“Why can’t I find good help?” The complaint I see online and hear over and over. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but there are a lot of great technicians out there. I know this for a fact because I talk with them in person and online every week. The problem is that when they find a great company to work with, they usually stay put and are loyal. Because we all know that there are lots of really crappy companies out there that treat the maintenance techs like disposable diapers. And those same companies wonder why they can’t find good people! Here’s a top 10 list of why you can’t find or keep good maintenance technicians.
10) Too Many Bad Online Reviews
No one wants to walk into a slaughter house. When I came off the road after working as a full-time guitar player and wanted to get back into maintenance, the first thing I did was go online and find apartment complexes that had the best reviews. I wrote down five complexes and then went out and submitted my application to those five. I got hired by one of those five complexes. The place doesn’t have to be perfect. Everyone knows that there will be a few bad reviews due to those people that no one can make happy. However, if there’s one bad review after another, your complex looks like a slaughter house and a good technician will probably not be asking if you’re hiring.
9) Leadership Doesn’t Have Your Back
There’s no worse feeling than this. For example, being told when you were hired that residents are responsible for their own “honey do” list. Like moving their own furniture or hanging their own pictures, curtains, and t.v.’s. Then, suddenly you’re being bitched at by a manager because you’re not doing it. The trust is gone. Leadership doesn’t have your back. Instead of telling residents no, the manager or supervisor is a coward who caves every time. So now, you’re not only responsible for A/C repairs, plumbing leaks, and lord knows what else will break, but you’re also responsible for everyone’s “honey do” list. And once you start doing peoples personal chores, word gets around and the “honey do” list free service starts getting abused. Techs are there to maintain the company’s property. Not to work on people’s “honey do” list. I’d be glad to do it after work for some side hustle cash though! $$$
8) Too Many Or One Major Butthole In The Work Place
I’m sure this one speaks for itself. We spend most of our time every week with the people we work with. Life’s too short to work with anyone we don’t get along with. An annoying nag or a micromanager will quickly make a rock star technician leave and go work down the road for your competition. A nag or micromanager is like a disease. If you don’t get rid of it early, it’ll spread negativity and kill your business.
7) No Promotions Or Room To Move Up Within The Company
Usually good maintenance techs are ambitious people who’d like to have more responsibility and bigger paychecks one day. So, they seek companies where they can grow into a leadership position. Also, good techs think about the future and know the day is coming when they won’t be a spring chicken anymore. Their back, knees, and joints will make it difficult to crawl around under sinks and even more difficult to move heavy appliances up and down stairs. So, a company that provides leadership positions to strive for like a regional supervisor position or a director of operations position is what good technicians seek. A job that doesn’t give yearly raises or provide leadership positions is called a dead-end job. How depressing!
6) Asked To Do The Work That The Slackers Aren’t Doing
I’m a member of a lot of online apartment forums and this issue comes up constantly. Giving more work to your best worker is the most annoying thing a manager can do. It’s not that good techs can’t handle it. Oh they can and will! It’s that they see that you’re too cowardly to fire the sorry asses that do pretty much nothing all day. You think it makes sense to dump the work they’re not doing onto the go-getter’s plate? Warning, you’re on borrowed time and about to lose a good technician if you do this.
5) Company Doesn’t Offer Certification Classes
Like I said earlier, good maintenance techs are usually ambitious people who want their skills and knowledge to grow. Not offering to pay for and send technicians to HVAC, pool, or CAMT classes to get certified is a dead end. It also shows that you’re looking for cheap labor. Not skilled technicians.
4) No Budget To Repair Things The Right Way
Sending your technician out into the field without the proper equipment to make repairs is like a soldier going into a battle with water balloons and a rolling pin. You’re setting him or her up for failure! I’ve read that the most common reason why people moved out of their apartment was because of maintenance not making good repairs. Look, I understand that a business has to have a budget and that a business has to turn a profit. However, if people are moving out because you’re being cheap, you’re not going to need a budget because you’re not going to have a business sooner or later.
Funny how no one has the budget for raises and the important stuff but they always have the budget for $5,000 worth swag crap. Like, T-shirts, hats, pens, koozies, tote bags, and other things that shouldn’t take priority over repair parts that make it right.
3) Company Tries To Catch You In A Technicality
This one really burns my butt because it’s a common problem in our industry and I’ve been a victim of it. What is it with companies who find creative ways to not pay their maintenance techs overtime these days? If a tech stays late and saves the day with a miracle, it seems like most offices say, “Oh, got you on a technicality so we can’t pay you for that.” WHAT! Don’t you want that tech to do that again if need be? If there’s no incentive to be a miracle worker guess what, that tech will never save the day again. Rock star technicians don’t put up with that crap and will usually leave and go down the road to work for your competitor.
