The 60-Second Guide to Battling the Labor Shortage

What Contractors Say Is Working Right Now

With record low temperatures keeping contractors all over the country extremely busy right now, we challenged ourselves to keep this to a one-minute read with a handful of action items you can take back to your business and start implementing right away.

Last month, some folks from the XOi team traveled to Las Vegas for the Service World Expo, where we met and spoke with many leaders in the field service space.

A Key Question from the Service World Expo

Our CEO actually led one of the breakout sessions, and in it, he posed a question to the audience of service managers and business owners:

What are you doing to solve the skilled trades problem in your businesses today?

Get in Front of Young People Early

When it comes to marketing dollars, colleges have a lot more to work with than trade schools do, so businesses have to be proactive to combat this.

Meet Potential Recruits Where They Already Are

Go where the young people are going:

• Coordinate with high school career days
• Attend college fairs
• Participate in military job fairs

In the race of college vs. trade school, college is winning because it's been pushed so hard for so long in our society. Businesses in the trades have to physically get in front of potential recruits in order to get their attention.

Hire for Soft Skills and Train the Technical Skills

Find recruits who excel with soft skills, then train them on the technical side of the job.

Technical Skills Can Be Taught

By no means is HVAC an easy subject, but it's often easier to teach and train than the soft skills that make up the other half of the job:

• Social awareness
• Communication skills
• Sales acumen

These are the qualities that make the most effective technicians.

Create Flexible Schedules for Better Work-Life Balance

Create different shifts to work around people's unique schedules and provide the flexibility they need.

One Schedule Doesn't Fit Everyone

Not everyone prefers traditional morning-to-evening work hours, and certainly not everyone enjoys middle-of-the-night emergency calls.

To build a better work-life balance for his techs, one contractor revamped his entire scheduling system so employees could work when they're at their best while still keeping the business staffed around the clock.

Make Training More Engaging

When it comes to training, businesses need to be more interactive and engaging.

Use Hands-On and Technology-Driven Learning

Provide regular live trainings that incorporate:

• Hands-on work
• Interactive instruction
• Modern technology

Young people practically came out of the womb with smartphones in their hands, so technology is part of their expectation for a desirable career.

Technology Is Worth the Investment

There's a lot of innovative technology available today, and it can produce incredible results for your business across the board, making it well worth the investment.

Promote Pride in the Trades

This point may sound softer than the others, but it's incredibly important.

Change the Conversation Around Trade Careers

When it comes to your relationships with the young people in your life, promote an open mind and pride in the trades.

Careers in this industry have been overlooked for far too long, but if we change the way we talk about them, we can help build up bright young people by reminding them that:

• They are talented and intelligent
• Trade careers are just as valid as college paths
• Success means being the best at what you choose to do

Bonus: Start Your Own Training School

Ok, this one's a bonus because we've definitely hit our one-minute mark, and this idea is admittedly a bit more ambitious.

Build Talent Internally

One audience member shared how they started a training school as part of their contracting business to train fresh faces for fulfilling careers within their company.

It's not entirely uncommon for contractors to open their own schools, especially considering the return they can see by training technicians to their own company standards.

Use Publicity to Attract Talent

What made this story especially interesting was that the company managed to get local news coverage highlighting:

• The opening of the school
• The opportunities available to students
• High-tech plumbing simulators used in training

That contractor scheduled 30 interviews in a single day from that tactic alone.

Bottom Line

These aren't overnight solutions because the problem is much bigger than that. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Start Small, Move Fast, and Adjust

We challenge you to start somewhere:

• Start small
• Launch fast
• Adjust as needed

If you're interested in learning more about how XOi can support these efforts, we want to hear from you.

Learn More About XOi

Visit XOi Demo Scheduler to connect with one of our reps and see how a simple mobile app can help drive meaningful change in your business.