#63 – From the Trenches: Why Your Hiring Fails & How to Fix It (Fletcher Wimbush – Discovered)

In this episode of From the Trenches on the BMK Vision Podcast, Josh Peterson sits down with Fletcher Wimbush, founder of Discovered, for a blunt, systems-level conversation about why MSP hiring keeps failing—and why “trying harder” rarely fixes it.

This is not a conversation about trendy hiring hacks, polishing job posts, or blaming candidates. Fletcher argues that most MSP hiring breakdowns start upstream: with incentives. Traditional contingency recruiting rewards speed and seat-filling, not accuracy and long-term performance. Even DIY hiring can accidentally recreate the same failure pattern—small funnel, rushed decisions, vague definitions of “good,” and an over-reliance on gut feel. The result is familiar: onboarding churn, stalled capacity, leadership fatigue, and a team that can’t compound.

If you’re an MSP owner who’s tired of the cycle—hire, hope, scramble, repeat—this episode will resonate. It offers a practical framework for predicting performance (not just interviewing well), and it reinforces a leadership truth: your hiring process is part of your operating system, whether you designed it or not.

The real root cause: misaligned incentives

Fletcher’s clearest claim is also the most uncomfortable: most hiring failures aren’t caused by a lack of effort—they’re caused by a system that optimizes for the wrong outcome. Contingency recruiting often pays only when a seat is filled, which quietly pushes behavior toward speed, persuasion, and surface-level box-checking.

For MSP owners, this isn’t abstract. A mis-hire doesn’t just waste a fee. It creates a multi-month capacity gap, adds emotional drag to your leadership team, and amplifies operational chaos. The business loses momentum exactly when it needed stability.

• When the system rewards speed, quality becomes optional
• Bad hires create a second tax: opportunity cost and team burnout
• Fixing hiring starts with fixing what the process is designed to produce

Opportunity cost is the silent MSP killer

The episode repeatedly returns to a leadership reality MSPs understand in their bones: capacity is revenue. If a tech role is unfilled for months, you’re either leaving revenue on the table or converting your A-players into a patchwork of escalations, training, and overtime.

Then comes the most painful scenario: you finally hire, onboard for weeks, and discover you didn’t add capacity—you added friction. When the employee exits (or you have to let them go), you don’t just “start over.” You restart from a more exhausted, more distracted version of your business.

• Every vacant seat is a compounding constraint
• Onboarding churn steals focus from service quality and growth
• Leaders feel “busy,” but the business becomes less productive

Integrity and attitude: the attributes most MSPs under-test

Fletcher draws a hard distinction between what’s easy to measure and what matters most. Skills and experience can be evaluated with technical screens, working sessions, and specific tests. But the traits that create long-term success—and protect your culture—often live upstream: integrity, attitude, and applied emotional intelligence.

He frames it with a simple warning MSP owners can’t ignore: if someone is smart and motivated but lacks integrity, the downside isn’t inconvenience—it’s operational and reputational risk. In a service business built on trust, that risk is existential.

• Skills can be tested; character has to be evaluated intentionally
• Integrity failures become client-facing failures
• Hiring is a risk decision, not just a staffing decision

Why “best practices” still work: job analysis and structured interviews

One of the most practical sections of the episode is the reminder that hiring hasn’t changed as much as the internet would have you believe. The modern noise is louder, but the fundamentals still win: define the role clearly, define what “good” looks like, and run a consistent process that evaluates evidence—not charisma.

Fletcher emphasizes a step most MSPs skip: job analysis. Not a fluffy job description, but a real inspection of what the role does, how success is measured, and what outcomes matter most. That clarity becomes the anchor for interviews, scorecards, and decision-making—especially when emotions get loud.

• Vague roles create vague hiring decisions
• Performance-based descriptions beat generic job posts
• Consistency reduces bias and improves accuracy

Assessments: why DISC is popular—and why it’s not enough

Josh presses on a common MSP habit: leaning on DISC (or similar personality tests) as a shortcut to certainty. Fletcher’s answer is direct: personality can be useful context, but it’s not a reliable predictor of job success the way many leaders assume—especially if the assessment isn’t designed and validated for pre-hire use.

