Ensuring Longevity: How to Hire the Right People for Your Plumbing Business
If you’re looking to hire for your plumbing business, it can be hard to know where to start. The last thing you want to do is go through the process only to find that you hired the wrong person.
That’s why I help my clients find the best way to hire plumbers for their company. Hiring and onboarding costs too much to make the wrong choice, so how can you ensure that you’re attracting the right talent to your postings?
Today, I’ll share my top advice on how to hire the right people for your business.
Why Does Hiring the Right People Matter?
Many of the people I talk to know that hiring the right people is important. No one wants to deal with the process of discovering that a new hire isn’t the right fit, and just waiting for the right moment to let them go. But do you actually know the true cost of hiring the wrong person?
Studies have shown that hiring the wrong person can cost, at a minimum, 30% of the position’s salary. This isn’t to mention the expenses that you may lose from low productivity, the onboarding costs, or the damage done to your reputation from a bad hire.
That’s too much money to gamble with for your business!
Yes, the hiring process can be a long and even costly one, but by investing in ways to find the right candidate for the role, you’re saving yourself money and the headache in the long run.
How to Hire the Right People for Your Business
So then, what are the best ways to hire for your plumbing business to ensure longevity and retention? In my experience, there are four key things you need to find hiring success.
1. Your Culture Is Your Guide
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen people make during their hiring process is not interviewing or filtering candidates through their company culture. For many of my clients, this is because they may not have a defined culture yet—if you’re thinking of starting a plumbing business or don’t have a defined culture for your current business, this should be your first step before you list a posting.
Your culture acts as the guardrails for your hiring practices. Think about the values you want your company to be known for and, as an extension, the values your employees should display and live by. When you’re interviewing and considering candidates, you can compare each person against your values and mission, allowing you to determine if you think they would fit inside your culture.
I often recommend to my clients that they prioritize culture fit over skills in the interviewing process—skills can be taught, but personality cannot.
2. Define Your Roles
One of the biggest traps you can fall into when hiring is not having clearly defined roles in your company. Without direction, people tend to lose track of their goals, and what you may feel is an unsatisfactory job is actually a lack of clarity. Moreover, clear role descriptions during hiring allow people to more accurately self-evaluate themselves, resulting in a more refined applicant pool.
I know this may feel like you’re making your pool smaller, but the goal is to get more qualified candidates, not just a lot of candidates. The benefits of defining job roles cannot be overstated—it saves you time and money during the hiring process and provides peace of mind in everyday operations.
3. Speak to the Upcoming Generation
This may be surprising to learn, but the younger generation (Generation Z) is getting more and more into trade school and occupations, rising as much as 16% between the years of 2023 to 2024. As you’re hiring new people, you’ll want to take advantage of this rising interest. Young, fresh talent could lead to long-term, faithful employees, especially when they’re bought into your mission and culture.
In order to attract young talent, you have to speak to a younger audience—put your business’s personality into the job listing, highlight your benefits, utilize your social media for hiring campaigns. We’re not saying you have to keep up with all the trends, but by making small adjustments to appeal to younger talent, you might find a whole new pool of talent waiting to apply for your position.
4. Find Your Competitive Edge
It’s no secret that the plumbing industry is a saturated market right now. While this is most often talked about in regard to gaining business, this also applies to the hiring climate. There are a lot of plumbing companies out there who are hiring, and there are not a lot of qualified applicants looking for jobs. In order to attract talent—and good talent at that—you have to do more than just post a job opening and disclose a salary range. You want to find what makes you unique from the competition.
This could be anything from your offered benefits package to your company’s culture. For example, if you give back to your local community through charity or volunteer work, this could set you apart from other companies and show your character to your applicants. Those who are interested in giving back will be attracted to this mission-first mindset and are more likely to apply!
A good way to determine your competitive edge is to survey your current employees. What attracted them to you? Why do they stay? If you find a common thread between their answers, make sure it’s highlighted in your job listing.
Find the Right People & Keep Them with the Help of Plumbing CEO
Even if you now know the four key factors in hiring the right people, you may not have a plan in place to implement them.
That’s where I come in. I’ve helped plumbing business owners, just like you, recruit and hire the right people for their company through my coaching sessions.
From defining your culture to defining roles to finding your competitive edge, I provide one-on-one coaching sessions to help you better yourself and every part of your plumbing business. So if you’re ready to find the right people and keep them for years to come, book a session with me today to get started!