How to Train and Retain Low Voltage Technicians in a Competitive Market Part 2

This episode explores effective strategies for training and retaining low-voltage technicians in a competitive market. We discuss the importance of mentorship, competitive pay, career growth opportunities, and fostering a supportive culture that rings true for both employees and employers. 

• Transitioning technicians into project management roles 
• Developing retention strategies for the ICT industry 
• Balancing competitive pay and career growth 
• Creating a supportive workplace culture 
• Offering opportunities for continuing education 
• Implementing cross-training for skill enhancement 
• The significance of certifications for career advancement 
• Addressing the overall impact of a trained workforce on business success

Chapters

• 0:00 Training and Retaining Low Voltage Technicians
• 11:15 Employee Engagement and Retention Strategies
• 17:24 Employee Training and Certification Impact

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

So welcome to part two of how to train and retain low voltage technicians in a competitive marketplace. I hope you listened to the first episode already. Now let's finish this conversation.

Speaker 2: 0:12

Welcome to let's Talk Cabling, the award-winning podcast where knowledge is power and the low voltage industry connects. Hosted by Chuck Bowser, rcdd. We're here to empower installers, designers and industry pros with the tips, stories and best practices you need to stay ahead. From copper to fiber, standards to innovation, this is the show that keeps you plugged into success. So grab your tools, turn up the volume and let's talk cabling.

Speaker 1: 0:47

Hey Wire Monkeys, welcome to another episode of let's Talk Cabling. This episode I'm going to talk about how to train and retain low-voltage technicians in today's competitive marketplace. So if you're an employee, listen up. If you're an employer, pay attention. Welcome to the show where we tackle the tough questions submitted by installers, estimators, project managers, customers, even IT personnel. We are connecting at the human level so that we can connect the world. If you're watching this show on YouTube, would you mind hitting the subscribe button and that bell button to be notified when new content is being created. Subscribe button and that bell button to be notified when new content is being created. If you're listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind leaving us a five-star rating? Those simple little steps helps us take on the algorithm so we can educate, encourage and enrich the lives of people in the ICT industry.

Speaker 1: 1:47

Wednesday nights, 6 pm Eastern Standard Time. What are you doing? You know I do a live stream on TikTok, instagram, linkedin, facebook, youtube where you get to ask your favorite RCDD questions about installation, design, certification, project management, estimation. I even do career path questions. But I can hear you now. But, Chuck, I'm driving my truck at 6 pm on Wednesdays. I don't want to get in a crash. Okay, take a new breath, relax. I record them so you can watch them at your convenience. And finally, while this show is free and will always remain free, would you click on that QR code right there? You can buy me a cup of coffee. You can support the show. You can even schedule a 15-minute one-on-one call with me after hours, of course, and help support the show. You can also go to Amazon, type in let's Talk Cabling and buy shirts, just saying there you go.

Speaker 1: 2:39

One of the biggest gaps that we have is when you go from being in the field whatever position that might be technician, fiber optic technician, whatever and you go into the office as a project manager. It seems logical to take a good technician and make them a project manager Sometimes, most of the time, not Because there are different skill sets. Instead of saying, okay, you're a project manager, here's the job, start doing it. Why not identify that person a year earlier, assign them with a project manager, mentor them and start building that pathway so that transition is not quite so bumpy, not quite so bumpy, not quite so bumpy. It's so easy if we take the time and we let our employees mentor each other and what's going to happen is those leadership opportunities are going to improve job satisfaction. Because again, that technician in the field is saying look, they're actually showing me the spreadsheets and now I know that I have to have this job done in X amount of hours. I know that I have a certain amount of minutes for each jack. I know that if I don't hit this it's going to impact the testing. My testing is going to be moved back a couple of days and it impacts the schedule.

Speaker 1: 3:57

See, most technicians don't think that far ahead. They think one to three days ahead. Project managers think two to three weeks ahead. It's a mind shift. But if you don't help train that technician to get to that mind shift, what are you doing? What are you doing? And by doing this with all of your employees not just the good ones, but do it with all of them it's going to build a strong internal promotion pipeline within your company. Going to build a strong internal promotion pipeline within your company. You want to really make your field staff mad. Hire a project manager from outside. I said it out loud, you heard me Because a lot of those technicians are like well, why didn't he make me the project manager. And if you didn't identify that good technician and say I need to build up a skill set to become a project manager, then shame on you. Shame on you.

