Sands Wall Systems is a commercial drywall and framing contractor operating primarily across South Dakota and North Dakota. Like many contractors in smaller regional markets, the challenge wasn’t just hiring, it was visibility. Derek Maassen, who oversees hiring at Sands, could not find qualified workers in other regions outside of his immediate area. And when you’re trying to attract experienced, leadership-level tradesmen willing to relocate, that problem gets harder fast.

The challenge: Accessing a national talent pool from a small regional market

Sands needed experienced drywall carpenters and framing professionals. Workers with the skills and leadership profile to thrive in a region with limited local supply. Traditional job boards couldn’t solve it. They surfaced local candidates who weren’t a fit and provided no real way to search nationally, filter by verified skills, or engage workers directly at scale.

Derek also had a compelling story to tell: Sands Wall Systems is 100% employee-owned, offering real wealth-building through company stock, leadership development opportunities, and full relocation support. The problem wasn’t the pitch, it was the reach and visibility. He needed to find the qualified workers to pitch them on moving to South Dakota.

The solution: AI-powered access to a nationwide network of vetted craft professionals

Skillit gave Derek the ability to search across the country, filter by trade and skills, and reach out directly to verified, interview-ready craft professionals. Instead of waiting for applications, he was building a pipeline in real time on Skillit. Here are the numbers

• Top of funnel building: Derek reached out to 226 craft professionals on Skillit

• Strong, positive response: 71 responded (31.4%, 1.6X better than Indeed) and 60 responded positively (84.5%, 2.6X better than Indeed)

Skillit’s AI hiring assistant, Sam, handled the heavy lifting on outreach and follow-up, keeping Derek’s pipeline moving without burying him in admin work. And Skillit Flow, Skillit’s AI-powered candidate discovery feature, surfaced workers Derek wouldn’t have found through direct search alone, adding an additional layer of qualified candidates to his pipeline.

The result: Three hires and a national pipeline that keeps building

Sands hired three experienced drywall professionals, all from outside the Upper Midwest, which would have been nearly impossible without Skillit’s national reach and the largest network of qualified craft workers.

But the impact goes beyond the immediate hires. Every conversation Derek had with a worker who wasn’t ready to move right now is one more person who now knows about Sands Wall Systems and the opportunity it offers. That long-term pipeline and brand awareness in markets Sands had never touched before is compounding quietly in the background.

The data speaks for itself:

• 226 candidates sourced

• 84.5% positive response rate from 60 workers

• 2.6X better positive response rate than Indeed

• 3 relocated hires