How to Hire an HVAC Technician Without Hiring the Wrong One
Your best tech just gave notice. Two weeks.
Now you have a truck in the lot with nobody to drive it, a schedule full of calls, and a job post you have not written since the last time this happened.
That is the moment most owners hire the first person who can pass a drug test and says he knows his way around a condenser.
This guide shows what an empty seat costs, where good techs come from, and the one question that tells you more than his resume.
What an empty truck seat costs
Let’s say it is a Wednesday and the seat has been empty for a week. Nothing hurts yet. The other techs are covering.
It hurts later. Here is the math, using the sample shop from our free Rate Calculator.
A tech in that shop bills 116 of 160 paid hours a month. At a $95 rate, that is $11,020 of billings. His loaded cost is $32.96 an hour, so 160 paid hours cost $5,273.60. Overhead does not shrink when he leaves. Rent, insurance, the dispatcher and your own salary stay put.
| Line | Per month |
|---|---|
| Billings from one tech (116 hours at $95) | $11,020.00 |
| Loaded cost of his 160 paid hours | $5,273.60 |
| What the seat contributes before parts | $5,746.40 |
| Two months to fill it | $11,492.80 |
An empty seat costs about $5,746 a month. Two months to fill it is about $11,493, before a single call goes to a competitor because you could not get there until Friday.
Redo the table with your own rate and your own billable hours. Most owners find the number is larger than they guessed.
This is why owners hire fast. It is also why fast hiring costs more.
The bad hire costs more than the empty seat
A bad hire does not leave in a week. He stays for months.
In the onboarding document we install, the cost of a bad hire lands around $20,500 once you count wages during ramp, callbacks, the second trips and the time you spend riding along instead of running the shop. That is about $9,000 more than leaving the seat empty for two months.
Which means the right move, when you are tired and behind, is to slow down by about a week. Not forever. A week.
Where good techs come from
Not from the job board. Not first, anyway.
The best hires in the shops I ran came from three places: a current tech who vouches for someone, a supply house counter guy who knows who is good and who is looking, and a tech who left a competitor on decent terms.
I spent seven years as a licensed HVAC technician. When a tech is thinking about leaving, he tells two people: a buddy on another crew and the guy at the supply house. The job board is for the people who were not on either list.
So before you post anything, make three calls. Ask your own techs who they would ride with. Ask your supply house rep who is good and looking. Ask last year’s best applicant who did not get an offer if he is still available.
Post the job after those calls, not instead of them.
Why the resume is the weakest signal
A resume tells you where a man worked. It does not tell you how he works.
Two techs can list the same five years and the same EPA certification. One closes out his tickets, keeps his truck stocked and calls you before a job goes sideways. The other does none of it.
The signals that matter are behavior signals. How he talks about a callback. Whether he blames the last shop or the last customer. What he did when a job went long and nobody was watching.
The one question that shows how he works
Here is one of the questions we use. You can use it tonight.
“Tell me about the last job that went wrong on you. What happened, and what did you do the next morning?”
Then stop talking. Wait.
A good tech tells you a specific story, owns his part, and describes what he changed. A weak one tells you about a customer who was impossible or a boss who would not buy the part. Neither answer is a verdict. Both are information you did not have before.
The same question works for a plumber, an electrician or a roofing foreman. Only the trade words change.
What the rest of the process looks like
A question is not a process. The phone screen, the full set of behavioral questions, the paid working interview and the reference checks, in the order they fit together, are what turn a gut feeling into a repeatable hire.
That is the Hiring and Selection document, one of the documents we install when we work together.
Build the table above first. Know what the seat costs you. Then decide how much a better process is worth.
Frequently asked questions
How do you hire a good HVAC technician?
Start with referrals from your own techs and your supply house, then post publicly. Screen by phone for a few minutes, ask questions about real past jobs instead of hypotheticals, and check references from a prior supervisor. The strongest signal is how a candidate talks about a job that went wrong: specific, owned and changed afterward beats vague and blamed on someone else.
How much does it cost to leave an HVAC technician seat empty?
It depends on your rate, billable hours and loaded cost. In the sample shop used here, one tech bills 116 hours at $95, or $11,020 a month, against $5,273.60 of loaded cost for 160 paid hours. The seat contributes about $5,746 a month before parts, so two months empty is roughly $11,493.
What should you ask in an HVAC technician interview?
Ask about specific past jobs, not what he would do. For example: tell me about the last job that went wrong, and what you did the next morning. Listen for ownership, a clear account of what changed and how he talks about the customer. A candidate who blames everyone else is telling you how he will talk about you.
Should you hire an experienced technician or train a new one?
Both can work, and the right answer depends on your supervision time. An experienced tech ramps faster but costs more per hour and brings habits from the last shop. A new tech costs less but needs a ride-along plan and a defined first thirty days. Cost either path in your own numbers before you decide.
What to do this week
Build the empty seat table with your own rate, your own billable hours and your own loaded cost. Write the monthly number at the top of a page.
Then make three calls: one to your best tech, one to your supply house rep, one to the best applicant you turned down last year. Ask each the same question: who is good and looking?
Write down the last time you hired someone fast. How long did he stay, and what did it cost? That number is your real hiring budget.
Do you know what your empty seat costs today?
Want the exact number for your shop? Start with the free Quote Leak Check. It puts a dollar figure on the quotes that went quiet in your last 30 or 90 days. Send yourself the breakdown and the free Rate Calculator comes with it, so you leave with your cost of a billable hour too.
Rather talk first? Bring your hiring questions to a free working session. Sixty minutes, your numbers on the screen, and you leave with a plan you own either way. We keep three of these a month.
Run the Quote Leak Check →