Recruiting the next generation requires that you understand how the people you are seeking to hire view their career choices. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) confirms what contractors already know about trying to hire new employees – there are more job openings than qualified people to fill them. Projections show more than 80,000 new job openings for plumbers, pipefitters, and HVAC technicians every year for the next decade. The financial cost to the economy for just those unfilled plumbing and pipefitter roles was approximately $33 billion in 2022, according to Bloomberg research. While the need for more workers is making news, there is evidence of changing viewpoints about careers in the trades that may help. This information was gathered by the PHCC Educational Foundation.
Recruiting and retaining the next generation requires you to think about it beyond the tactical approach of putting out an advertisement, going to career fairs, or hoping a good candidate walks in the door. PHCC contractors know the trades are a great career choice, but sometimes communicating that to a potential hire is difficult. We have identified seven key points that can help you convince workers to consider the trades as you build your own recruitment and retention strategy. Here are the first three:
So let us come together to help our industry continue to recruit and retain the next generation.
Market analysis for the plumbing heating cooling industry for July 2024.
View and Download: https://www.inphcc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/July2024InstaIntel.pdf
Link to article from Indeed here
Customer service is a company’s opportunity to connect with customers on a human level. It allows the company to show its worth when it comes to providing customer-focused solutions. Accessible customer service is an important aspect of providing goods and services—customers tend to remember how the service was. For this reason, having solid customer service training for employees is a matter of great importance.
While many businesses may place a higher focus on sales and marketing, customer service may be more important. Sales and marketing revolve around landing new customers, while customer service is about keeping existing customers happy.Happy customers are the best advertisement a company can hope for.
It takes a substantial degree of effort to convince customers to choose your products and services over your competitors. However, when people hear positive reviews from people they know and trust, it casts away any doubts they might harbor. This makes word of mouth a powerful form of advertisement.
Let’s have a look at some benefits of providing good customer service:
Not everyone is cut out for customer service, and some personality traits are more suitable than others. For example, if someone is disagreeable in nature, they may be more suited to highly competitive jobs that require assertiveness and a strong backbone.
Customer service requires a range of traits that you should watch for when hiring candidates:
Emotional intelligence is about understanding your emotions, so you can manage and use them to empathize with others and solve problems. Empathy enables a person to place themselves in the shoes of others, estimate how they might be feeling and help them to resolve their negative, stress-related emotions. This is a highly important skill for any customer service agent to have, especially when dealing with distressed or unhappy customers.
Being able to communicate effectively is paramount to delivering quality customer service. Without the ability to effectively convey messages, a customer service agent likely won’t be able to quell complaints.
Communication has several basic forms:
If customer service is face-to-face, presentation is important. The appearance of the customer service agent reflects the company’s values. Customer service agents should appear neat, professional and hygienic when dealing with customer issues.
Being resourceful means having the mental toolkit to find answers to a problem. There’s no shame in not knowing the answer to something, but that doesn’t mean a customer service agent should just tell a customer they don’t know the answer to their question.
It’s better to tell the customer that they don’t know the answer but will find out. Not only does this show the customer that you care about their issues, but it also demonstrates your willingness to go above and beyond to resolve them.
There’s no one way of providing customer service training to employees. Depending on the nature of your business, you may need to have your employees undergo training from the beginning or participate in quarterly, yearly or emergency training.
Of course, you can’t expect a candidate to know exactly what you’re looking for immediately upon hiring them. You’ll need to show them the ropes at the beginning of their employment. If you’re planning on hiring multiple candidates, it’s a good idea to wait until you’ve selected all of the candidates, so you can train them together.
This will not only save you time, but it also creates a sense of team involvement. This is a nice way to welcome your new candidates and make them feel comfortable.
Carrying out your customer service training on a yearly or quarterly basis can be a great way of testing whether your methods are working. For example, if you introduced a new customer service practice last quarter, but your customer service ratings have fallen, this might be an indication that it’s not having the desired effect.
Having a regular training program for customer service agents also contributes to keeping your team motivated. They’re far more likely to perform better if they know you’re keeping a close eye on their progress.
