What 366 technicians taught me about hiring.
Since 2023, 366 technician accounts have been created in our system. Here's what happened to them, and what it taught me about building a team.
1. Hiring is a funnel
Out of 366 people who got an account, 257 finished at least one job, 107 finished ten, 54 finished a hundred, and 10 finished a thousand. Most people who sign up never become a technician you can count on. Plan for that from day one.
2. A few people carry the company
Our top 10 technicians completed about 21,700 of our 39,678 jobs, roughly 55%. The very best one finished 5,012 jobs on his own. Treat those people like the business depends on them, because it does.
3. Systems make new people productive
I built a technician app with job offers, navigation, live location and payments, and auto-dispatch to the nearest tech, so a new hire can take a job on day one without learning the business by phone. The faster someone gets their first ten jobs, the more likely they stay.
4. The best ones may go out on their own
Some of my top technicians now run their own businesses. That stings for a week and then it's a win: they learned the trade, the systems and the standard with us. Plan for it, stay on good terms, and keep the pipeline full.
5. Keep the door open
We added a careers form that captures applicants straight into the system: 76 applications in its first four months. A steady stream of applicants is what lets you hold the standard instead of keeping whoever shows up.
Source: our own dispatch CRM (Phoenix), January 2023 to November 2026. Counts are completed jobs unless noted. Earlier years ran on other software and aren't included.
Build a team that shows up.
Hiring, pay structure, dispatch and the systems that make new techs productive. Let's work on yours.
Prefer to text? Same number. I answer my own phone.