The labor market we have here in the Minneapolis area may be different than what you have in your neck of the woods, but here it is difficult to hire experienced technicians. What I mean by that statement is that the technicians who are worth hiring are already employed and they are not switching companies.
The other side of the coin is that the technicians who are looking aren’t worth a hill of beans. They may be fast and they may have great customer skills; they probably also put out quality work. The problem with these guys, though, is that they are lone wolves wandering through the workforce looking to see who will pay them the most money. They are definitely not team players and most of the time once you have hired them you would not hire them again because you don’t want to deal with the baggage.
Two of my best guys have come from another company but they were looking for other reasons; they weren’t lone wolves looking for a raise. They were job-searching because the company they were working for was going down fast and they did not want to go down with it. I seriously think this is the only type of experienced technician that is worth hiring.
I really don’t think I am the only one that thinks this way either. Others in the industry seem just as frustrated. But what do we do? We are desperate! Right? I say wrong. We bow down to these guys and their experience and their demands and we end up with a load of baggage that I know I do not want to deal with.
I also know that when we hire a rookie that they are going to make mistakes and there is definitely a training curve, during which it seems you need to babysit them every step of the way. The other thing I think we as owners are afraid of when it comes to hiring this most recent generation of kids is that they have a poor work ethic, and I am right there with every one else. There is nothing worse than an employee who can not think for him (or her)self to get the job done, to move on and get the next job done. I have tolerance for those who need training but those who need continual guidance are a waste of my time. I could have done the job in the same amount of time it took me to motivate the unmotivated and I would have been a whole lot less frustrated.
But I say we need to open our arms to these young guys and train them up; those who are not worth hiring will fall by the wayside and find another career. If your market is anything like ours here, you probably know just about all of the technicians out there and if you do not, then you know someone who does and the guys who are making a bad name for themselves are going to find it harder and harder to stay in this career. This is a good career. You can make good money installing auto glass, and you should, so we should be able to hire worthwhile installers.
When I think about other careers—lots of other careers—they often make you take a personality test to see if you will be a good fit for the company to which you are applying. I am not ready to submit to doing that, but I will take a potential technician’s personality into consideration during the hiring and probationary period. Basically, someone is trainable, or they are not, they will be a team player, or they will be a lone wolf. I know who I need on my team and it is definitely not the lone wolf.
So if an installer comes up to you and says I make X and if you pay me more I will come work for you, do not hire him. That is where I stand.
Many blessings in your endeavors.
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