Speaker 1: 4:58

Let's now talk about some retention strategies for companies, for ICT companies, because it's one thing to keep them on board, one thing to hire them, but how do you keep them? I remember when I first got in the ICT industry we didn't call it the ICT industry back then, we didn't even call it low voltage. But the average career wasn't measured in years, it was measured in decades. In years, it was measured in decades. My father-in-law was a AT&T premise technician and he worked for a garage. I lived in Maryland at the time. He worked in a garage in Potomac, maryland. He was the youngest, he was the least tenured. Let me put it that way he was the least tenured person in that garage, which means everybody else had more years with the company than he did and he had 35 years of experience. You don't see that today. You don't see people working for companies for decades. And I get it. The whole job place thing has shifted and I could argue for and against both sides, but very rarely do you see somebody with what's called a cradle to grave job. It just doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen.

Speaker 1: 6:13

So let's talk about why, or what are some ways that we can create the environment that makes employees want to stay. First one I need to look at is how does competitive pay compare to career? How does competitive pay compare to career growth? Which matters more? Is it better to give somebody a good hourly rate, a good weekly rate, a good salary or a path to grow? Fair compensation keeps employees from leaving for better offers. It just does. When you know that when you're being paid right with, the other companies in your region are paying. When somebody comes along and says I'll pay you five cents more an hour, yeah, no thanks, I'm good, I'm good where I'm at. And how do we do this? Well, you need to conduct salary reviews. Stay competitive in the marketplace. There's lots of places where you can go on and do salary research, like indeedcom.

Speaker 1: 7:16

When you're hiring people right, one of the things that you do is you compare, you validate when somebody starts what their job description was, what the job title was, and sometimes we can ask them how much did you make there? You'll know what other companies are paying. You got to pay somebody what they're worth if you want to keep them. But not everybody's motivated by pay. Some people they want their pay, but sometimes you might be able to offer them performance-based bonuses and some other types of incentives.

Speaker 1: 7:48

I'll give you an example for one. Let's say you got a project and you know that there's 120 hours in the job. 120 hours, yeah, that's three people for a week. Three people for a week. Tell them look, hey, if you get this job done in three days, you'll get a bonus. If you get it done in four days, you'll get a bonus. Give them a part of that extra money that was estimated sitting in the job site as part of that opportunity to make that money. They still make their hourly rates. Don't be the mindset of oh well, there's 120 hours in this job site, so we got to work 120 hours. Because what if there's not a job next week? I don't have the answer for you. I just don't have the answer for you. I just don't.

Speaker 1: 8:38

Career paths for a career advancement is going to improve your long-term retention. Again, it's telling them look, okay, so when you come on board, okay, what do you want to do in five years from now? That's why they ask this question what do you want to do in 10 years from now? Don't just use that as an interview question, put that in their personnel file and then offer them promotions or certifications or training or experience to help them get to where they want to get. There's a novel thing for you. And then also make sure that you don't forget to recognize achievements and recognize them with internal promotions. That's what I was talking about earlier. Technicians hate it when you hire a project manager from outside the company. They absolutely hate it. And employees who see the long-term potential are less likely to leave.

Speaker 3: 9:39

And considering how much, it takes to get somebody on board and hire them and train them. You don't want to be losing people. Let's take a short break. Are you looking to grow your low voltage business? At Bowman Vision Media, we don't just market to the low voltage industry. We come from it With decades of experience. We uniquely understand your business and how to help it grow. From social media to content creation, we deliver marketing that works as hard as you do. And while you're leveling up, check out the 49 Volts podcast, your go-to source for industry insights and expert interviews. Visit bowmanvisionmediacom to learn more and subscribe to the 49 Volts podcast on YouTube or wherever you listen.

Speaker 1: 10:23

So this begs the question. I've been talking about company culture and team loyalty. How do you foster that? Well, you do it by creating a supportive and inclusive environment. This means allow people to collaborate. You know, if you're an estimator and you're estimating a project and you know that a certain foreman is going to be doing the job, why not bring the foreman in for an hour or two to talk about the job while you're estimating it? That way, when you win the project, the estimator feels like they have some skin in the game. They feel like, hey, they helped come up with that number and that collaboration and that teamwork is going to make them perform and work the way it needs to be done for the project to be successful. And then don't forget, we're bad about this in our industry. We truly are.

