263. 3 Onboarding Steps to Stop Employee Turnover - Mike Matalone

About this episode

Mike Matalone discusses effective onboarding steps to reduce employee turnover in the trades.

To learn more about Breakthrough Academy, click here:  https://trybta.com/EP263   Make training your next hire a breeze by grabbing a copy of our training checklist template: https://trybta.com/DL263 High employee turnover is killing profitability in the trades. And unfortunately, there is no quick fix. In this episode of Contractor Evolution, we sit down with Mike Matalone, author of Hire. Train. Retain. , to break down exactly why you’re losing your best people and how to stop the bleeding. Managing employee retention isn't just about paying more; it requires building robust systems at every stage of the employee lifecycle. Mike reveals the secrets to unlocking 40-60% more productivity from your current team by tapping into their "discretionary effort." If construction hiring and retention are constantly giving you headaches, this episode gives you the blueprint to build a culture that keeps top talent engaged for the long haul. You'll learn the difference between hiring for roles versus people, the three onboarding steps that make new hires stick, and why career paths often matter more to your crew than their paycheck. Check out Mike’s book here…

People in this episode

Guest: Mike Matalone

Topics covered

• employee retention
• onboarding
• productivity
• trades
• company culture

Keywords

• employee turnover
• onboarding steps
• productivity
• trades
• career paths

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Breakthrough Academy

Books & works: Hire. Train. Retain., training checklist template, Mike’s book

More episodes of Contractor Evolution

• 271. How To Land $100K+ Projects Without Bidding Against Competitors - John Malanchuk · May 6, 2026 · 47 min
• 270. AI for Contractors: Eliminate Admin Bloat & Scale Faster - Mark Wong · April 29, 2026 · 49 min
• 269. Scale From $1M to $10M (The Easy Way) - Cameron Herold · April 22, 2026 · 1h 6m
• 268. Open the Books, Change the Game: Ellen Rohr's Accountability Blueprint · April 15, 2026 · 1h 5m
• 267. How To Hire When No One’s Applying (Builder Roundtable) - Matt Risinger, Jacob Toler, Matt Balfe · April 8, 2026 · 1h 27m
• 266. How to Run a Contracting Business With Your Spouse (Without Killing Each Other) - Caleb Auman · April 1, 2026 · 1h 8m