How is your team handling the technician shortage right now?

We stopped competing on salary alone. Can't win that arms race.

Shifted budget to guaranteed 40-hour weeks even in slow seasons. Our competitors can't match that predictability. Reduced voluntary turnover 30% year-over-year.

Downside: had to get ruthless about efficiency. Every dispatcher action is measured now. No room for slack in the schedule.

Thanks so much for bringing this up Keiko! We're feeling it too — especially with our senior techs getting recruited left and right. Our team has been trying a few things:

• We started "tech shadow days" where experienced techs train newer ones on complex jobs, and the senior tech gets a bonus for each person they bring up to speed. Is anyone else doing something similar?
• Also looking at adjusting our overtime policy — right now it's mandatory after 45 hours but we're thinking of making it optional with incentives instead?

Really appreciate hearing what's working for others! Thanks!

in my experience shadow programs only work if the senior tech actually wants to teach. half of them don't.

we've had better luck with tiered pay for skill verification. prove you can handle refrigerant recovery, get the bump. prove you can do load calculations, another bump. keeps people climbing without waiting for someone to retire.

also: stop making your best techs drive furthest. that's why they leave.

Keiko, thank you for raising this critical industry challenge. We are seeing similar patterns across our customer base.

A few data points from our research:

• Organizations with structured career pathing retain technicians 23% longer than those without
• Companies investing in mobile tool quality and vehicle standards report higher satisfaction scores from field teams

We are exploring features that could help—better visibility into workload distribution, and tools to recognize technician performance without manual admin burden. Your input on what would be most valuable would be powerful as we prioritize.

I will follow up via direct message to connect you with two customers running mature apprenticeship programs who have offered to share their frameworks.

Hired three people this year. Two left for competitors within four months. Third is already interviewing.

Problem isn't pay. Problem is the job sucks. Dispatch doesn't listen. Customers complain about things we can't control. Management treats field like cost center.

Fix the experience or keep bleeding people. Simple as that.

Mike, that's a really important point about the experience. Our team did exit interviews with every tech who left in 2024, and "feeling supported by dispatch" came up more than pay did.

We made two changes:

• Dedicated dispatcher check-ins at 10am and 3pm for field teams — not waiting for problems
• Techs can flag any job for "next-day review" without explanation; we follow up within 24 hours

It's extra overhead for the office, but our retention improved. The team feels like we're actually in it with them.

Another way to think about capacity planning: we have shifted from full-time headcount targets to a "core + flexible" model. Approximately 70% of our field capacity comes from full-time staff, with the remainder from a vetted network of independent contractors we've developed over three years.

This does introduce complexity in quality control and brand consistency. However, it has provided operational resilience during hiring gaps that would otherwise have forced us to turn away work or burn out our permanent team.

From a governance perspective, the contractor relationships require more structured agreements and performance tracking than traditional employment, but the flexibility has proven strategically valuable.

so what we did was basically start a "tech council" — like six of us meet with ops once a month and just... talk about what's annoying us? lol

it started because our old manager left and the new one actually asked what we thought instead of just telling us. so we said dispatch gives us jobs with no parking info, and customers don't know we're coming, and the parts van is always missing stuff

they didn't fix everything obviously but they fixed some stuff and like... we felt heard? anyway three of the guys who were gonna quit are still here. so basically treat people like humans i guess

Connor, that's excellent — and honestly, more powerful than most formal retention programs I've seen. The "feeling heard" factor is underrated.

We run something similar but with a twist: rotating leadership of the forum every quarter. Techs nominate who facilitates. Removes the "this is management's thing" perception.

Pro tip: track which issues get raised repeatedly and close the loop publicly. "You asked for better part availability — we added real-time van inventory lookup in the mobile app." Shows the connection between feedback and action.

On the original topic: we've also started recruiting from trade school programs six months before graduation. Getting ahead of the competition that waits for job fairs.

Keiko, on the apprenticeship question: we ran the numbers on "grow your own" versus market hires. Break-even is 18 months for electrical apprentices, 24 for HVAC. After that, significantly lower turnover and no recruiting fees.

Pro tip: partner with a specific trade school instructor. Bring them lunch, tour your facility, make it easy for them to refer students. Generic job postings get ignored. Personal relationships get talent.

Also worth noting: we stopped requiring 5+ years experience for "senior" roles. Started assessing on demonstrated skill in our practical evaluations. Expanded our candidate pool significantly.