Speaker 1: 11:15

Give a place where employees can give their truthful feedback and make sure that you address those feedbacks and not use them as punishment. If somebody says, hey, why do we do this? It's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong. And you start seeing that across a couple different employees, there's a bigger problem there. So make sure you recognize those contributions and maybe even do employee spotlights. Hold team building events to increase morale. We've all seen them in the movies, but the more successful companies have them, they can be anything from having a golf outing to going deep sea fishing to all different kinds of things, and when you get people outside of their job environment and they get a chance to talk to each other it can be off-site training or it could just be something separate from training, just something to do to encourage people to get to know each other. Make sure that people understand that it's okay to celebrate your achievements with other people in the company and then also make sure that you encourage a work-life balance to reduce burnout. I truly wish that somebody shared this with me, because I feel like I was so career-focused that it impacted my family, impacted my children. It's one of the things I'll carry with me to my grave, but I really wish that somebody said hey look, career, yes, but don't burn yourself out, because if you burn yourself out, you're going to be mad, you're going to be angry, you're going to be tired, you're not going to be able to spend time with your kids. How can we do this? How can we do this?

Speaker 1: 13:03

Offer flexible scheduling whenever possible. We have a lot of leeway, especially with technicians out in the field. Do they have to start at 9 o'clock in the morning? No, they might be able to get on the job site at 7 o'clock in the morning. And what you may not realize as a project manager or somebody back in the office is, well, that extra hour or two earlier allows that person's commute to be half of what it was, because now they're not traveling in rush hour traffic, they're there before rush hour traffic. But what if they're not an early riser? Well then, maybe go the other way with it and also make sure that you do everything you can to promote time off policies that encourage employee wellness. A lot of people like to take the call in for sick when they're not really sick. Why do they call it sick? Did you say I'm taking a PTO today? I'm taking a day off to kind of regroup, refresh. I just need to do something.

Speaker 1: 14:01

And the third way that you can retain people is understanding the impact of continuing education and personal development. Our industry moves at the speed of light. You got to be a constant learner in this industry or you're going to be left behind. So offer some kind of tuition for degrees, for industry certifications, right, maybe even provide study materials, and this doesn't have to be expensive as you think it actually is, because if you've got somebody who says, I want to study for my RCD program, I want to become an RCD, okay, buy them the 15th edition TMM when they pass it, keep that book and then give it to the next person, so you're only paying for that book once. There's ways that you can do this to make this feasible for companies. Provide that study material, provide time for them to do their studies and then reward them when they do get their certifications, when they obtain those credentials. If you don't reward them, either financially or recognition within the job, I guarantee you another company will Maybe even start thinking about hosting in-house training programs for an ongoing skill development.

Speaker 1: 15:13

If you have enough people to say look, we want to go get our Bixby technician certification, our CFOT certification, why not create a monthly training workshop at the office, bring them in on a Friday afternoon an hour early and then train them, have training updates on industry standards, codes, safety regulations. We're supposed to be doing our weekly safety tailgates, but how many people do that? Do you do a weekly safety tailgate? Hmm, inquiring minds want to know. Tell me in the comments. Maybe even bring in from time to time, experts to help share specialized knowledge.

Speaker 1: 15:56

I was part of a sales thing a couple months back where they brought in a test manufacturer for a company to show the technicians on how to use their testers. Well, think about that. They brought in a manufacturer and people were very knowledgeable about their testers and they trained people how to use their testers. From a company standpoint, you're not having to hire an instructor, because those companies will come in and do it for free. As an employee, they're going to say look, they're teaching us how to use this thing correctly. As a company, you're saving those people from making mistakes.

Speaker 3: 16:30

Hey friends, I want to tell you about a great organization, tech Knowledge Worldwide, an active community of tech professionals dedicated to elevating our industry and each other. It's the real deal, and I'm grateful to be part of this community. Their annual tech conference is coming up April 23rd and 24th in Nashville, tennessee, and will feature amazing speakers, workshops and even Bixie continuing education credits. Stay up to date and lock in your spot now at techfestorg. That's T-E-K-F-E-S-T dot org. I encourage all my low voltage followers to consider joining to see if they want a seat at TKW's table too. All are welcome to learn, grow and see what putting community over competition can do. Go to techfestorg for more information and then finally, cross-training.

