Twelve months of onboarding.
And in month eight, they quit.
A recruiting system that does not just fill roles but fills them correctly – and belongs to your company afterwards. For service technicians, industrial mechanics and automation specialists.
No obligation – no lock-in contract
In special-purpose machinery every plant is a one-off. That is your sales argument and simultaneously your biggest staffing risk: whoever starts with you becomes productive after six to twelve months, not six weeks. A bad hire therefore does not cost half an annual salary, it costs a project – plus the time during which nobody else sat in the role.
Which is exactly why, in this segment, pre-selection matters more than volume. An agency delivering 40 applications has delivered nothing if your project manager has to read 38 of them. What counts is a path that asks your technical criteria before anyone loses interview time – and that belongs to you afterwards, because the next project needs it just the same.
Then there is the project business itself: orders arrive in peaks, and so does demand for people. A company that hires an agency at every peak pays for the setup every time. A company with its own system starts outreach on the day the order is signed.
One application. Answered the same day.
A technician applies in the evening after their shift – and usually not only to you. Whoever answers first gets the interview. That is not a service promise, it is the selection mechanism of this market.
First application within 72 hours.
Then a fixed rhythm: every application answered the same day – even when the service manager is at a customer site or on holiday. The process and the templates belong to your company after handover.
- Answers in minutes, not days – evenings and weekends included
- Asks the points your service manager defined
- Mr Krüger
Good evening, I saw your field service technician role. How large is the travel radius?
- Blacklyne
Good evening! Around 180 km, you sleep at home. Overnight stays about twice a month, company vehicle provided. Which controls have you worked on most recently?
< 3 s - Mr Krüger
Siemens 840D and Heidenhain, seven years of CNC service. I am used to on-call duty.
- Blacklyne
That fits. Our service manager has Thursday 16:30 open – shall I book it for you?
< 4 s
Every route. One entry point.
Careers page, ad, message, callback – all in one place, on your access and with your data. No agency inbox you have to have candidates forwarded from.
- One entry point instead of five channels and three inboxes
- All applicant data stays with you – from day one
What keeps your roles open.
The bottlenecks in this segment – and why they rarely sit in the market.
Early attrition is your most expensive number
With six to twelve months of onboarding, a resignation in year one is a total loss of the investment. The most common cause is not technical but an expectation raised during hiring and not met in the plant.
Application volume is a cost for you
Every unsuitable application consumes time from a project manager who does not have it. Which makes an agency commitment on application numbers not a promise but a threat.
Commissioning means travel, and it has to be clear upfront
Deloitte names very intensive travel as one of the main causes of the shortage. Soften it during hiring and you buy yourself the year-one resignation – and pay for it with twelve months of onboarding.
Demand comes in peaks, an agency needs lead time
Weeks, not months, separate an incoming order from the staffing need. A job posting with 168 days to fill does not fit that window. A system you start yourself does.
6 percent are searching. 62 percent would move.
According to the EY job study, 6 percent of skilled workers are actively searching while 62 percent are passively open to a move – an all-time high. A job ad addresses the first 6 percent. The rest are reachable, just not where you advertise.
Every application is answered the same day.
Here is what changes for you.
Pre-selection before the interview, not after
Your project or service manager defines the technical criteria. We build the path that asks for them. Questionnaire and scoring logic are yours afterwards – and ready again for the next project.
Honesty as a retention tool
Travel days, project duration, on-call and onboarding time are in the role profile, not in the fourth interview. That costs applications and saves resignations. At twelve months of onboarding, that is the cheaper side.
Ready to launch on the day the order is signed
After handover you need no supplier for new outreach. Ad accounts, audiences and templates sit with you and can be launched in hours, not weeks.
A guarantee on the outcome
If a committed role stays open, we keep working – at no further cost. We make no commitments on application counts; in special-purpose machinery that would be the wrong promise.
4 steps.
Then it is yours.
First we check whether the role can be filled in your region. Then we build the system inside your company, fill the role with a guarantee on the hire – and hand it over.
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Feasibility check
Can the role be filled in your region, and is your area still open? We put in writing what “the right fit” means technically. We decline roles that cannot be filled – even when that means one engagement less.
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System build
Role profile with travel radius and on-call, careers page on your domain, a 90-second application path, pre-selection on your service manager’s criteria. Every account runs under your name from day one.
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Filling phase
Then a fixed rhythm: every application answered the same day. You run interviews instead of sorting. If a committed role stays open, we keep working – at no further cost.
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Handover
Access, ad accounts, audiences, templates, applicant data, training for your team and a written operating manual. We are done when you can launch the next role without us.
Honest answers.
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01 We need PLC programmers. Is that the same target group?
Partly. Automation technicians and industrial electricians sit inside the same system, academic software developers do not – that is a different market and headhunting territory. Where our system is not the right tool, we say so. -
02 What if we only hire once a year?
Then a system is probably too large for you and an agency is the cheaper maths. We say that in the first call rather than building you something you cannot use to capacity. -
03 How does the system prevent bad hires?
It does not prevent them, it reduces them where most of them originate: in expectations. Travel days, onboarding duration, project reality and on-call are settled before the application, not after. -
04 Who trains our team on the system?
We do, as part of the handover. You get access, templates, a written operating manual and training. We are done when you can launch the next role without us.
Articles for this industry
Practical guides and levers – straight from the field
Finding field service technicians: why the role stays open for 168 days
The travel radius belongs in the first line, not the fourth interview
What a recruitment agency costs in machinery – and when it stops paying off
Calculating vacancy costs in machinery: what the open role really costs
In-house recruiting or agency: the calculation almost nobody makes
Finding CNC machinists: four details that decide the application
One company per area. See if yours is still open.
A field service technician hired in fourteen days. A machining company with three candidates for two roles in the first month. No magic pill – a system that stays in the company afterwards. The feasibility check tells you whether your role can be filled in your catchment area. If it cannot, we decline before you spend a cent. One company per field and area.
What happens on the first call
- We run the numbers on your catchment area: how many suitable skilled workers are within range and whether your role can be filled there.
- You see the filled cases with role, company size and time to hire – and you may question every figure.
- You learn what the build costs in your case. Including when we advise against it.