This type of customer service training is usually required after a customer service crisis or before a novel event. Something may have recently happened that caught one or more of your customer service agents off-guard. Holding a training session to clear up any confusion and further train them on how to deal with unexpected situations might be the next necessary step.
You may also need to hold an emergency training session if you’re expecting something novel in the upcoming days or weeks. Perhaps you’re expecting a rapid influx of complaints due to some fault or the release of a new product.
Customer service doesn’t have to be all about natural aptitude and personality. It helps if your candidates already carry all the necessary traits and skills, but customer service is a skill that you can train. Here are some of the most fundamental skills for customer service employees to have:
While some people naturally have good interpersonal skills, there’s usually always room for improvement. There are many facets of interpersonal skills that should be considered when training customer service staff.
Being competent in verbal communication requires having a good vocabulary and being able to use it. However, words are not the only aspect of verbal communication. For customer service, tone of voice is also important. To make the customer feel more at ease, customer service agents should use a soft and receptive tone of voice.
While often underestimated, nonverbal communication is highly important. Nonverbal communication includes facial expressions, gestures, posture and eye contact, along with personal space aspects. Having the right balance of each of these is paramount when dealing with customers.
You’ll want to train your customer service employees to appear humble and receptive to the needs of customers, employing the right level of eye contact and granting enough personal space.
Listening might be the most important skill in customer service. The ability to be a good listener helps customer service agents understand customer issues. Good customer service requires being able to listen intently, paraphrasing the problem back to the customer to make sure you’ve fully understood it and taking action to resolve it.
Paraphrasing is considered the secret weapon of customer service. It serves a useful purpose for both the staff and the customers. By repeating what you’ve understood from what the customer has said, you ensure you comprehend the issue at hand while making the customer feel they’re being taken seriously. It also generates a mutual feeling of goodwill between the customer and the staff member.
If your business primarily provides customer service over the phone, good phone skills are an absolute must. The key difference between delivering customer service in person and over the phone is that body language is not available with over-the-phone communication.
This puts a greater emphasis on verbal communication and voice donation when dealing with customer service issues. Providing customer service over the phone also limits the agent’s ability to read how the customer is feeling.
Without the information usually provided by facial expressions and body language, the customer service staff will need to develop higher sensitivity to reading voice tonation.
When companies are undergoing constant change, whether that’s introducing new products to the range or using new applications, it can be a lot for staff to keep up with.If you’ve recently introduced some new product or application, it’s a good idea to hold a training session to help staff develop the necessary skills.
Here are some suggestions on how to familiarize your staff with the new company update:
Assigning lower levels of staff with individual mentors gives them a direct contact to direct their questions to. It can be a good idea to ensure the mentor is someone from another department. This gives your staff members the opportunity to have a company-wide perspective of ongoing developments.
Having live demonstration sessions that include a question and answer period at the end can be an effective way of familiarizing staff with new updates. It creates an atmosphere of learning and can save time spent on providing personalized individual training.
Crisis management skills are crucial to providing good customer service. Being able to adapt and deal with unexpected situations is an important skill for any customer service agent to have. Studies have shown that 70% of unhappy customers whose issue was resolved are willing to return.
It’s almost as if the crisis itself is of far lower significance than whether it was resolved. Training your staff to deal with a wide array of possible issues can increase their crisis management skills by proxy.
Customers reach out to customer service reps when they’re experiencing a problem, so it’s reasonable that many of them might be angry or distressed. When someone is frustrated, they develop an increased sensitivity to conflict, making conflict resolution skills a necessary part of providing good customer service.
Here are some key factors for effective conflict resolution:
A huge proportion of your brand’s quality and reputation relies on the quality of the customer service you provide. While often overlooked and deemed as secondary to sales and marketing, customer service is the key to retaining customers.
Holding onto existing customers is less costly than having to find new ones to replace the dissatisfied ones who left. It’s just as important to ensure each of your employees have emotional intelligence and strong communication skills as it is to provide quality customer service training to ensure your customers keep coming back.
