Building the best HVAC team is hard work, but it’s critical to your company’s success. Your HVAC business is more than fixing a faulty furnace or installing an AC unit. Your company culture, employee work ethic, and how you treat the customers all factor into your company’s mission.
Like most trades, HVAC is struggling to attract skilled employees, despite the solid pay and benefits. How can you buck the trend and assemble a team of HVAC Hercules?
Here are 5 strategies to build your HVAC dream team:
- Appoint a leader that embodies the qualities you want
- Recruit top talent
- Celebrate and reward hard work
- Motivate with a positive attitude
- Foster strong workplace culture
1. Appoint a Leader That Embodies the Qualities You Want
“Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” –Vince Lombardi
Values, goals, and ethics are qualities to look for in a leader. And they are vital to building the best HVAC team. Does that describe you as the leader or is that something you will delegate?
Regardless if the leader is you or somebody else on the team, they should be a great communicator and team player.
Here are a few other things that make a great leader:
- Provides direction to the team. Someone has to run the show and be able to make decisions on-the-fly. This leader’s experience and wisdom allows them to guide the team. They should be well-versed in all services the team provides so they can step in to help at any given moment.
- Drives results. Goals drive results to initiate progress and growth. A good leader should know what the goals are and encourage the team to reach them. This may include checking in often with team members to ensure they are on the right path.
- Inspires and motivates. If an employee can motivate and inspire others to reach their potential, then they have leadership qualities.
- Delegate duties. One person can’t do everything. A smart leader trusts their team members to be flexible and help out, even if it’s not their direct responsibility. This is why building a spirit of teamwork is so important!
Once you have a great leader you’re on your way to building the best HVAC team. It’s now time to fill out the team with quality hires.
2. Recruit Top Talent
Take a look at several pro tips to ensure you are attracting and keeping the best employees:
- Offer a competitive wage. Compensation isn’t everything but it’s still a priority especially in a tight labor market. Make sure before you start the hiring process that you have sufficient funds to make a good salary offer.
- Offer unique benefits. If you have benefits that are unique to your business, then it may help you land better employees.
- E.g. Health insurance plans, funds toward gym memberships, quarterly company cookouts, free snacks, flexible scheduling, paid sick time, paid holidays, etc.
- Invest in your employees. Allow for outside training and tuition. Create a way to advance in the company and learn additional skills. This will help employees feel valued and growing in their careers.
- Encourage work/life balance. Make sure your employees are taking time off and keeping their lives in balance. Have a plan in place for when employees take PTO. If your employees burn out, you’ll lose them to your competition!
Looking for qualified candidates? So are all of your competitors! Trade schools are a great place to hire entry-level technicians. With so many tradespeople approaching retirement, trade schools can be a great option.
Employee referrals are another great source to build out your team. Ask your network and team members if they can recommend any good candidates for openings.
3. Celebrate and Reward Hard Work
When employees feel appreciated and want to come to work in the morning, you’ll get better results. Here are a few of the many ways to recognize your top performing team members:
- Lunch: Providing regular team lunches (or even great snacks) on the house is a simple benefit employees really appreciate. Also, you can make the company lunch a regular occurance to announce the latest company news, updates, promotions, and big wins.
- Bonuses: Many companies give back to their team if the business surpasses its annual goals. Be sure to put your company’s bonus structure in writing so employees know what they can expect. This can also help your team stay motivated to hit sales goals!
- Swag: Employees love to rock the company swag! Order some tumblers, hats or koozies to show your appreciation. If you require that your team wears branded shirts or jackets on the job, purchase several pieces for each employee so they don’t have to do laundry every few days. Plus, this is a great indirect way to represent your business.
Now that employees feel recognized, how can a company motivate employees to do the best they can each day?
4. Motivate with a Positive Attitude
Ever worked for a boss who only concentrated on what you were doing wrong?
It doesn’t work, and many times, it just hurts the positive vibe of the team. When leadership uses positive motivation, morale remains high and usually ends with better overall results.
How do you do this? Tell individuals on the team how well they are doing, and give them examples of how they exceed expectations. Ask them if they have any ideas on how to improve processes and check in to review their workload.
You may even consider doing regular employee shout outs in a team meeting or chat to recognize a job well done! Regular encouragement and a positive team environment will keep morale high.
Why is this important? Positive motivation cuts down on hiring. Motivated workers are 87% less likely to resign. A new employee costs a business around $5,000 between the hiring and onboarding process.
Motivated employees also help the business earn 27% more profits – it pays to be positive!
5. Foster Strong Workplace Culture
Workplace culture has become the new business buzzword. What exactly is workplace culture and why is it important? It’s defined as the character and personality of your company.
46% of job seekers rank company culture as an important factor for their next job. Conversely, 86% avoid businesses with a negative reputation.
There’s a whole host of reasons that workplace culture is important to employees.
- A positive, healthy culture attracts top talent. If you’re going to spend the majority of your week at work, it makes sense that employees want to feel happy and satisfied at their workplace! If the culture is negative, people will dread working and eventually quit.
- Performance: Employees in an organization perform better in a strong culture. The business does better financially and employees are more engaged when they have clear expectations. Make sure to track progress and keep goals clear among the entire team.
- Less turnover: Employees that feel valued and respected are less likely to leave. This saves time and money in the hiring process. Constant turnover is expensive, and leaders often lose money when spending work time finding and interviewing talent!
- Brand identity: If a company treats its employees well, this will translate to how customers view the business. Customers can tell when employees are happy and feel fulfilled!
Team up with FieldEdge to save time for your team and keep morale high! Book your FREE personalized demo today!
Build Your HVAC Dream Team!
We covered the following steps on your team-building journey:
- Landing a leader that embodies the company’s vision
- Finding and retaining the top HVAC talent
- Awarding your team when they hit goals
- Motivating your employees
- Creating a workplace culture that other companies wish they had!
Now, you have the keys to building the best HVAC team. These five strategies can help shape your successful HVAC team to compete in today’s competitive landscape!
