Finding quality electricians

K

kodycorduan

Member
Location
Pensacola Florida
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Good morning and happy Monday. I own Perdido Electrical Services in the Pensacola area (Florida panhandle).
We have tried the usual sites (ziprecruiter, indeed etc) to find electricians with very little luck. Wondering if anyone has recommendations for where to find good help - even a national database for electricians wanting to relocate.
I appreciate any and all thoughts.
Kody Corduan
 
Yes, in many areas they are tough to find...there are union projects not far from me that are offering $3 to $5 over scale to help get electricians.
 
The hurricane repairs are only going to make it worse.

We have had trouble getting salesmen as long as I have been here. I generally suggest they head on down to the rescue mission and see what is available.

:)
 
Add "Now Hiring" to all your vehicle wraps and advertisings.
Develop relationships with all of your local trade schools.
Attend or sponsor trade based employment seminars in your area.
Treat your existing employees well and offer them bonuses for referrals of new employees.
 
ramsy said:
There is no shame in scalping from the wait lists of union books, especially if their hungry for work, or tired of being kicked around.
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Union contractors in areas close to me are already paying over scale to get help, so anyone on the books around here is someone who does not want to work or is waiting for a call to come in for a specific job.
 
Try trade schools, at least they will have the basic technical knowledge, but usually some on the job training, and you won’t have to untrain them from bad habits. When I got out of tech school, nobody wanted to hire me because I didn’t have experience. On the first commercial I got, I moved up to lead man in a couple months, in a service truck in less than two years.
 
don_resqcapt19 said:
Union contractors in areas close to me are already paying over scale to get help, so anyone on the books around here is someone who does not want to work or is waiting for a call to come in for a specific job.
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Maybe there are less journey level members to pillage. Many union shops that folded after the 2008 recession never came back, and many journey persons may have left the trades, learned to put their license to use bidding projects themselves, or became more busy trunk slamming.

During both economies before 2008 and 2024, I heard the same fake news regarding trade-labor shortages. Indentured apprenticeships are more selective, with higher rates of candidate rejection during academic & OJT boot camps, which have always produced less graduates for organized labor.

I don't believe there ever was a trade-labor shortage for laborers, maintenance monkeys, handy persons, or apprentice rejects, for residential remodels, and other less regulated construction sectors.

Contractors complaining about labor shortages haven't checked craigslist.com, much less seen the guys standing around the Home Depot parking lot.
 
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ramsy said:
Maybe there are less journey level members to pillage. Many union shops that folded after the 2008 recession never came back, and many journey persons may have left the trades, learned to put their license to use bidding projects themselves, or became more busy trunk slamming.

During both economies before 2008 and 2024, I heard the same fake news regarding trade-labor shortages. Indentured apprenticeships are more selective, with higher rates of candidate rejection during academic & OJT boot camps, which have always produced less graduates for organized labor.

I don't believe there ever was a trade-labor shortage for laborers, maintenance monkeys, handy persons, or apprentice rejects, for residential remodels, and other less regulated construction sectors.

Contractors complaining about labor shortages haven't checked craigslist.com, much less seen the guys standing around the Home Depot parking lot.
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We have trouble attracting qualified workers to our apprenticeship program. As a result we have accepted more people who do not complete the program. As far as rejection from the program, the most common reason is lack of adequate math skill to learn the electrical theory, even though we require at least a year of high school algebra with a minimum grade of C to even apply.

With all of the kids being told they have to go to college and the lack of any trade type classes in most high schools, few have any exposure that would let them even think about working in the trades.
 
kodycorduan said:
Good morning and happy Monday. I own Perdido Electrical Services in the Pensacola area (Florida panhandle).
We have tried the usual sites (ziprecruiter, indeed etc) to find electricians with very little luck. Wondering if anyone has recommendations for where to find good help - even a national database for electricians wanting to relocate.
I appreciate any and all thoughts.
Kody Corduan
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You either need to grow them yourself or steel them from someone else. If you are going to steel them, then you need to use the right bait! If you are going to grow your own then you need to be prepared to develop an effective training program and the patience to invest the time and effort it will take to get them to the stage where they are productive. To steel the good ones, the ones that are worth steeling you need to offer them more than what they are currently getting!
 
jeffelectric1992 said:
You either need to grow them yourself or steel them from someone else. If you are going to steel them, then you need to use the right bait! If you are going to grow your own then you need to be prepared to develop an effective training program and the patience to invest the time and effort it will take to get them to the stage where they are productive. To steel the good ones, the ones that are worth steeling you need to offer them more than what they are currently getting!
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That theory ignores industry practice of General Contractors, which do electrical without journeyman certifications, or training program requirements. If laborers can’t read instructions, rather than hire a JW to narrow fault type from diagnostic indicators, and troubleshoot, State's amend out xFCI requirements.

In this environment electrical GC's do it all with laborers, and outbid EC's forced to train, or pay JW cards, which stay in unions, or niche industry shops, since no one else wants them.
 
Learn to be a great boss, and you will always have plenty of good, loyal employees. Workers don't leave bad jobs, they leave bad management.

We are looking for a few more guys, I wouldn't recommend that anybody work here because of the boss. I'm sticking it out because I think he's on the way out.
 
You have to make people want to come work for you. Good pay and benefits are a bare minimum but if you are paying well and have above average benefits and can't attract or keep good help it is almost certainly bad management or supervision that is the problem.
 
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