Roleplaying can be a highly effective method of training employees. It gives them a model of real encounters and a platform to practice their responses. It also facilitates live feedback that can be applied in real-time.
Absolutely. You’re the one setting the standard, so it’s helpful if you’re the one conveying the message to your employees about how to deal with customer service issues. However, if you don’t feel comfortable conducting training yourself, you can always hire a professional to come and assist you with the training.
Yes. Customer service training puts you in strong standing with your existing customers. This enables you to extract more value from them at lower costs.
Jul 19, 2024,08:15am EDT
Nikita Prokhorov, is a marketing, online reputation and communication expert, public speaker and author. Partner in Arctic Ventures. Link to article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2024/07/19/six-online-reputation-management-trends-in-2024/
Reputation has become a crucial asset for business. An inappropriate statement can lead to the loss of career opportunities, advertising contracts and market position. Conversely, relevant actions can open up new opportunities, increase demand for products and attract more followers on social media.
Reputation is an institution that any company or public figure can and should work with both offline and online. Online reputation management, or ORM for short, is a process that involves monitoring the information field, addressing online mentions of an individual or brand, social media marketing (SMM), search engine reputation management (SERM), public relations (PR), influence marketing and removing unwanted information.
Reputation management, like any other technological process, is constantly evolving. In this article, I have selected the six significant trends for those interested in managing their online reputation.
In order to effectively manage your reputation, it is important to constantly evaluate. This can be done by monitoring through special systems such as Brandwatch, Talkwalker and others. There are three main types of monitoring based on frequency:
• At least once a day, you should check for any crisis points related to your brand and assess the attitudes of your target audience.
• Once a month, you should monitor changes in user loyalty online. You can also evaluate the effectiveness of advertising and PR campaigns on a monthly basis. This will help you identify which channels are working best and how users respond to different types of content and influencers.
• Once a quarter, you can conduct market and competitor research to gain insights and adjust your marketing strategy if necessary.
Doing this will allow you to:
• Detect problems at an early stage and address them promptly. This way, any negative impact doesn’t have time to spread and gain additional coverage among users; you can then localize the issue on a single platform.
• Get a broader perspective. Take into account what users are worried about and work with this information
According to research conducted by the University of Michigan, members of brand communities spend 19% more money online compared to ordinary customers. To increase sales, it is essential not only to create these communities but also to actively engage with them. This includes providing advice to both existing and potential customers, resolving disputes, responding to complaints and dispelling myths surrounding a product or brand.
By community, I mean not only groups on social media, but also offline groups. For example, motorcycle enthusiasts, Tolkien fans and fans of certain car brands like BMW and Mercedes. These groups can support the brand at events, post about it online and create user-generated content.
According to HubSpot research, 63% of social media users expect a response from a brand within one hour. If they don’t receive a response within this time frame, they may leave negative reviews, refuse to purchase products in the future, or not recommend the brand to their friends and family. On the other hand, a quick response from the brand encourages 34% of users to make additional purchases.
A study by Sproul Social highlights just how important it is for individuality and personalization to come through in your communication with customers—especially when it comes to maintaining your reputation.
Therefore, instead of using strict scripts, I recommend taking an individual approach and creating a response map or matrix. This map includes the basics of working with an audience: The tone of voice, the main question groups and their talking points, and priority resources.
While it is true that there are times when it may be impractical to abandon scripts entirely, in these cases, it is important to provide your team with a script builder so that they can create unique responses. Consider the following:
• Response structure.
• Format in which the user is addressed (first name/last name).
• Requests for additional information and how it should be communicated to the brand (email, messengers, website).
• Expressions of regret about the client’s problems, if necessary.
• Gratitude for feedback.
• Timing of responses.
• Words of farewell.
Statistics show that 70% of customers are willing to provide feedback when asked. You can offer several ways for them to provide feedback: Push notifications, SMS or messenger, email, your website or social media. You could also add a QR code that takes them to a page with reviews, sales receipts, business cards or promotional materials.
