Stop Losing Great Technicians to Competitors
A practical, field-tested course on writing job posts that attract skilled workers, running working interviews, building a 90-day onboarding plan, and creating a culture where your best people choose to stay.
The Real Problem
Why does finding good technicians feel so hard right now?
Skilled trades workers have options. An experienced HVAC tech or journeyman plumber gets called by competitors, sees job boards full of listings, and hears from recruiters. The labor market in the trades is tight and getting tighter as more experienced technicians retire than enter the field.
The business owners who keep their crews together are not just paying more. They are running a fundamentally different hiring and retention operation. They write job posts that speak to what skilled workers actually care about. They use working interviews instead of relying on resumes alone. They have a real onboarding plan that makes new hires feel like they belong from day one. And they build a compensation structure that goes well beyond the hourly rate.
That is what this course teaches. Practical, specific, and built for trades businesses — not corporate HR theory.
Course Modules
What you will work through
Each module addresses a specific stage in the hiring and retention cycle. You move through them in order or jump to what is most urgent for your business right now.
Most job posts for trades positions look identical. They list requirements, mention pay, and ask candidates to apply. Skilled workers scroll past them without a second thought. This module breaks down what actually works: how to lead with what makes your company worth joining, how to describe the role honestly without scaring off good candidates, and how to format a post so it reads quickly on a phone. You will write a job post draft during the module and refine it using a review checklist built specifically for trades businesses.
A traditional interview tells you how well someone talks. A working interview tells you how they think on a job site. This module walks through how to structure a half-day or full-day working interview that is fair to the candidate, useful to you, and legally sound in approach. You will learn what to observe, what to ask during the work itself, and how to evaluate what you see. You will also get a framework for giving candidates an honest look at your company culture so the right people self-select in and the wrong people self-select out.
Most technician turnover happens in the first ninety days. A new hire who feels confused, unsupported, or like they made the wrong choice will be gone before you have recouped the cost of hiring them. This module provides a week-by-week onboarding framework built for field workers, not office employees. It covers how to pair a new hire with the right existing technician, how to set clear performance expectations without micromanaging, and how to run brief check-in conversations at the 30, 60, and 90-day marks. You will leave with a customizable onboarding document you can use immediately.
Competing purely on hourly rate is a race you cannot always win. This module explores the full compensation picture: how to think about bonus structures tied to measurable field performance, how to communicate the total value of a compensation package so technicians understand what they are actually earning, and how perks and benefits that cost relatively little can carry significant weight in retention decisions. You will map out a compensation framework that fits your business model and makes sense to the people you are trying to keep.
Culture in a trades business is not about ping-pong tables or mission statements. It is about how technicians are treated on a Tuesday afternoon when something goes wrong on a job. This module examines the specific behaviors and practices that build or erode loyalty among field workers. Topics include how owners and service managers communicate, how mistakes are handled, how career growth conversations happen (or fail to happen), and what daily work experience signals to technicians about whether they should stay. Practical and grounded in real trades business scenarios.
The final module focuses on making all of the preceding elements work as a system rather than a one-time effort. You will build a simple hiring and retention process document that your business can use consistently, whether you are hiring your next technician next month or in two years. The goal is a process that does not live only in your head, so your business can hire effectively even when you are busy running jobs.
Who This Is For
Built specifically for trades business owners
This course is not a repackaged corporate HR curriculum. It was developed with the specific reality of running an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical service business in mind. That means unpredictable schedules, variable work quality across different job sites, the pressure of keeping trucks running, and the particular psychology of field technicians who often have plenty of other places to go.
HVAC
Seasonal hiring pressures, certification requirements, and the challenge of keeping experienced refrigeration techs when every competitor is hiring.
Plumbing
Apprentice-to-journeyman pipelines, managing licensed and non-licensed workers together, and the retention dynamics of service vs. new construction.
Electrical
Union and non-union considerations, the long apprenticeship timeline, and how to keep electricians engaged before and after they reach journeyman status.
Multi-Trade Shops
Running mixed crews across trades creates unique hiring complexity. The course covers how to maintain fairness and consistency across different technician types.
Inside the Course
Topics covered in depth
Retention Cost Explorer
What does technician turnover actually cost your business?
Turnover in the trades is expensive in ways that are not always obvious. Use this explorer to think through the real cost of replacing a technician — from recruiting time to lost productivity during ramp-up.
This is a rough illustration based on your inputs. Actual costs vary by business, market, and role complexity.
How the Course Works
Designed for owners who are already busy
The course is self-paced and structured around the reality that you are probably dispatching trucks, talking to customers, and managing a business at the same time. Each module is built to be completed in focused blocks — not marathon sessions.
Materials include written guides, worksheets you can customize for your business, and worked examples based on real trades scenarios. There is no fluff to get through before reaching the actionable content.
You will also find a resource library covering topics adjacent to the main modules — including how to think about referral programs, how to handle a resignation conversation, and how to write an offer letter that closes candidates without pressure.
Our Approach
No HR theory. No legal advice. Just what works in the field.
This course does not provide legal advice on employment matters. For questions about employment law, wage requirements, or compliance, consult a qualified employment attorney in your state.
What we do focus on is the practical, behavioral side of building a team. The decisions you make about how you communicate with technicians, how you structure their first weeks, and how you talk about money and growth — those decisions compound over time into either a company people want to work for or one they leave when something better comes along.
Read our full philosophy