HVAC execs share how to recruit and avoid silent culture killers

Jason Henderson, Jason Fox, and Tracie Harper — executives at leading HVAC companies in Vegas, Wisconsin, and Texas — participated in an “Ask-Me-Anything” at Service Nation’s Charlotte event last month. We snuck into the room, filled with contractors doing $8 million+ in revenue, and took notes as they answered questions.

How do you deal with stalling growth?

Fox kicked things off by talking about the problem with focusing only on new customers: missing a lot from existing customers.

• He restructured his call center to create Inside Sales and Outbound teams, implemented daily goals and gamified them, paid the team per appointment booked, and created a culture where people don’t leave until 100% of the next day is booked.

• “You can book 8% of your customer base a month,” he said. 

Can you share some thoughts on goal-setting?

All three agreed that company-wise, goals should be set and then reverse-engineered. So, if you need X leads from technicians, how many houses do they need to be in daily to hit that goal?

• Everyone on the team should know their part in the overall goal; everyone should have KPIs.

• Once time goes by, then you can look at how you’re doing and ask yourself, “Do we need more calls? Or do we need to up our close rate?”, and adjust from there. 

What are silent culture killers and how do you handle them? 

Henderson told the room to get rid of people who aren’t aligned with their values, fast. He also emphasized the importance of culture as a continuous process, and not just a one-time company party, for example. 

• “Even if you have the Mona Lisa on your wall, it’s cool, but over time, it’ll start collecting dust,” he said.

• His company hired a “culture ambassador” to ensure it’s a never-ending initiative.  

Henderson would also host routine 1-on-1s with teammates and ask them questions to stay in front of issues:

• Is there anything annoying you or festering that will eventually make it hard for you to work here?

• Have we done anything in the past 2 weeks that’s gonna make you leave? What about things that will make you stay?

From there, he’d address those things, or explain why he won’t. But at that point, his employees felt heard, and Henderson, as an owner, had a better pulse on things.

He closed by noting, “A silent culture killer is overlooking the best people because you’re always focused on the troublemakers.” 

How do you attract new talent?

Tracie looks no further than home — at nearby restaurants, Best Buy, or Lifetime Fitness — for good, young service workers. 

• Their duct cleaning business is an incubator. When people come in, they start there and get a path laid out for them, which could include install, service, or sales. 

• Fox and the Capital crew have rolling, open interviews from 8am to 12pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Henderson shared an outside-the-box strategy that worked for him. He’d visit Indeed(.)com, filter to HVAC technicians in his area, and see who last updated their resumes. 

• From there, he’d message them and say, “I’d love to get to know you,” and leave his number to text. 

• “It works immediately,” he said. “Because you’re encouraging a text versus a call.”

• Those who updated their resumes may still be working for another company, so they wouldn’t apply for a typical employment ad. That’s the difference here — he’d outbound while most wait for applicants to come inbound.

• “Always be recruiting,” the group agreed.

Miscellaneous 

One item of consensus among the group was utilizing DiSC profiles. Everyone seemed to agree on the value of using them internally.

• “Everyone has to be bought in. And don’t push things off until tomorrow; do them today,” Henderson said. 

• “Be prepared to change things fast. That 70-page manual you put together? We might change it next week,” he added.