Remember to encourage users to not only leave reviews but also use bonus points or other loyalty program benefits. However, it's important to never ask for specific positive feedback—this will be seen as manipulation.
According to a Dimensional Research survey, 90% of online purchases are made based on reviews. These reviews also determine the ranking and popularity of products on marketplaces like Amazon. Both these factors determine where a product ranks in search results. Therefore, it is important not only to encourage customers to leave reviews on marketplaces but also to respond to them on behalf of the brand.
Don't forget to work on your product description. According to a survey conducted by Salsify, 87% of online shoppers say that product content, including the product description, plays a crucial role in their purchasing decisions. While it's important not to overload your description with unnecessary information, it's also crucial not to make it too brief. Be sure to include high-quality images and videos—according to the same survey, 66% of consumers prefer seeing images of the product before making a purchase.
Every year, new trends in reputation management emerge. Perhaps next year, we will be utilizing neural networks, adaptive AI systems and metaverses for reputation management.
Therefore, in addition to utilizing the techniques I have discussed in this article, I recommend staying informed about new technologies that we'll likely soon be employing within the field of online reputation management.
Tankless water heaters, also known as on-demand water heaters, have gained popularity due to their efficiency and convenience. Unlike traditional water heaters that store hot water, tankless water heaters heat water only when needed, which saves energy and reduces utility bills. However, maintaining these systems is crucial to ensure their longevity and optimal performance. One key aspect of maintenance is regular cleaning. Here’s why you should clean your tankless water heater.
By Conner Cunningham, Arrow Sales, Inc. Westfield, IN
1. Enhanced Efficiency and Performance
Over time, minerals like calcium and magnesium from your water supply can build up in the heater’s system, leading to scaling. This buildup can obstruct water flow and reduce the efficiency of the heat exchanger, causing the unit to work harder and consume more energy. Regular cleaning removes these deposits, ensuring that your water heater operates efficiently and maintains its performance.
2. Prolonged Lifespan
A well-maintained tankless water heater can last over 20 years. However, neglecting regular cleaning can significantly shorten its lifespan. Scale buildup and other residues can cause parts to wear out faster, leading to frequent repairs or even premature replacement. By regularly cleaning your unit, you help ensure it remains in good working condition for many years.
3. Improved Water Quality
When minerals accumulate in your tankless water heater, they can affect the quality of the water that flows through it. This can lead to cloudy or hard water, which may not be pleasant for bathing, cooking, or drinking. Regular cleaning helps maintain better water quality, ensuring you have clear and clean water.
4. Consistent Hot Water Supply
A dirty tankless water heater may struggle to deliver hot water consistently. You might experience fluctuations in water temperature or even a complete loss of hot water during peak usage times. Regular cleaning ensures that your water heater can consistently provide hot water when you need it.
5. Cost Savings
While tankless water heaters are generally more efficient than traditional models, a dirty unit can negate these savings. Increased energy consumption due to scale buildup means higher utility bills. Moreover, frequent breakdowns and repairs can add to your costs. By keeping your tankless water heater clean, you can save money on energy bills and avoid costly repairs.
6. Prevention of System Failure
Neglecting to clean your tankless water heater can lead to serious issues such as system failure. If the heat exchanger becomes too clogged with scale, the unit may overheat and shut down, leaving you without hot water. Regular cleaning helps prevent such failures, ensuring reliable operation.
How to Clean Your Tankless Water Heater
Cleaning your tankless water heater involves descaling the system to remove mineral buildup. This process typically includes:
1. Turning off the power and water supply to the heater.
2. Connecting a hose to the cold water inlet and another to the hot water outlet.
3. Using a descaling solution to flush the system, usually with the help of a submersible pump. A recommended descaling solution is Blue Monster® Velocity™ - Tankless Water-Heater Flush.
4. Rinsing the unit with clean water to remove any remaining solution.
For specific instructions, consult your unit’s manual or consider hiring a professional to ensure the job is done correctly.
