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HVAC contractors have to focus on both recruiting and retaining talent, whether or not they’re dealing with imminent technician shortage challenges.

There’s currently a shortage of 110,000 HVAC technicians, with about 25,000 technicians leaving their company each year. For a contractor, this could equate to a potential revenue loss of $250,000, according to Ray Lewis, vice president of human resources, residential HVAC supply, Trane Technologies. Speaking at a ServiceTitan session in September, he said that as a result, efforts in both “R’s” — recruitment and retention — have to be continuous and evolving.

Thus, recruiting and retaining has gotten more creative. In one way or another, it requires the contractor to provide ways for the workforce of technicians to further develop their own talents and reach their own goals.

What a Workforce Wants

It’s obviously a struggle to find technicians. One thing contractors can do is focus their efforts on what the workforce wants, and they can do that by connecting with them.

“Find out what's most important to them,” Lewis said. You're not hiring a technician — you're hiring somebody who's going to be in your company, hopefully for the long haul, so ask them what's the most important to them at a job.”

What’s been evident since the pandemic about those entering the workforce is they no longer view their jobs as just jobs; their job is completely integrated with who they are.

The world in which technicians work doesn’t provide them a ton of flexibility. But there are areas where contractors do have the opportunity to provide them with options.

“Things like paid time off, different work hours, or temporary different work hours like for a new dad, for example, who is probably not getting a lot of sleep,” Lewis said. “If you have the ability to shift their hours maybe by three, that type of flexibility is huge.”

Once hired, the connection should get deeper. What happens outside of work ultimately affects what happens inside, Lewis said. Leaders at HVAC companies should reflect a genuine interest in the tech’s life — the whole self they bring to the office — by doing things like learning the name of their spouses, children, or pets.

Another thing that has proven to be important to those entering the workforce is feeling a sense of purpose, which HVAC contractors can provide through volunteer and charity work in the local community.

“Just wanting to give back to those people in our community who don't have what we have,” Lewis said. “But it's that sense of purpose that also creates a deeper meaning, and gets people excited when considering coming to your company.”

Yes, compensation is important. But it might not be as important as those things like culture, flexibility, community, technology.

“Typically, people don’t leave only for compensation,” Lewis said. “They might leave managers, they might leave cultures, but they won’t leave just because of compensation unless you’re drastically lower than everybody else.”

Retaining Techs

John Hoffman, vice president of strategy and growth initiatives, residential HVAC and supply, Trane Technologies, shared at ServiceTitan that currently only 29% of technicians are happy with current advancement opportunities.

From a career development perspective, some things technicians are asking for is better equipment, more money, growth, technology, better titles, and paid time off.

TECHNOLOGY: Technology helps retain and recruit technicians by making difficult tasks more seamless. (Courtesy of Interplay Learning)

Technicians’ already complex jobs are bound to get increasingly more complex and more digital in nature, so contractors need to ensure their techs are prepared for that evolving world by taking advantage of new technology.

“Where we're at in the HVAC industry, as it relates to using technology to its fullest, is more than being the ecosystem of choice, but it's seamless integration into the user experience that your users want,” said Paul Parish digital adoption leader, residential HVAC and supply, Trane Technologies, speaking at ServiceTitan.

Thankfully, this generation coming into the workforce knows devices, Parish said.

That experience (or potential experience) of the technologies offered, and how they’ll be integrated into that technician’s day-to-day work, should also be a focus for contractors. It can even be used to appeal to future techs.

“One way to leverage technology is just to have a resource where [technicians] can get answers quicker,” said Dan Clapper, market director for HVAC and facilities for Interplay Learning, a software that delivers an evolving catalog of courses in HVAC, plumbing, electrical, facilities maintenance, and solar. “Whether that's training platform like Interplay Learning or something like Bluon or XOi, these apps can get information quicker and faster to the technician.”

Contractors have to have better systems and processes in place, so technicians know who to go to regarding what type of question, and who to go to after that if that person can’t help. Technology can help with that, Clapper said.

Contractors can make these transitions easier on contractors and appeal to the incoming/existing workforce by offering programs available for technicians to become industry certified, or provide company specific training where in-house senior staff trains younger techs.

In regard to job titles given to future/current technicians, Clapper has seen some companies do these days is building in levels into their tech’s titles — something like “John Doe, Level One Technician” — providing more of a career path and career progression.

“What most contractors have is a service tech or an install tech position; if I’m looking at a long-term career, what is the upward growth there?” Clapper said. “I’m a service tech for the next 20 years?”

As technicians learn and progress their skills, they would then, in this example, be promoted to a level two technician, then a level three, then a senior tech, Clapper said.

When the titles build, the roles and responsibilities could build as well, along with the tech’s compensation.

Train/Recruit Outside the Box

Since there isn’t a lot of talent coming into the HVAC field, and thousands of technicians are leaving their jobs each year, recruitment tactics have to get more creative. One way those in the HVAC industry have done this is by finding individuals curious about the field and eager to learn, then equipping them with HVAC training.

“They’re basically building their own boot camp, and they’re almost becoming the trade school themselves,” Clapper said, “Sometimes it's a 12-week program or 16-week program, but they're taking someone that really has a good attitude, that's excited to learn, that wants to grow their career, and they’re building them from the ground up.”

Trane Technologies appeals to military professionals through its Trade Warriors Program: an eight-week, hands-on HVAC training program, created for exiting service men and women, that provides them with the necessary skills and certifications to receive job placement in the field and ease their transition back home.

TRADE WARRIORS: Trade Warriors is an eight week hands-on, HVAC training program created for the exiting service men and women. (Courtesy of Trane Residential)

“The great thing about this population is they’re extremely dedicated, loyal, disciplined, creative … they have to be flexible to have had been successful in any careers that they had, and certainly they bring all of his attributes to them in their new roles,” Lewis said.

To keep workers around, culture is key. Hoffman shared while 87% of millennials consider professional development important, the conversation revolving around what candidates and current technicians want still somewhat revolves around the company’s commitment, portrayal, and investment in its company’s culture. Along those same lines, sustainability is important, or what the company is doing to make the world a better place.

CERTIFIED: The recent graduates of the Trade Warriors Program at the new facility in Texas at Fort Cavazos. (Courtesy of Trane Residential)

“Being able to articulate that and what that looks like inside an organization, from a retention standpoint as well as attracting folks, is really important,” Hoffman said.

When discussing onboarding, Hoffman highlighted three things: mentoring programs, apprenticeships, and professional associations.

Professional development matters for recruiting and retaining talent, and contractors should have a standardized plan around what that means. Hoffman said the plan should include onboarding, or in other words, spending time with employees so they understand how things work within the organization.

In addition, the plan should also include apprenticeships, which are a great way to bring techs in at an early point in their life and show the attractiveness of the trades, and career pathing and developing. Again, these should be woven into conversations with current and potential employees alike about their career aspirations to show them that they are seen not just as an individual revenue generating stream to the company, but a person whose goals for the future and life outside of work matters.