THE METHOD

The STACK Method.

Five letters, five places a hire can break. A shared language for diagnosing hiring problems before throwing money at them.

The STACK Method is Metcalf Search's five-letter diagnostic for small business hiring: Source, Tempo, Assess, Close, Keep. Every hiring problem lives in one of the five. Name the letter and you know what to fix.

Most hiring advice starts with tactics. STACK starts with location. Before you rewrite the job ad, raise the salary, or add another interview, find out where the search is actually breaking. The five letters below each open into a full field guide. Tap a letter, see the questions that live there, and read the leaf that matches yours.

Every hiring problem you face lives in one of five places. Find yours.

SOURCEAttract

When the right candidates can't find your job, or won't apply when they do.

  • Why aren't qualified candidates applying to my job?
  • How do I write a job title that candidates actually search for?
  • How does a small business compete with bigger companies for talent?
  • Where should I be posting jobs that aren't Indeed?
Read the SOURCE leaf →

How the method is used

Inside a Fractional Recruiting partnership, STACK is how the pod organizes the work: every search gets a sourcing plan, a tempo commitment, a structured assessment, an offer sequence, and a ninety-day keep plan. On your own, it works as a diagnostic. When a search stalls, find the letter where it stalled and start there. Tiers and pricing are on Services.

The method is also the spine of the forthcoming book. The waitlist lives on the home page.