Conclusion
Regular cleaning of your tankless water heater is essential for maintaining its efficiency, performance, and longevity. By preventing scale buildup and ensuring consistent hot water supply, you can enjoy the full benefits of your tankless water heater. Incorporate this simple maintenance task into your routine to save money, improve water quality, and avoid unexpected breakdowns.
By Thomas L. Totten, FSA, PhD - Founder, Stokastique
As companies plan for management succession and exiting owners, multiple options are available including:
Indiana has 26 employee-owned companies (ESOP) who are either contractors or in the construction industry. Let me offer you a short summary of ESOP’s and the advantages and disadvantages of selling to employees as an ESOP.
Selling your company through an ESOP is a lot less of a traditional method, but it can be very financially rewarding for both the current owner(s) and the new owners - your employees. How an ESOP pays out the company owner is by receiving money from an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) through the sale of stock in exchange for cash or a stream of payments to the existing owner(s). The company can use funds that would normally go toward income tax liabilities to pay the owner. The company can also make tax-deductible cash contributions to the ESOP or arrange a bank loan for the ESOP to buy the owner's shares.
What is an ESOP?
An ESOP is essentially a retirement program (much like a 401(k)) that can hold the stock of a company. Annually, the company decides how much stock is allocated to employees that enter their “retirement plan.” Since it is a qualified retirement plan under IRS regulations, employees are not taxed on the stock and all stock appreciation is tax deferred until the employee leaves the company. At that time, the stock is converted to cash (as the company buys the stock back) and the employee can roll the money into an IRA thus avoiding taxation.
How is the company managed after the sale?
In many ways the company maintains its independence and is run the same way before the sale. The owner can still stay with the company and run the business, if that is their decision. ESOPs are most successful with a strong management team in place and a good succession plan - should the owner expect to leave the business. In addition, a formal board of directors must be created to meet the regulatory requirements of an ESOP, but the owner will essentially be able to select who sits on the board.
Are there other parties involved?
Since the company will be technically owned by a retirement trust (ESOP), a trustee will have to be named to safeguard the assets. Generally, this is a person or an institution and will not be involved in the general running of the company. This is where companies like Stokastique become a key partner.
What are the positives in selling to an ESOP?
The new owners of the company are the employees, and the management staff is traditionally the same as before the transaction. Therefore, the culture and running of the company will not change. An owner can still stay in the company and run it, and frankly it is important for that leader to be involved for a certain amount of time – a period that is up to the owner, board of directors, and the management team. The most important positive is that the employees now share in the success of the company.
What are the negatives in selling to an ESOP?
Any selling transaction will incur costs and the same will be to an ESOP. It is not a cheap endeavor as parties such as appraisers, trustees, and attorneys will need to be involved. In addition, the ESOP will offer a fair price for the business. The fair price may be less than another type of buyer, such as a competitor or private equity. Finally, it takes time to finalize the deal and that can be frustrating at times.
Conclusion
When planning for succession of the business, owners have several items to consider in this process. It is best if the owner knows what it really wants to accomplish in the transaction to help decide the best route for themselves. If you want to learn more, feel free to reach out to the Indiana PHCC offices and we will get you connected to the right people to discuss this exit strategy.
by TMA Accounting - Indiana PHCC Associate Member
At some point, all business decisions come down to dollars and cents. How much will it cost to implement a particular program, and what's the potential value to your company?
The costs are often pretty straightforward, such as when you buy a new computer or launch an ad campaign. But when it comes to hiring an employee, the cost isn't so clear. Yet, company leaders will still ask: "What will it cost us to bring in a new marketing director?" You can respond with information about the upfront and hidden costs involved.
Several pieces of the "cost to hire" equation are easy to determine because they already have price tags attached to them and are readily identifiable with the hiring process. They include:
Fees for background checks, drug testing, and other screenings and tests may be small compared to a new employee's compensation package but don't forget to include them.
