How to Recruit & Keep Good HVAC Technicians
Intro
In this business, hiring and keeping good HVAC technicians is a big challenge. You need HVAC techs that are good cultural fits, treat customers well, and have the skills to get the job done.
What’s important to understand is that hiring isn’t just about posting a job ad; it’s about creating a company and culture that good employees will actually want to work in.
In this article, we’re going to talk about:
- where to advertise your technician jobs to get applicants
- how to make your job offer more attractive to the right techs and
- how to build the type of company people would love to work at.
Let’s dive in!
How to Get More Technician Job Applicants
First, you need to get the word out here about the available job(s) and start generating applicants. There are several ways to do this:
1. Job Board Websites
Job board sites are a good place to get started, as many of them are free to post a job on. Here are three popular job board sites you can take a look at:
- Monster
- Indeed
- ZipRecruiter
2. “We’re Hiring” On Your Website with an Application
Let people know you’re hiring! If your website already gets a significant amount of traffic, there’s a good chance that some of those people are HVAC techs looking for a new place to work. You’ll want to make it clear to those people you are hiring.
Put a big bold “we’re hiring!” on the home page of your site or, better yet, in the navigation bar. Have a button that goes directly to an applicant page that talks about the available position(s) and asks for some basic info. The page should also be clear that you’re looking for technicians to hire right away.
It’s free, and you may be surprised how many applicants trickle in over time.
3. Use Specialized Recruiting Platforms
There are some specialized recruiting platforms that hvac techs specifically go onto to find jobs. They then match these hvac techs up with companies who are looking for qualified candidates that meet their criteria.
Here are three specialized HVAC recruiting websites:
- https://bluerecruit.us/employers/
- https://www.tradesmeninternational.com/trade/hvac/
- https://hvacjobscenter.com/
With Blue Recruit, HVAC techs can fill out their qualifications, and then businesses who are hiring can narrow down what they’re looking for by experience, pay, work type, etc.
4. Employee Referral Programs & Incentives
The best employees usually have friends or relatives that would also make good employees. Every good technician you already have is potentially connected to several other amazing candidates.
Put together an in-house referral program where each employee gets $500 for every employee they refer that ends up being hired.
5. Run Meta Ads
Meta ads are a commonly overlooked method of getting hundreds of high quality applicants. If you have a good company culture and employees love working with you, get them on camera to give you a video testimonial! Then run ads with those videos to encourage applicants to fill out a form on your website.
Plus, if you have great reviews and an established website, you’ll get lots of techs who see the ads and then go do their own research.
6. Work with a Recruiting Agency
The most expensive option but in some cases the most time/cost effective, is to work with an agency that specializes in recruiting. These agencies can help you write job ads, post job ads in the best places for your local market, and generate applicants.
If you’re looking for a company to help generate applicants with Meta ads, take a look at Rapid Hire.
How to Attract the Right Candidates
Good HVAC techs typically know their own worth and will be looking for a place where they can grow. If your company is able to offer clear direction and growth, try to write an ad that will appeal to this type of tech.
“We’re looking for technicians who want to double their pay within 1-2 years with performance-based incentives!”
Or
“Are you looking for an HVAC company to work at where you can thrive and grow in your career?”
These are just two examples; the point is that you want your job ads, your Meta ads, or whatever you’re using to advertise the job should have verbiage that’s likely to attract the right candidate.
How to Keep Your Best Techs
Build a Growth Culture
Build a culture where your technicians can grow.
Building a growth-minded culture is critical for your success.
If the type of people working for you, and the culture within your business, isn’t growth minded, you’ll be stuck with an organization that just “shows up to work.”
This results in poor quality for customers, constantly having to “motivate” people, and your best techs leaving because they aren’t in an environment where they can thrive.
Building that type of culture allows you to keep high-performing employees, and allows you to advertise a company that is already healthy and thriving; not beg the best techs to give you a chance.
Plus, if your company is going to grow, do you want to grow something that’s thriving, and good for employees? Or do you want to grow something that’s dysfunctional?
According to Sam Matsuk & Lyle Horst, co-founders of a highly successful HVAC operation called Topline Heating & Air, the keys to building this culture are:
- Operate on truth and transparency. What’s realistic? Can the people you are hiring realistically do the job? If not, can they move to somewhere else in the company - or do they need to go? Rather than operating on feelings, operating on truth is essential.
- Build systems that allow the team to function. If your business isn’t systemized, performing is much more difficult. Employees are saddled with busy thinking work all day instead of getting real work done. But when you build systems that enable employees to get real work done - you give them a vehicle to more efficient performance, and they can drive that vehicle as fast as they’re willing to!
- Track performance and incentivize. This keeps the team accountable, and makes goals clear for everyone. Employees are rewarded for activity that actually generates money for the company.
Have Respect and Humility When Working With Employees
I created a poll in a Facebook group with thousands of HVAC technicians, and asked what the biggest things were that caused them to leave previous companies.
The poll received 161 votes (people can vote for multiple options). The top 3 reasons were:
- Bad compensation - 37%
- Boss was a jerk - 22%
- Too much workload/too many hours - 15%
Another honorable mention was “Poor company culture/bad communication skills” at 5%.
It was unsurprising that 37% of technicians leave due to bad compensation. Creating a company and structuring pricing in a way that allows you to pay techs well is crucial.
On the other hand, having good relationships with your boss, and not overloading technicians (especially ones with young families!) is also crucial to keeping good employees around.
Conclusion
There’s an old saying “if you build it, they will come!”
While this isn’t necessarily true in a post-industrial era, I think it is true that you should build something worth coming to in the first place.
If hiring has been a long-time challenge for you, maybe it’s time to look inward at your company, pay structure, and how you’re treating employees rather than outward at new tactics to get applicants.
Let’s go build something great!