And for Pete’s sake please stop manipulating a technicians work days so that you don’t have to pay him or her overtime when they go on call. On call can be very stressful while we babysit a phone all week. Why do certain companies make it even more annoying by making sure a tech gets very little to no overtime pay? If you’ve never been on call or don’t know what it feels like to have to leave your child’s baseball game or dance recital because apartment B-106 is too good to plunge their own toilet, then you have no business making the rules about the on call. Period! Not paying overtime when someone has to leave a family event is not being business smart. It’s being a jerk.
You ain’t got the money to pay techs for overtime but man look at all those t-shirts, pens, koozies, and tote bags you give away!
Again, I know a business runs on budgets and profits. But if you don’t keep technicians around who perform miracles and do good work, you’re not going to need a budget because you’re not going to have a business.
2) The Pay Sucks
Cheap labor isn’t skilled and skilled labor isn’t cheap. Our industry is struggling because most of you are looking for a master of all trades for $12.00 an hour. Ain’t gonna happen! You’ll need to find one or two good technicians and pay them well. Preferably between $20.00 to $23.00 an hour with incentives and perks. Those good techs are leaders that will train the new rookies who you’ll be paying $10.00 to $12.00 or more an hour. This will benefit your company for decades because leaders don’t create followers, they create other leaders. And once you get a cycle of leaders being created over and over, you’re going to prosper.
Most properties and businesses sink because they fail to realize this. Treating people like disposable diapers has even sunk empires! Like the Japanese empire during World War 2. They didn’t value their great pilots and sent them off to die on suicide missions where they’d crash their planes into american battleships. Eventually, there were no leaders around to train the new rookie pilots so the Americans shot them out of the sky with ease. Japan lost air supremacy and eventually lost the war.
1) Not Appreciated
A thank you doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive. You’d be surprised what a Home Depot gift card and a 6 pack of good beer does to a maintenance technician. We love it! Doing that quarterly or even every 6 months goes a long way. Also, yearly reviews with a raise will tell a tech that he or she is still valued and appreciated. Our job is a thankless job that is not for the faint of heart. Be sure you’re giving plenty of “atta boys” throughout the year.
CONCLUSION
Your company doesn’t have to be perfect, but the pros must outweigh the cons if you want to find and keep good technicians. Way too many property owners are running their businesses and properties like it’s still the 1990’s when they started their business. Back when if someone had a bad experience, they could only tell 7 to 10 people. It’s time to hire and market in the 21st century people! Nowadays when someone has a bad experience, they can tell millions of people with the push of a button. So, the key to keeping your business profitable is to keep bad experiences from being posted online. How do you do that? Find and keep great people that are professionals who take ownership and care about what they do. Like my favorite mentor Jim Rohn says, ” Good people are not trained, they’re found.” But, your company is going to have to have the reputation of treating people well and paying people well. If you pay peanuts, you’re going to get monkeys.
-Related Blog Post-
Good Tools For The Apartment Maintenance Trade – Link
Should The Property Management Company Buy Your Tools – Link
The Maintenance Man Myth – Link
Good HVAC Tools For Apartment Maintenance Technicians – link
How To Get Into The Apartment Industry – link
Going On Call As An Apartment Maintenance Technician – link
How To Deal With A Goodbye Talker – link
How To Have A Successful Student Housing Turn Season – link
How To Handle Working With A Hider – link
Dirty Maintenance Cheat Sheet – link
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Lots of truth here! Iv witnessed most all these reasons not to be a tech in my region. The disparity of it all is when you try to respectfully convey these issues to Corp., no one is caring enough to listen. My company has had 5 Reginald in the last two years. Not to mention unfit BM’s who disrespect, manipulate and disparage the maintenance staff. If companies were paying vendors to do all we do; HVAC, Pool OPeration, Appliances, make readies, work requests along with property upkeep and building repairs, they would realize how great they had it. So many goo techs are looking to change careers because of being unappreciated in many ways. Just to think…… I was an Aircraft Tech on a major airline and quit to work maintenance for one of these jack wagon companies.
Yep! You hit the nail on the head! The industry needs a wake up call. It’s not 1997 anymore. Now that people can ruin a property’s reputation with the push of a button, it’s time to start looking for good people to keep bad reviews off line. Otherwise, find cheap labor that will super glue everything and watch your business fail.
Thank you so much for reading JBS!
Good piece, Lex. 👍
Thank you Jim!