There are also more subtle costs associated with hiring. Although some expenses have a set fee, fixing a dollar amount to these other costs relies more on "guesstimation." Here are some examples of hidden expenses:
Time. This area takes into account the cost of the time employees spend away from their regular duties when your company is hiring and training new workers. It includes all who have a hand in the process, such as receptionists who field phone calls about an open position, personnel who screen resumes and follows up with applicants, and managers who interview candidates, call references and train new hires.
Lost productivity. This is the cost of the work not getting done until you can get an employee up and running in the open position.
Miscellaneous hiring. This is a percentage of the overall cost associated with all company hires. Typical hiring expenses are recruitment brochures and materials, candidate-specific websites separate from your business's general website, orientation materials, applicant tracking, and other HR systems.
This area also includes the cost of unfilled positions on employees, including lower morale resulting from the stress of handling additional responsibilities and overtime pay.
It's good business to pay attention to how you spend money to find new employees. By doing so, you can eliminate the things that don't work — such as ads that fail to deliver qualified candidates — and focus on what does work. But don't get so caught up in tracking the dollars and cents that you don't have time to track down the perfect candidate. And don't neglect the causes of turnover. After all, one of the best ways to reduce hiring costs is to retain your best people.
Disclaimer:Nothing in this post constitutes legal, tax or financial advice and is intended for informational and educational purposes only. This informational and educational material is not intended, and must not be taken, as legal, tax or financial advice on any particular set of facts or circumstances or as recommendations that are suitable for any specific person. You need to contact a lawyer, accountant or financial adviser licensed in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific questions, issues and concerns. View our full Terms of Use here.
The process of developing the next generation of leadership in the skilled trades is different than it used to be. That is because we’re different. The composition of today’s skilled labor force is rapidly changing as the baby boomers continue to retire and succeeding generations rise through the ranks.
The labor force is shrinking. We have fewer people coming into the trades and many that are transitioning out. We must hold on to existing workers by showing them there are opportunities to grow and evolve within the industry as a whole and within their own companies. The skilled trades cannot afford to lose any workers. Retention is vital.
Many people are now retiring from the trades. The trades are made up of mostly the baby boomer generation, so now they are at the age of retiring. Due to many of them retiring, it is important to pass on the skills to the younger generation that are coming into the trades. In order to pass on these skills, there are two main key parts, followership and the leader’s behaviors.
To start, followership is important to the learning of the trades. The followers need to be reciprocating to the teaching methods of the elder tradesmen. As stated in lecture followership is how followers influence leader attitudes, behaviors, and outcomes” (PSU WC, 2022, L. 2 p.2). In the trades everyone learns differently, and the best style of teaching varies from each intern. The way an inter learns the trade effects how the current trade tech chooses to teach. The followers attuite towards learning also affects the leader which in this case is the seasoned tech. Many of these older generation techs have certain ways that they stick to and do not want to deviate from, which can be hard for new techs coming in because in their schooling they may have learned different techniques. While many older tech do not want to accept the new ways in the ever-changing trade world, it is still important that the intern respects the ways taught by the seasoned tech. While a lot of incoming techs think they know it all in the trade world there is still a lot to learned from their elder techs and their actions in followership effects how the older techs leach and lead them.
While followership is important on how the information is received, the leader’s behavior also affects the communication and reciprocation of the information from leader to follower. There are four different types of leader behavior, directive leadership, supportive leadership, participative leadership, and achievement-oriented leadership (PSU WC, 2022, L. 6 p.12). These are four different leadership styles that approach followers in separate ways. When teaching, it is important to have different methods to approach and handle the situation. Everyone learns in a different way so to be an effective leader a person has to be able to guide them in a way that they understand. A person can use multiple of the methods listed above, there is no one right way. Leader behavior is an important part of teaching in the trades field.
Joshua Siler is CEO of HiringThing, a modern recruiting PaaS that enables seamless hiring with integrated applicant tracking.
Data shows that skilled trades jobs experienced double-digit growth in 2022, making it ripe with opportunities for those joining the workforce. But despite these upwardly trending numbers, many skilled trades industries face hiring challenges. For example, 80% of construction companies need help recruiting. In fact, for the past six years, they’ve cited hiring as their number one business challenge.