Speaker 1: 17:31

Cross-training, you heard me Especially between office and the field. Office and the field. Take that person out of the field, put them in the office for a week. Take that person in the office, put them out in the field for a week. There's no better way that they can learn the pains of somebody's position when they actually have to do it. Make sure that you encourage your technicians to become multi-skilled, learning multiple skill sets maybe being copper and fiber, maybe doing, you know, fire alarm and voicing, data, access control or AV. Have rotation programs where you might work with a fiber crew for two months and then you get rotated to a copper crew for two months. Then you get rotated to an outside plant crew for two months. You want to talk about a well-rounded employee, you want to talk about a future estimator? There you go. So I've talked about certifications, the CFOT, the Bixi Tech and all those others. What role does those certifications play in retention? How do those certifications improve job satisfaction? Well, number one, I have yet to talk to somebody who came back from one of the training programs and they would say that was the stupidest class I've ever taken. They were so wrong about everything, 99.99% of the time, they were like I didn't know that. I feel like I actually know why we're doing things. They feel more competent, more confident in their abilities and certified technicians perform the work more efficiently. I don't care if you've had 30 years experience, if you were taught the wrong way. That's 30 years of doing it wrong. It just truly is. And by taking the certification classes, it increases the problem-solving skills for most technicians and it's going to validate their expertise in the eyes of customers and employers.

Speaker 1: 19:40

You hear this a lot. I don't know. I don't want to get in certification because you know I don't need a piece of paper. Well, you know what. There's customers out there looking for it. They're willing to pay more for it. Those are the customers you want. Those are the customers you want to work for. Those are the employees that you are seeking. Those are the employers you want to work for. So you can talk about. You know, I don't care about certification or not. I'm telling you, having a certification will impact your life. It truly will impact your life. Certified employees, certified people with those certifications, also have better career prospects. It's going to increase the job security within that company. It's going to lead to higher wages most times and promotions right, and it's going to expand opportunities to work on specialized projects it's going to create. It's going to open up doors that weren't opened up before and companies with people with those certifications gain a competitive advantage.

Speaker 1: 20:37

I hear a lot of times because I'm in a lot of the low voltage social media platforms and and a lot of those technicians there are either technicians or people with small companies and they're working for small customers and they complain a lot about how they want to do per code but the customer doesn't want to pay for it. Then fire the customer. That's not who you want to work for. You don't have to work for everybody who comes to you. If you can't explain to the customer why certain things have to be done to meet code, to meet standards, to meet best practices, you don't have to work for them. You absolutely do not have to work.

Speaker 1: 21:12

There are companies out there willing to pay for that. It's going to require you to look a little bit harder, it's going to require you to run a little bit further, but in the long run it's going to be worth it and investing in those employee education benefits both, again, the workers and the companies, because now a trained workforce is going to make fewer mistakes. Fewer mistakes means less go-backs. It's one thing to catch a mistake while you're on the job site still doing the job. That's still an impact, but not a big impact. But it's a really big impact if you don't find it after the customer moves in. It's a real big impact then, because now the customer sees it and they have to come back out of the figure. See, people don't realize the true cost of poor quality workmanship. When something is bad you've got to roll a technician to go fix that, that means you're pulling that technician off of another job that they were making revenue, so you're losing that revenue. And now you're paying the technician to drive over there. And then how do you calculate the loss in confidence from that customer when you get an opportunity to work for a good customer that you want to keep?

Speaker 1: 22:28

Customers talk to each other all the time because they'll call them up, because they go to IT things and say, hey, who do you use to use your cabling? Oh, we use XYZ Company. Oh man, xyz Company really messed up a project for me. Really, it's a small industry. It's a small industry. It's a small industry. It truly is.

Speaker 1: 22:46

Clients are going to trust companies that invest in their employee expertise. They realize that's why you see so many, so many requests for proposals, requests for quotes coming out with. Oh, you have to have an RCDD on staff. You have to have a certain number of Bixby certified techs on staff. You have to have a certain number of Bixby certified techs on staff. You have to have a certain number of CFOTs on staff, because they realize that that's going to make sure that the job gets done on time, correctly and within codes and standards and that's going to lead to more business and more referrals. It shows that you have a commitment to quality and industry standards. So I hope that you appreciate this two-part series on how to train and retain low-voltage technicians in this competitive marketplace. If these two shows have impacted you, whether you're an employee or employer, tell me in the comments below. Until next time, remember knowledge is power.

Speaker 2: 23:41

Thanks for listening to let's Talk Cabling, the award-winning podcast where knowledge is power and the low voltage industry connects. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share it with your crew. Got questions or ideas for the show? Chuck wants to hear from you. Stay connected, stay informed and always aim for excellence. Until next time, keep those cables clean, your standards high and your future bright. Let's Talk Cabling Empowering the industry, one connection at a time.