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HVAC
Articles |
Want to Keep Your Techs – Do Some Business Planning!
America is the best country in the whole wide world to live in. If you don’t believe it spend a little time in another country. America also has an amazing economy based on one overriding economic principle called Supply and Demand. The principle is really pretty easy to understand. When supply is limited, demand increases and guess what….so does the price. The reverse is also true. When there is a lot of a commodity the demand is low and the price falls. This principle works pretty well but if you are a trade’s contractor you have experienced the negative end of the basic economic principle when it comes to your company. See if you can complete this sentence. We could do a whole lot more work if we could simply find another qualified______? What is the answer? Right, you could do a lot more work if you could simply find another qualified technician. Now make no mistake there is a real shortage of qualified technicians within every trade, in every state. Unfortunately, the situation is not likely to get better any time soon.
Assuming the above situation is true, what can be done about it? Well I may not have a long term solution for creating more qualified techs but I do have some thoughts on ways to “keep” the ones you already have. Let’s assume you are ABC Contracting Company and John the tech has worked for you for ten years. He does an above average job, seldom complains and shows up to work every day. Everything seemed fine until you walked into the office this past Monday to find a voice message on your machine from John saying he had taken another job across town for $.50/hour more than you are paying him. You sit there in shock wondering what is going on. Why would he leave for $.50 an hour more? He seemed happy, what happened? Before I give my opinion, what is yours? Why did John leave?
To help make my point lets create another situation in a local manufacturing plant. The factory has 100+ employees, has been around for over 30 years and the average worker has been with the company 15 or more years. Why do the factory workers stay….while John leaves? Well for one thing the factory has a policy of promoting from within. That means two things. It means every “new” job is an entry level job that is filled form the local community. It also means that every job promotion will come from the existing employee base. Now ask yourself this question. Why do the employees at our factory keep working their year, after year after year? Right again, they see a future. They may be sweeping floors today but someday, it they stick around and get some training, they may have the opportunity to move into a management position. Each move up means more money, better provision for the family and new challenges. In summary, every employee hired on has a potential future with the company.
So now let’s go back to John. Why did John leave? John sees himself as a tech. He has been a tech for 15 years and the last 10 years he has been with ABC Company and as far as he can see he will be a tech 10 years from today. Always been a tech, always going to be a tech. John is just like the rest of us, he has a family and his income needs to increase. John gets an offer from across town for an additional $.50/hour and off he goes. Now compare our factory employees and ABC Contracting employees. What’s different? Well hopefully the comparison is crystal clear. The factory worker has a possible career path and John doesn’t.
What can you do about John and others like him? The answer is to do a bit of business planning. Begin to take your eyes off today’s fires and spend a few hours in a quiet place and think about the future. Where are you now and where do you want to be 3 years, 5 years or ten years from now? Maybe you have three service techs now but in three or four years you hope to grow to the point of having five techs which means you will also need a service manager. Retro fill in growing and within a year or two you will need at least one full time sales person and maybe two. As the company grows office positions will also open up. As you visualize the future two things begin to become clear. First, before long new positions will need to be filled. The second question is “How are you going to fill them?”
After you have done some serious thinking about the future begin to put your thoughts on paper. One of the things you will want to do is to create an Organizational Chart showing positions that will need to be filled over the coming years. When your vision of the future becomes clear, and you have put those thoughts on paper, hold a company meeting. Share your vision of the future and make sure all the employees become fully aware that new positions will be created in the future that will need to be filled. Also make them fully aware that it is your desire to hire from within where ever possible. Also encourage each and every employee to make you fully aware of the fact that they have a serious interest in being considered for one of the future positions.
Once your employees have voiced an interest it’s your move. Begin the training process. That process may mean outside reading, attending classes at the local community college or perhaps attending seminars covering the future position. Guess what has just happened? You have become just like the local factory. Your employees now have a vision for the future. They see a career path and a means of becoming prepared for the future position that will be coming along before long.
Now back to John. Perhaps John really doesn’t want to be a tech the rest of his life. Perhaps we really wants to become a service manager or perhaps move into sales. How John as hope and guess what, he is unlikely to move down the street for another $.50/hour. Think about it for a while, I think you will see the light!
Want to do some serious business planning. If so, consider attending our three day “Basic Business Boot Camp”. By the end of the three days you will have a clear understanding of where you going and most importantly, how you are going to get there. Give us a call or check out our website at www.GrandyAssociates.com.
Tom Grandy, president
Grandy & Associates
One Executive Blvd.
Suite LL-4
Owensboro, KY 42301
Phone: 800-432-7963
FAX: 270-684-7425
E-mail: TomGrandy@GrandyAssociates.com
Website: www.GrandyAssociates.com
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