might be: shows up on time, takes pride in the work, explains things to customers like a human, cleans up after himself, and owns his mistakes.

The deal breakers. The two or three things that end it, no matter how good the resume looks.

Once you have that page, everything else gets easier. You know who you’re looking for. You know what to ask. And you can tell in the first ten minutes of a conversation whether somebody’s in the running.

Now sit down with a blank page and start naming names.

Think about every good person you’ve crossed paths with in the last few years. The sharp service writer at the dealership. The guy at the supply house who always knows the answer. The assistant at your attorney’s office who runs circles around everyone. The competitor’s tech your customers keep mentioning by name. The salesperson who pitched you so well you almost bought something you didn’t need.

Write them all down. Then ask three groups for more.

Your team. Good people know good people. Ask your best two employees: “If you could clone yourself, who would you pick? Who’s the best person you’ve ever worked with?”

Your customers and vendors. “We’re building out the team for next year. Who’s the best person you’ve worked with in the last year, in any company, that I should know about?”

Your peers. Other owners you trust in noncompeting businesses. They’ve got their own bench and a few people who didn’t fit theirs.

Keep it all in one place. I keep mine in Clay, because it pulls in every email, text, and meeting I’ve had with each person and reminds me when I haven’t talked to somebody in a while. A spreadsheet works too. What doesn’t work is a list in your head.

Here’s where most owners chicken out. They think reaching out to somebody who has a job is poaching, or awkward, or pushy.

It’s none of those things. You’re not asking them to quit. You’re offering a conversation and making a friend.

Here’s a message I’ve used, word for word:

“Hey Sarah, it’s Marcus. I’ve heard your name come up a few times as one of the best at what you do. I’m not asking you to jump ship. I’m building out our team for next year and I like to know good people before I need them. Any chance you’d grab coffee in the next couple weeks? My treat, no pitch.”

That message gets a yes way more often than you’d think. People like being told they’re good at their jobs. Most of them never hear it from their own boss.

At the coffee, don’t interview. Listen. Ask about what they’re working on, what they like about it, what drives them nuts, and where they want to be in two years. Then tell them a little about your business and what you’re building. Before you leave, say this:

“I don’t have a spot open right now. But if one opens up that fits you, you’re the first person I’m calling. And if you ever start looking, I’d love to hear from you before you talk to anybody else.”

That’s it. You’ve planted the flag.

Then stay in touch. A text when you see something that reminds you of them. A note when they post a win. A holiday card. Three or four touches a year. When January comes and they’re sitting at their kitchen table updating their resume, your name is the one they think of.

When you do open a role, write the post like a piece of marketing, because that’s what it is.

Your job post is competing with a hundred others for the attention of somebody who’s half looking on their phone at 10pm. “Busy HVAC company seeking experienced technician” isn’t going to stop the scroll.

Lead with what’s in it for them. Not the duties. The life.

“You’re the best tech in your shop and you know it. You’re tired of being sent on the worst calls because you’re the only one who can fix them, and tired of a boss who doesn’t notice. Here’s what it looks like here.”

Then be specific. The real pay range. The schedule. The truck. The training. What a great first year looks like. What’s annoying about the job, because every job has something, and saying so out loud is how you earn trust.

End with a simple next step that filters out people who don’t read. “To apply, send a short message telling me about the toughest call you’ve ever fixed.” Half your applicants won’t do it. That’s the point.

Great candidates don’t wait around. If your process takes six weeks, somebody else will hire them in three.

Here’s a simple process that moves fast without cutting corners:

Record your interviews with permission. I use Fathom on every video interview so I can go back and compare answers side by side, instead of relying on my memory of who seemed nice. It also lets me share a two minute clip with my team and ask what they think, which beats trying to describe somebody from memory.

Here’s the one that kills a lot of good hires.

You find the perfect person in November. They’re excited. Then they say, “I’d love to, but I’ve got a bonus coming in January and I’d be walking away from it.”

Don’t lose them over that. You’ve got options.

Set the start date after the bonus. If you’re building the bench now, you’re not desperate. Make the offer in December and set the start date for the week after their bonus pays. They get the bonus, you get the person.

Match part of it. If you need them sooner, offer a signing bonus that covers some or all of what they’d leave behind, paid out over their first six months so it’s tied to them staying.

Show them the next bonus. Sometimes the bigger move is to show them what they could earn in their first full year with you. A clear path to a raise or a bonus in twelve months beats a one time check.

“I’m not hiring right now.”

Good. That’s the best time to build a bench. You’re not desperate, you’re not settling, and you get to meet people as a peer instead of a guy with a fire to put out.

“It feels like poaching.”

You’re not recruiting anybody away. You’re getting to know good people in your industry. What they do with that is their call. And if their current boss treated them right, a cup of coffee with you wouldn’t change anything.

“I don’t have time for coffees.”

One coffee a week, from now until the end of the year, is about nine coffees. That’s a bench. Compare that to six weeks of panic hiring in January and you’ll find the time.

“What if they say no?”

Most will, for now. That’s fine. A bench isn’t about getting a yes today. It’s about being the first call when the answer changes.

Before next Friday:

When January comes and the phone rings with somebody’s two weeks’ notice, you’ll already know who you’re calling.

Sunday is the first day of Movember. We’re not talking about mustaches. We’re talking about the question most men never ask each other twice.

Refined. Relentless. Unapologetic.

Marcus