Hiring your first pest control technician and where I screwed up.
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Thank you! Christian-Kristin Fears Hi Frank from upstate NY. My name is Christian and I’ve been in the pest control industry for four years now with a local owned company. I’m always striving to make myself a better technician and better person in general. Thank you for providing us with the information, insight, book/product recommendations and everything else you bring fourth. Keep up the good work! I am looking forward to future podcasts. Take care, hope you and your family get well soon!
Kenny Guzman Amazing show. Invaluable info. Whether you agree or not, you will get an honest, informed opinion. Keep it up!!!
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Pest Control Professionals
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News
Podcast from the 2016 International Congress of Entomology
https://entomologytoday.org/2016/09/29/podcast-from-the-2016-international-congress-of-entomology/
Morgan Jackson and Jonathan Larson, two entomology podcasters,
Morgan’s show, Breaking Bio, can be found at http://breakingbio.com.
Jonathan’s show, Arthro-Pod, is at http://arthro-pod.blogspot.com.
Main Topic
Hiring you first pest control technician and where I screwed up
Hiring your first pest control technician can be a nightmare here is what I learned along the way and where I screwed up.
In my experience this is the hardest part of growing a pest control business and why so few ever grow past two people.
IBISWorld’s Pest Control market research report
Pest Control Market Research Report | NAICS 56171 | Mar 2016
The pest control industry is 14 Billion dollar a year industry with 107,209 employees with 23,940 companies. 4.47 employees per company
SoutheastThe Southeast region has the greatest share of industry establishments, estimated to hold 38.3% of the total in 2016. Florida has 14.3% of total industry establishments.
http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/default.aspx?indid=1495
154,500 SERVICE TECHNICIANS
$3.16 billion RESIDENTIAL SERVICE REVENUE
$2.89 billion COMMERCIAL SERVICE REVENUE
$1.41 billion in total TERMITE REVENUE
$7.466 BILLION in total SERVICE REVENUE
A GROWING MARKET 19,675 PEST CONTROL COMPANIES 7.85 techs per company
A Strategic Analysis of the U.S. Structural Pest Control Industry – 2014
*U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 3.4% Five-year compound annual growth rate
http://www.giemedia.com/assets/media_kit/PCT_Media_Kit_2016.pdf
Companies on the PCT Top 100 list earned revenues of $6,089,462,235. 6.1 billion
http://www.pctonline.com/article/pct0515-pct-top-100-2015/
Employment 70,250
Mean hourly wage $16.39
Mean annual $34,080
Florida 9,960 Florida 4258 Companies
California 9,320
Texas 5,610
Georgia 4,190
North Carolina 3,110
http://www.pestmagazine.co.uk/media/245565/the-rentokil-report-2015.pdf
The hiring process in a large company.
HR does the hardest part, vetting. This is equal to prospecting in sales. This is the hardest part of the hiring process.
I did an face book group question in two groups it was amazing to me how I got two completely different responses I did not expect that.
One group had a lot of technical aspect, negativity and fatalistic.
The other group focused on the importance of selling customer service.
Both stressed Label knowledge and laws, equipment, techniques.
Both believed you can’t teach much in forty hours.
Hiring a worker vs a technician
People with no career goals.
People who need a job.
Jack of all trades.
People with the wrong aptitude.
People with the wrong attitude.
People that can be most difficult to train or keep.
People with experience. Finding a fit IPM and Spray Only
Hiring an entrepreneur. Will want do it their own way or try to change everything.
The third group is highly ignored because they are used to structure and discipline.
They expect leadership and do not require management.
They expect a good salary.
They expect some form of benefits.
They cannot and will not work for inexperienced micro managers.
Military and First responders
Volunteer
Honorable Discharged
Retired
Soldiers
EMT Paramedics
Firefighters
Police
Things to avoid
Having unrealistic expectations.
Expecting employees to act like owners, employees must be lead and managed.
Expecting them to be like me.
Having them do to much to fast.
Not having having clear expectations up front a detailed job description.
Compensating the wrong way.
Not having a training program.
Not Having to measurement in place.
Lack of structure.
Poaching the competition.
An imperfect process is better than no process at all.
At a minimum you should have a:
An job application.
Require a Resume
A written job description.
This sets the expectation of structure and order.
Things to do if you are going to be serious and be taken seriously.
Check all references and employers.
Only interview those that qualify and you have checked references.
Require a background clearance letter from every state they have worked in.
Require drug testing.
Require a smoke free workplace.
If all this checks out then have the interview this will weed out unqualified people and discourage them from wasting your time.
Have an exploration day have them spend a day with you on the road with no commitment to see how they feel about the work.
Know what they need to make in order to comfortable.
If all checks out and you have a good gut feeling about it them
Discuss the requirements to work there
The pay, training, promotion and wage increase process. This should not be based on tenure. Have this in writing let them take it home digest it and come back to you if they would like it.
Have an on boarding process
Training will not make up for gaps in character, attitude or aptitude
Make sure they are a cultural fit.
