#45: Employee Benefits and Other Home Service Business Topics with Travis Smith

Contractor Momentum
Contractor Momentum
#45: Employee Benefits and Other Home Service Business Topics with Travis Smith
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Travis Smith led his company, Sky Heating and Cooling in the Portland, Oregon area, to be named the “Best Heating Contractor to Work For” in 2015. If there’s anyone who knows more about how to make a company the place people want to work for, he’s the one! In this episode, we talk employee benefits from as small as providing tools for his technicians and handing out little rewards to giving health benefits, extensive training programs, and retirement plans.

Here’s what we discussed:

01:17 How Travis got started in the HVAC industry

  • First experience and roles working for an HVAC company
  • How he got his company
  • How they evolved the company, things added, and changes in sales processes
  • Business model when he first started in 2009 and the shift to new business models

07:34 Overview of the company today

  • What the company does today
  • Field management software they use
  • Company size and annual revenue
  • Company vision in the next couple years

10:09 What it’s like to be the best employer in the HVAC industry

  • Employee benefits
  • How an employee pointed him to paid health insurance
  • The process for getting health insurance
  • Other benefits that employees enjoy including letting employees take home a company vehicle
  • GPS programs for the vehicles (both for the customer and the company)

17:48 Providing tools for technicians

  • Why he buys tools for his service techs
  • How this attracts employees
  • Benefits of buying tools for the company
  • How they keep track of tools
  • Lost tool analogy
  • How tools helps speed up training
  • Inventory for tools (Dollar bill policy)
  • Mentality that employees ‘fire’ you as the owner instead of quitting

32:00 Ground rules for when they start giving benefits

  • When they start offering health benefits
  • When technicians are able to get tools from the company
  • Vetting process for employees

34:31 Team culture

  • How individuals come together to achieve sales goals
  • How sales team impacts service techs’ work and vice versa

36:25 Other benefits

  • Benefits that are still in consideration for the future
  • Retirement plans
  • Participation rate for retirement plans

39:53 Training at Sky Heating and Cooling

  • Training budget
  • Little promotions for employees
  • Having a training room readily available
  • The decision process for ramping up training programs
  • Why he built a training room for his employees

46:47 Future plans for the company

  • Plans for plumbing and electrical
  • Adding on services and upping marketing

47:48 One final takeaway from Travis Smith

Download The Scalable Method resources (framework + video) here: https://mdm.contractormomentum.com/get-the-scalable-method?fb2277&fbclid=IwAR3XUd9Fn1z9tX3Q5CAGNvMnvJL8v2dclVgmR_c6nES3EqERDp327xJWo2I

About the author 

Corey Philip

Founder & investor in home service companies. Aside from running these businesses, I love trail running and mountain running.

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