These guides are written for owners and office managers of roofing companies who are tired of posting the same job ad every spring and hoping. Each one teaches one part of recruiting marketing well enough that you could do it yourself. If you'd rather hand it off, the services page explains how we do it for you.
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The cost-per-hire maths for roofing crews
Track five numbers from ad to two-week hire, divide your marketing spend through them, and the weakest step in your hiring funnel shows up on its own.
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The roofing hiring season calendar
In most of Canada, roofing hiring is won in autumn and winter, not in spring. This calendar maps recruiting tasks to the months they belong in, region by region.
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How to write a roofing job ad people actually answer
A roofing job ad works when it answers five practical questions in the first few lines, speaks to one role at a time, and makes applying a single call or text.
Guide 1: Writing a roofing job ad people answer
How to write a roofing job ad people answer takes apart the typical "now hiring roofers" post and rebuilds it line by line. You'll learn:
- the five questions every roofer wants answered before applying
- how to write separate ads for labourers, experienced roofers and foremen
- how to describe the work honestly, including steep, flat, tear-off and travel
- why "competitive wages" and "fast-paced environment" cost you applicants
- how to make applying one call or text instead of a résumé chase
It also includes a fill-in-the-blanks template with placeholders you replace with your own details.
Guide 2: The cost-per-hire maths
The cost-per-hire maths for roofing crews shows how to track five numbers through your hiring funnel and find the step where you lose the most people. You'll learn:
- how to calculate marketing cost per applicant, per screened applicant and per two-week hire
- how a faster reply changes cost per hire without any extra ad spend
- how to compare a paid ad, a job board and your referral program on equal terms
- how to estimate the revenue a short crew leaves on the table
Every example uses round numbers you can swap for your own. None of them involve wage figures.
Guide 3: The roofing hiring season calendar
The roofing hiring season calendar maps recruiting tasks to the months they belong in, and explains how timing shifts between the West Coast, the Prairies, Central Canada, Atlantic Canada and the North. You'll learn:
- why autumn is the start of next season's hiring, not the end of this one
- what to do in the winter months, while roofs are quiet
- how to plan a mid-season backfill before you need it
- how weather patterns in each region change the plan
How to use these guides together
The three guides fit together in order. Start with the calendar to decide when to act, use the maths guide to find your weakest step, then rewrite your job ad and hiring page with the first guide. If your weakest step turns out to be the reply, our applicant text-back service is built for exactly that.
For region-specific context, including links to each province's workers' compensation board and apprenticeship authority, see areas we serve.
Who these guides are for
Answer first: anyone in a roofing company who touches hiring.
- Owners who want to understand the numbers behind recruiting before spending more on it.
- Office managers who handle applicants between customer calls and want a simpler, faster process.
- Foremen and lead hands who refer friends and help run trial days, and who know better than anyone what the job is really like.
- Operations managers at multi-crew companies who need to compare hiring across yards.
How we keep them current
Each guide carries an updated date. When something changes, such as a platform's rules for employment ads or a link to an official source, we revise the guide and the date. Official sources linked in the guides were checked in October 2026; always confirm the current version at the source before you rely on it.
A word on what these guides don't cover
We write about marketing. We don't cover pay rates, employment law, human rights rules or safety training, because those belong to your province's authorities and qualified professionals. Where a guide touches those topics, it tells you where to check. If you have a question the guides don't answer, ask us.
Frequently asked questions
Are these guides free to use?
Yes. Use them, copy the checklists into your own process and share them with your office manager. You don't need to contact us first.
Do the guides give legal or HR advice?
No. They cover marketing: how ads, pages, replies and timing work. For job-posting rules or employment standards, confirm with your provincial employment standards office or an employment lawyer.
Will you add more guides?
Probably, as we see which questions come up most. Each guide shows its last-updated date so you know how current it is.