Does it seem like you are always recruiting techs and service people? Most home service businesses have a high technician turnover rate. 

Why do they leave? Here’s the ‘word on the street’ from The Blue Collar Recruiter.

HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical – we never stop recruiting. Our clients want the home run hitters and it’s our job to find the good ones. So when we get together for virtual team calls we often talk about what we hear from tradespeople. 

Here’s the Top 5 Reasons for Leaving we have heard this year:

1. Time & Flexibility, As aggravating as it is for business owners if you give people time off and the flexibility to change schedules based on personal needs, your retention rates will go up. Sometimes way up. Let’s face it there are a lot of openings for skilled trades people, and that gap is getting wider. It doesn’t take much to find a new job.

2. Communication & Responsiveness. We decided to call this the human side of managing people – treating people with respect, acknowledging their value to the team.

3. Leadership & Direction. Your guys may not show it, but they want to feel secure in their employment with you. When people sense a lack of leadership, or a same-old, same-old attitude, they are ‘outta here.’

4. Appreciation & Opportunity. Okay, some guys want to do field work and nothing else. Why not, they make great money doing it! Others are looking for the next rung up on a career in the trades. Some guys will start their own companies. Heck, they may even make you an offer for yours at some point. That’s opportunity. Whatever your team’s personal aspirations are feeling valued and appreciated is a basic human need.

5. Money & Security. Yes, money is important but it is never #1. (Ask any management professor.) In our work for clients across the country the fact is the money is not that different from company to company, and sometimes even from region to region. HVAC, plumbing, electrical work – they are all essential jobs. Performance pay is great but giving people a baseline so they know they’ll go home with a paycheck each week is a good way to operate that gives people security.