The Next Generation
- Post By: Greg Crumpton
- Date:
- Category: Blog
How are you helping to recruit and build the next generation of HVAC/R service technicians?
The next generation is the future.
It is up to us, the people who are currently in this business, to do so. Yes, we need help from high school guidance counselors, out-placement services and military dischargers, but the brunt of the recruiting needs to come from us… the people who make a living from the industry.
I’m a second generation service technician who worked his way up through the different posts, and eventually launched a commercial service company. I learned of this great industry by working with my father and his peers. I swept the pipe fab shop floor, I loaded sheet metal on trailers, and whatever else was needed.
The high caliber people that I met along the way are what this industry is built upon, and they carry it forward today.
We send our young men and women to school, either an union apprenticeship or a trade school, to learn the fundamentals, but in order to succeed we must have on the job training. We must have someone mentoring them as they move forward, and have involved owners and managers who truly care about our trade and where it is heading.
There are many nay-sayers about the up and coming generation of young people. Personally, I think that is unwarranted. Our company finds good people with solid character and we help them move into learning positions, eventually developing them into the strong service technicians that we must have to serve our client’s needs.
Good people attract good people, so assemble a group of people with high character and strong morals. You will be rewarded by others with similar values wanting to join you and your company. Let the others go to your competition in the area.
Without a doubt, it will take extra time and more money versus what we have traditionally spent on training and coaching. With many of the OEM’s developing their niche controls and logic, factory training is a must if you wish to compete in the multi-faceted new age of the HVAC industry.
Choose to make a difference. Choose to make the investment in our future. Find young people and help them get on, and stay on, the right road toward becoming a star technician.
It’s good business and it is the right thing to do!
