How Integrators Can Hire and Keep Good Technicians: Advice From Chris Smith

Integrators who hire well start before they're desperate. They separate must-have skills from wish-list items, plan on at least 60 days from job post to start date, write job posts as advertisements, and build onboarding and training that make good technicians want to stay. Most hiring problems are retention problems underneath.

That's the advice from Chris Smith, principal at TheCoTeam, which helps integrators and manufacturers in the CI channel recruit and hire. Smith previously ran an integration company himself. On episode 13 of 1NSIGHTS, he joined host Jason Griffing, OneVision's Director of Product, to unpack the challenge Griffing says tops almost every industry survey: finding and keeping people.

Why can't integrators find the technicians they want?

Often because that person doesn't exist. Hiring usually starts under pressure, so owners list everything they'd love in a hire and assume that candidate is out there. Smith's fix is to calibrate the list against what your market can supply:

• Rank your requirements. Griffing borrows a product framework called MoSCoW: must have, should have, could have, won't have. Only the musts are deal-breakers.
• Find the requirement that shrinks the pool. If a role is 95% computer-based but 5% in person, that 5% forces a local hire. Move it elsewhere and you can hire remotely.
• Decide what you'll teach. A technician who knows Savant can learn Control4. Don't hold out for one brand.

How long does it take to hire a technician?

At least 60 days, on the short side. The typical process: post the job, review resumes, run first and follow-up interviews, hold a field or office trial day, sign an offer, then wait while the candidate gives notice. Roles every business has, like bookkeepers, move faster. Programmers and engineers can take 90 days or much longer.

Rushing makes it worse. Candidates come on and off the market in roughly 30- to 45-day windows, and time pressure makes it easier to miss a red flag. Smith recommends forecasting labor needs from your sales pipeline, using your close rate and expected signing dates, so the search starts before the team is stretched thin.

In a live poll, 25% of attendees said they're always recruiting, even with no open role. Smith calls that the best approach, and keeps a short list of people he'd hire close to the company.

Where can integrators find good technicians?

Look one rung below the skills you need, and plan to train. Smith points to three pools:

• Apprentices. The widest pool, but resumes reveal little, so vetting takes longer. Use a separate job post with its own pay scale and a clear path showing how long the apprenticeship lasts and what comes next.
• Commercial cabling technicians. They already pull, terminate and test wire, mount devices and lace racks, but many have hit a ceiling. The best of them want to learn new technology, and your company can be where they do it.
• Managed service providers (outsourced IT). Some of these technicians hold CompTIA or Cisco CCNA certifications. Someone who earned a CCNA can handle manufacturer training.

How do you write a job post that attracts technicians?

Write an advertisement, not a job description. A job description is an internal document that can run several pages. A job post is what appears on Indeed, ZipRecruiter or LinkedIn, and if it reads like HR and legal wrote it, Smith says it has missed.

Most good candidates already have jobs, so the post has to answer why they'd move: better training, a saner schedule, steady full-time hours. Smith's checklist:

• Keep it under about 400 words and make it sound like a person wrote it.
• List 5 to 10 daily tasks, the 20% of the work that fills 80% of the day.
• Answer what candidates want to know: pay, benefits, schedule, who they report to and your core values.
• Cut filler. "Team player" and "detail-oriented" don't help anyone decide to apply.

How should integrators interview technicians?

Give each round one job:

1. A 30-minute video screen. Check that they show up on time and communicate well, walk through about 10 years of work history and why they left each role, and ask what they'd like to earn. Smith screens every hire for being hungry, humble and smart.
2. A one-hour deep interview, in person for local roles, testing the traits that predict success in this role at this budget. Smith uses the method from Eric Herrenkohl's How to Hire A-Players.
3. A field or office trial day, such as terminating cable or a ride-along.

When a hire doesn't work out, ask which step should have caught it, and adjust that step.

How do you onboard a new technician?

Build a 30-60-90 day plan, then put the first 30 days on their calendar in 30-minute blocks. If it doesn't fit, you've planned too much. If the calendar is mostly empty, it isn't ambitious enough. Mix shadowing, screen recordings with a tool like Loom, and manufacturer training.

Griffing's advice if your onboarding is a mess today: start somewhere, write it down and improve it with each hire.

How do you train technicians without derailing projects?

Map a primary and a backup for every key function, such as programming and system design. The gaps show who needs which training, and Smith is clear that building that resilience is the manager's job, not the employee's. Protect must-have trainings, like a manufacturer course offered once a year, and schedule production around them. Nice-to-have training can flex, but anything on the calendar gets moved only once.

The same map tells you what happens if a key person gives notice. [LINK: Ep 4 article, section on losing a key technician]

Why do technicians leave, and how do you keep them?

The top reasons Smith hears are a lack of training and growth, schedules that are difficult or too thin to fill 40 hours, and pay and benefits. All three are fixable. His building blocks:

• Hire correctly first. Poor hiring shows up later as turnover.
• Give managers time and training to manage. When one department churns more than the rest, look at who runs it.
• Ask each person what they want. For some it's money, for others schedule, title or training.
• Keep a regular meeting rhythm. People who drift out of their manager's orbit eventually leave.

On poaching, Smith avoids candidates who hop from job to job. For everyone else, listen to why candidates are leaving their current employers. If their complaints describe your company too, fix that first.

Frequently asked questions

Should integrators hire 1099 contractors or W-2 employees? It depends on the role. Smith's integration company outsourced shade installation successfully. But contractors can't be managed like employees, and someone who works only for you may not qualify as a contractor, so talk to an employment attorney first.

How long does it take to hire an AV programmer? Longer than a general technician. Smith puts the short end of any hire at 60 days, and specialized technical roles often take 90 days or more.

Watch the full conversation

https://youtu.be/42v_TYVgzsE?si=LTyqQNZHt-9rxBfv

Smith and Griffing also discuss attracting entry-level technicians in markets where poaching is common.

About 1NSIGHTS 1NSIGHTS by OneVision explores how integrators, operators and industry leaders think, build and adapt in a fast-changing custom integration landscape. Recorded live and shaped by audience questions, each episode goes past surface-level trends to the real decisions and trade-offs behind growing smarter and staying competitive. Explore all episodes →