Heating Help

As with any company in this field, you’ve always got your eyes open fora qualified technician or a trainable apprentice. You’ve triedeverything, including ads in the local paper, flyers in the supplyhouses, asking current employees to keep their eyes and ears open andmaybe you've even offered incentives for bringing in a new applicant.

Ihave to admit that since the fall of Wall Street’s million-dollarpromises, more career-minded young applicants are answering my ads. Inow have people showing up for job interviews that are actually wearingreal black shoes and buttoned shirts. I’m fielding questions aboutmedical benefits, family plans and retirement instead of just, “Whatday do we get paid?” and, “What time do we go home?” My applicants arenow more likely to speak in complete sentences.

Could itbe that the trades are now becoming attractive again? Is there a lightat the end of the hiring tunnel? And if so, why the change?

Perhapsthe little brothers out there are learning something as they watchtheir big brothers struggle through the IT workforce’s options. Maybethe thought of more school and more student loans for less money and nojob security has finally sunk in.

Don’t get me wrong, thehiring process still has its peaks and valleys. I typically place awell-worded ad in the local newspaper: “Plumbing and Heating Mechanicsand helpers sought by busy and growing service shop. Full benefits, topsalary” and so on. That ad will garner 30-40 responses each of the twotimes per year it runs. This year, however, I added a line: “Applicantsmust submit to drug test and background check.” After that, those 30-40responses dwindled to a scant four to eight.

I addedthat line after interviewing what seemed like a real nice young helperwho had two years in the trade. The interview was going well enough,but then I asked a standard question (almost as an afterthought in thiscase). I asked if a background check might reveal anything unfavorable.

He confided that he had just been released after spendingtwo years in prison for assault and robbery charges. This wasn’t thedeal breaker, but it could have been, and I guess it’s true what theysay: There are no stupid questions. Especially if you want answers.

Andif you find that disheartening, I agree, it is disheartening. We’restill sorting through habitual drug users and convicted criminals tofind the help we need in this trade.

My wife is wellestablished in her career as a Human Resources Professional and I’mlucky that she is able to sort through and interview our office staffapplications. Hiring and firing is ultimately up to my brother and me,but we get to learn something by watching her finesse the right wordsout of her interviewees. She puts them at ease with her professionalbut unintimidating demeanor. She speaks with them casually and she askslots of questions about themselves. She crafts each question to get theapplicant to talk. And this is where people talk themselves into or outof the job. We know very little about people until they choose to fillus in about whom they are and what they do.

Wheninterviewing tradesmen, the process can be similar (we’ve all got ourmethods) but there are always applicants who interview very well, butwhen put in the field, are either unable or unwilling to put forth anadequate effort to get a day’s work done.

You know exactly what I’m talking about, don’t you?

Again, we know very little about people until we give them the chance to prove themselves.

Ithink there will always be episodes of bleakness and disappointment aswe hire techs for our businesses. A fellow tradesman told me this storyabout a conversation he recently had with a client: The client wantedto know why the contractor’s workers often needed to be reminded totake everything away from the job that they brought with them, and whyan 8:00am start time sometimes meant 8:10 or 8:15.

Thecontractor had an easy rapport with the client so he asked the clientwhat he did for a living and learned that the client was an attorney.

“So you work in an office with a bunch of people who have theself-discipline required to earn a degree from a reputable school,"said the contractor. "These people live in fine homes and taketwice-yearly vacations with their families. You regularly arrangemeetings in your conference room, where all critical staff shows upwell rested and well dressed, ready to share ideas that benefit boththe company and client and each day goes on like this throughout theentire year.”

"Yes," the attorney said.

"Well, please understand this. I’m not drawing from that same labor pool.”

Pointbeing that getting plumbers, who do some of the toughest work in theworld, to act like business professionals is never going to be easy. Ittakes a strong base, a well-qualified candidate for hire, and lots ofpatience on the part of the company's owners.

Fortunately,a stronger base of qualified candidates is beginning to show upnowadays, and they’re looking for something we can provide. It’s now upto us to not to disappoint these new applicants because if we do, itwill be the industry that suffers.

So take advantage ofthis opportunity to promote this trade for what it has to offer. And doyour fair share of the offering. Treat employees as well as you canpossibly treat them. Pay them a good living wage and allow them sometime off during the year so that they can unwind and spend time withtheir families. They and their families will benefit from the goodwill, and they will see you as the source of what’s going right intheir lives. Ultimately, when an employee sees where his or her breadis being buttered, that employee is much more likely to treat both youand the job with respect.

In the short term, it is aself-serving endeavor. In the long term, however, it may answer some ofthe personnel problems that my father dealt with in the '70s and thatcontinue to visit the plumbing & heating industry to this day.

John Cataneo

Vice President

Gateway Plumbing and Heating, New York City, NY