Fail to prepare and you’re preparing to fail. It’s a common phrase we’ve all heard and frequently comes to mind when I think of hiring a new employee. All too often in our industry we give new technicians what amounts to a crash course in training before sending them on their way and expecting them to learn the rest on their own.
I am not going to sugar coat it — this is not easy work. It is manual labor that will have you in attics when it is hotter than a jalapeño’s armpit and down in crawlspaces in freezing temperatures. You may be working nights, weekends, and holidays during the busy season, when the temperatures are at their most extreme, but, rest assured, you will be well compensated.
Encompass Supply Chain Solutions Inc. announced it has begun renovations to its 150,000-square-foot headquarters in Georgia to build a state-of-the-art training facility to assist major HVAC and appliance manufacturers in providing comprehensive training to field service technicians.
Dozens of major manufacturers are now offering a variety of training options ranging from short online offerings to extensive on-location training in hopes of making ductless HVAC a worthwhile investment for consumers and contractors.
We’ve all seen it before: We send one of our employees to an offsite training event and they return all fired up with new ideas. The first week performance is up. Then, a few weeks pass and the excitement begins to fade. Old habits begin snuffing out the newly learned behaviors.
A common complaint throughout the HVACR industry is that when new technicians enter the industry, they don’t have the skills and knowledge that employers expect. One area where this is evident is in the field of compressor service.
Danfoss hosted its 21st annual press briefing Jan. 26 during the 2016 AHR Expo in Orlando, Florida. Titled “Engineering Tomorrow,” this year’s briefing explored four major challenges facing the HVACR industry — climate change, energy productivity, connectivity, and a growing skills gap.
One of the things I often hear from managers as they grow their departments is that they don’t have time to do ride-alongs as frequently as needed. An excellent solution exists: Hire a dedicated person to perform ride-alongs and training for your technicians.