As a company, we ensure that whatever each group tells customers, we’re truly doing. That means ensuring that every installation is verified to operate close to factory specifications.
Teaching Our Culture to New Technicians
One of the things that made Turnpoint Services attractive to us was their philosophy of wanting customers for life and employees for life. This requires creating positive touchpoints for new employees. That fit so well with our approach that we formally have adopted it into our focus.
What does this mean? When we hire a new person, no matter if this is their first time in the HVAC industry or if they come from a different HVAC company, we want to make sure someone is spending time with them. That person, the owner or a manager, goes over the company handbook and explains the company’s expectations. We go over our benefits and talk about our G-Verify approach. That includes discussing our training programs, our career choices, the benefits we offer, and more.
This introduction doesn’t just happen on the first day. It happens from day two through day 90 and into the following year. We want the new employee to feel important and part of our family and team. We teach, and we follow up on how they are doing. That is G-Verify.
As they progress and begin working in customers’ homes, we follow up with them to see what they need and how they feel. That is G-Verify. And once they become adept at our HVAC system performance approach, we get into data diagnosis and remedies with them. That, too, is G-Verify.
Since the COVID pandemic’s onset, employee shortages abound across all industries. That has forced us to hire people with little or no experience in heating and air conditioning. We teach them about HVAC, airflow, carbon monoxide, and so on.
For example, we hired a guy who was our uniform delivery person. We hired him, put him through training, and he earned his certification in system performance and carbon monoxide. This person wanted to work. He enjoyed delivering uniforms to our company and saw that Getzschman took good care of their employees. Because of that, he wanted to come to work for us. He’s been with us for about two years. We are very excited about him.
Types of Training Offered at Getzschman
Because training is a huge part of who we are as an HVAC company, we use all the resources available to us – internally and externally. We are active members of trade organizations like Nexstar and National Comfort Institute. The first one provides us with third-party business and management training. The second provides technical training.
We hire these organizations to conduct in-person training at our company headquarters in Omaha, NE.
On the other hand, webinar-based training has become a bit more difficult because of changes in how they are conducted. Once upon a time, you could gather your techs into a room, turn on a computer, and have techs participate together. To get credit for some of these classes today, everyone must log in themselves. That’s been a little challenging because not all our guys have computers.
We are currently in the process of adding a 1,500-square-foot training area. That space will include computer stations where each tech can get online, log in individually and participate in those classes.
Getzschman-Specific New Technician Training
In most HVAC companies, technicians fit into one of three groups: seasoned “senior” techs, “junior” techs, and new techs. It doesn’t always work well to train them all together. At our company, the only exception to this is safety training. Everybody must take that no matter how long they’ve worked for us.
We also hold companywide meetings that everyone attends. But training is divided by group.
For those new technicians on the residential side of our business who are serious about careers, we first send them to the Ultimate Tech Academy (UTA) in Little Rock, AR. For those we send, we make an agreement with them regarding the overall cost. Not only are you paying them every day to go to this class, but you pay for the flight to get them there and provide a per-diem daily for hotel and food. Plus, there is also the cost of the class itself.
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