The deeper takeaway isn’t “never use personality tools.” It’s this: most MSP owners reach for whatever feels easiest when hiring is stressful. If a tool becomes a replacement for structured evaluation—rather than a supplement—you’ll keep repeating the same outcomes, just with better-looking charts.

• Personality insights are not the same as performance prediction
• Pre-hire assessments must account for “test-taking behavior” under pressure
• The goal is accuracy, not reassurance

The reference move most MSPs don’t use (and should)

One of Fletcher’s strongest tactics is also one of the simplest: ask candidates to identify their prior direct supervisor—and have the candidate schedule the reference conversation. The response becomes signal. A confident “yes” often indicates healthy relationships and credible performance. Evasion, excuses, and delay often indicate the opposite.

This matters for MSPs because resumes and interviews are easy to game. References—when approached correctly—help you verify whether “good in the room” translates into “good in the role.” Even when policies limit what can be said, the willingness to engage and the consistency of details tell a story.

• Don’t just “collect references”—use them as part of the evaluation process
• Candidate willingness is data, not drama
• Great references create clarity; weak ones prevent regret

Working interviews: let candidates sample the reality

Fletcher closes the loop with a practical safeguard: the working interview. Instead of making a high-stakes decision based on conversations alone, you let candidates experience the role—ticket samples, team interaction, job expectations, and the real pace of the work.

This step reduces surprises for both sides. MSPs avoid the “they ghosted after day one” scenario because expectations are made tangible. Candidates avoid joining a role that doesn’t match what they imagined. The result is fewer mis-hires and less leadership time lost to churn.

• Sample the job before you commit to it
• Reality is the best filter for fit
• The goal is durable performance—not a smooth first week

Episode highlights

• 00:02:07 – The incentive flaw in contingency recruiting—and why it backfires.
• 00:03:46 – The real MSP cost of bad hires: lost capacity, burnout, and churn.
• 00:10:48 – Integrity and attitude as foundational hiring filters.
• 00:16:32 – Job analysis and defining “what good looks like” before you interview.
• 00:21:52 – DISC and personality tools: useful context, weak prediction.
• 00:36:42 – Why generational stereotypes are often a leadership shortcut.
• 00:40:57 – References that work: having candidates schedule prior-supervisor calls.
• 00:50:22 – Working interviews and how to reduce day-one surprises.
• 00:52:58 – How Discovered de-risks hiring with an education-first model.

About the guest: Fletcher Wimbush

Fletcher Wimbush is the founder of Discovered and a hiring strategist with more than a decade of experience helping businesses replace broken recruiting habits with evidence-based hiring systems. His approach emphasizes the factors that protect long-term performance—integrity, attitude, structured interviews, meaningful reference conversations, and practical evaluation steps like working interviews—so owners can stop gambling on gut feel and start building durable teams.

Connect with Fletcher Wimbush on LinkedIn →

Frequently asked questions

Why does MSP hiring keep failing even when we “try harder”?
Because effort can’t compensate for a weak system. Small funnels, vague role definitions, and seat-filling incentives produce predictable mis-hires—even with good intentions.

Is using a recruiter automatically a bad idea?
Not necessarily. The risk is the incentive model. If the process rewards speed over accuracy, you’ll often get short-term placements instead of durable performers.

Are personality tests like DISC useful for hiring?
They can provide context, but they don’t reliably predict job success on their own—especially if the assessment isn’t validated for pre-hire use and resistant to “faking.”

What’s the fastest way to improve hiring accuracy?
Define “good” clearly (job analysis + scorecard), run structured interviews focused on evidence, and use references and assessments to verify what you’re hearing.

How should MSPs handle reference checks when companies have strict policies?
Have candidates schedule the call with prior supervisors when possible. Willingness, responsiveness, and consistency still provide valuable signal—even when formal HR policies limit details.

What is a working interview and why does it matter?
It’s a structured “sample the job” step—tickets, team interaction, and expectations—designed to reduce day-one surprises and improve mutual fit before committing.

Related resources from Bering McKinley

• Be fluent in your employees’ communication style
• Support your support team by hiring a dispatcher

Want to continue the conversation?

If you’re an MSP owner trying to build a team that scales capacity, protects culture, and reduces owner heroics, explore the Vision operating system or apply to be a guest on the podcast.

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