Your company is as good as its weakest link. In fact, even having staff members that are at a mediocre level can be detrimental to the success of your company. Why?
In a few words; your competition is sure to be working hard to hire great HVAC staff, if you are not doing the same you risk being left behind.
Of course, accepting this fact is one thing, but knowing how to address it can be quite another. Allow us to outline a five-step process to hiring the best HVAC staff for your company.
The Hourglass Technique
According to HireBetterNow, this is one of the key components of a successful hiring program. What does it entail?
Just like an hourglass has a wide top but narrows as it goes down, a clear objective when hiring HVAC staff for your company should be to attract and screen a large number of candidates.
In fact, the larger the pool at the top, the higher the probability that you will have some exceptional candidates as you get closer to the bottom.
How can you attract a large pool of candidates without compromising on the needs of your company?
The Right Job Advertisement
Take a look at the majority of advertisements for HVAC staff. What does the main focus tend to be? Is it not about the job? Of course, this is a vital element of the advertisement and necessary experience and skills certainly need to be outlined in the advertisement.
However, HireBetterNow reminds us that a great employment advertisement talks about the person rather than the job.
Why is this of significant benefit to the employer?
When you clearly define the type of person that you are looking for within your company, it becomes easier for that person to find you.
Someone may have a lot of relevant experience, but if they have a lazy streak, don’t work well with others or lack the ability to problem solve, they may make a much poorer choice than someone who has minimal experience yet shows the perfect personality traits to learn quickly and easily.
Indeed, once you have clarified the type of person you want for the job you are in a much better position to attract a large pool of promising candidates.
Carry Out A ‘Motivation Test’ On All Applicants
Once you have advertised the available posts within your company you will likely be inundated with applications. Not all of these applications will lead to an ideal member of staff.
One way of weeding out the applicants who lack motivation and the ability to ‘see something through’ is to create an extra step in the application process.
How should you go about it?
Create a brief questionnaire which will further clarify the level of experience, knowledge, and communication skills that the applicant is able to offer. This step is as much designed to see whether the applicant takes the time to complete it as it is to gain the information which they provide in the questionnaire.
In fact, according to ServiceCEO, this one step alone can weed out 20% of the applications from people who clearly are not that dedicated to working for your company.
Implement A One Week Trial
Taking potential employees on service calls can, according to ServiceCEO, help you to see how they interact with customers.
For less experienced candidates it will show you whether they are able to accept constructive criticism and turn it into something positive and for experienced candidates, it will allow you to see whether their work is up to the high standard which your company is known for.
Of course, you don’t need to make this trial a full week if you don’t want to, you may even feel that a one day trial is enough to gauge whether a potential candidate is right for your company or not.
However, the additional time that a week-long trial provides will also help you to get to know the candidate as a person, including seeing their strengths and their weaknesses in action.
In addition, other long-standing members of staff who have already gained your trust and approval will have the opportunity to interact with the candidate and provide you with valuable feedback.
References Are For Analyzing
There is a reason why we always request references before we hire any new member of staff. Indeed, great employees tend to be great employees regardless of who their boss is. The same can be said for poor employees.
If someone was a poor employee for their previous company, they are very likely to be a poor employee for your company too. How can you get the most from the references that your candidates provide?
In simple terms; invest time.
You need to make contact with the references for each candidate and ask the right questions to understand whether the person is right for your company.
Remember, skill and experience are great, but you also need to know that they are the type of ‘person’ who will fit in with your current HVAC team and be a hardworking employee who is always ready to give of their best.
Investing time to analyze the references is an excellent way to separate the good candidates from the exceptional ones.
Certainly, hiring the right HVAC staff for your company is a crucial factor which will ultimately determine how successful your company proves to be.
Remember, the ideal candidate will not only have the relevant experience, knowledge, and skills but will also possess the character traits and personality that is required for the position.
The hiring process for HVAC staff should not be rushed, rather it requires time, patience and diligence. However, when you are willing to invest such efforts into the hiring of staff for your company you will soon see that the benefits make it all worthwhile; having an incredible team of skilled, motivated and passionate HVAC technicians is a sure way to see your business soar.
Author Bio:
Bill Bradley is a heating and cooling consultant living in Chicago, Illinois.
His years of experience as HVAC consultant made him knowledgeable on all the latest HVAC techniques and able to use the latest technology to provide quality services.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.
You must be logged in to post a comment.