How to Hire and Keep HVAC Technicians in 2026
If you run an HVAC shop, you probably know the feeling: the phones are ringing, there's work on the board, and a truck is sitting in the lot because nobody is there to drive it. Hiring techs is hard, and keeping the good ones can be even harder. This guide covers where to find techs, what to offer them, how to run the first 90 days, why techs leave, and how to measure turnover so you can see whether things are getting better.
Where we cite a number, it links to where it came from. Everything else is practical advice, not data. Treat it that way and adjust it to your market.
Why this is hard (and isn't going to get easier)
The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook counts 440,900 HVAC/R mechanic and installer jobs in 2025. It projects employment to grow 11% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations, with about 40,600 openings projected each year. BLS notes that many of those openings come from replacing workers who move to other occupations or leave the labor force, for example to retire. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers"
So every shop in your area is fishing in the same small pond. The shops that stay fully staffed tend to build their own pipeline and give people a reason to stay, instead of posting a job ad and hoping.
Where to recruit
Trade schools and community colleges. BLS says postsecondary HVAC programs generally last from 6 months to 2 years and lead to a certificate or an associate's degree. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook That means new graduates come out on a steady schedule. Practical moves:
- Meet the program instructors in person. Offer to speak to a class, host a shop tour, or donate old equipment for the lab.
- Offer paid ride-alongs or part-time helper work to students before they graduate, so you get first pick instead of competing at graduation.
- Ask instructors which students show up on time and finish what they start. That's often a better signal than grades.
Apprenticeships. BLS notes that some techs learn through an apprenticeship, which usually lasts several years and combines paid on-the-job training with technical instruction each year. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook You can run an informal one (pair a helper with a senior tech, plus a written skills list) or look into a registered program through the U.S. Department of Labor at apprenticeship.gov or your state apprenticeship office. Either way, the idea is the same: you "grow your own" tech who learns your way of doing things.
Referrals from your own team. Your techs know other techs. A clear referral bonus (paid in parts, for example half at hire and half after the new tech stays a set number of months) turns your crew into recruiters. It only works if your current techs actually like working for you, which is the retention part of this guide.
Other good sources.
- Career changers from nearby trades (appliance repair, electrical helpers, maintenance staff, military veterans with mechanical backgrounds).
- Supply house counters. Ask the counter staff who's looking. They talk to every tech in town.
- Customers and your own service area. A "we're hiring" line on invoices and your truck costs almost nothing.
What to offer
Pay that's in range. The BLS OEWS survey for HVAC/R mechanics and installers (May 2023, the most recent full percentile breakdown) shows a national spread from $37,270/year ($17.92/hr) at the 10th percentile to $57,300 ($27.55/hr) at the median and $84,250 ($40.51/hr) at the 90th percentile. Source: BLS OEWS, "Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers," May 2023 The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook puts the May 2025 median at $61,010/year. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook Local pay can be very different from national numbers, so check your own state and metro area too. Our tech pay and hiring benchmarks guide goes deeper on pay bands.
A written career ladder. Techs leave when they can't see a next step. Write down 3 to 5 levels (for example: helper, apprentice, service tech, lead tech, senior or trainer), and for each level list:
- The skills and certifications needed to move up.
- The pay range for that level.
- How and when reviews happen.
When a tech can see "get X cert and run Y calls solo, and I move up to the next pay range," they have a reason to stay and grow with you instead of shopping around.
Pay for certifications. The EPA requires nearly all HVAC techs to be certified in proper refrigerant handling. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook Under Section 608 there are Type I (small appliances), Type II (high- or very high-pressure appliances), Type III (low-pressure appliances), and Universal (all types) certifications, and EPA states that Section 608 technician certification credentials do not expire. Source: EPA, "Section 608 Technician Certification Requirements" Paying for test fees and study time, and tying a raise to passing, is a simple way to show that you invest in people.
Tools, truck, and training. Clear policies matter here as much as the perks:
- Say up front what tools the shop provides and what the tech brings. A tool allowance or shop-owned specialty tools removes a common gripe.
- A well-kept, well-stocked truck saves the tech time and saves you callbacks. Be clear about take-home rules.
- Regular training (manufacturer classes, ride-alongs with senior techs, short weekly tech meetings) is something many techs value as much as a small raise.
Schedule and on-call fairness. A clear, rotating on-call schedule with extra pay for on-call work is often a bigger deal to techs than owners expect.
The hiring process, step by step
A checklist you can run the same way for every opening. Consistency is the point: when every candidate gets the same steps, you can compare them fairly and you stop hiring on gut feel alone.
1. Job post
2. Phone screen (15 minutes)
3. Interview and ride-along or skills check
4. Offer
5. Day one and the first 90 days
If you want to grow techs from scratch instead of hiring experienced ones, see our HVAC apprenticeship program guide.
What an empty truck costs (worked example)
Owners tend to feel the cost of a hire (ads, a sign-on bonus, a higher rate) and not see the cost of the vacancy. Here's one way to put a number on it. All numbers below are made-up examples, not industry averages. Use your own.
The example shop's service tech bills $5,000 a week, parts run 25% of that ($1,250), and the tech's wages are $1,400 a week. Each week that truck earns the shop:
$5,000 - $1,250 - $1,400 = $2,350 a week toward overhead and profit.
Now say the seat sits empty for 8 weeks, and the new hire is at half speed for their first 4 weeks:
| Cost | Math | Example amount |
|---|---|---|
| Lost margin while the truck is parked | 8 weeks x $2,350 | $18,800 |
| Ramp-up: half the billing, full wages | 50% x ($5,000 - $1,250) x 4 weeks | $7,500 |
| Job ads | example budget | $400 |
| Owner time screening and interviewing | 10 hours x $75/hour (example value of your time) | $750 |
| Total | $27,450 |
That total is before overhead that keeps running while the truck is parked (the truck payment, insurance, and the office), and before any calls your other techs cover on overtime.
What to do with that number. In this example, every week you cut from the vacancy is worth $2,350. Paying $2 an hour more than the shop down the road costs $2 x 2,080 hours = $4,160 a year, which is less than two weeks of the empty truck. That's often a better trade than waiting for a cheaper candidate. Check it against your own numbers with the free hire another tech calculator and the labor burden calculator, since wages alone understate what a tech costs.
The first 90 days
Most early turnover comes from a rough start: no plan, no mentor, no idea how they're doing. A simple 90-day plan fixes most of that.
Before day one
- Have their truck, tools, uniform, phone/app logins, and paperwork ready.
- Assign one mentor (a senior tech) who owns their first 90 days.
Days 1 to 30: learn the shop
- Ride along with the mentor. Learn your service process, paperwork, software, and how you talk to customers.
- Short check-in with the owner or manager at the end of week one and week two.
- Written list of the skills they need to show before running calls solo.
Days 31 to 60: supervised work
- Run simpler calls solo with the mentor on the phone or nearby.
- Review callbacks and paperwork together, as coaching, not punishment.
- 30-day review: what's going well, what needs work, any problems with the truck, tools, or team.
Days 61 to 90: independence
- Full solo calls in their skill range.
- 90-day review: confirm their spot on the career ladder, set the next goal (a cert, a skill, a pay step), and ask what would make them stay.
The Growth Room's toolkit has a free tech hiring scorecard, interview questions, and a first-year onboarding checklist you can use as a starting point.
Why techs leave
BLS says many openings in this trade come from workers who move into other occupations or leave the labor force. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook Beyond that, the reasons owners and techs commonly describe are practical and usually fixable:
- Pay that falls behind the local market, especially for techs who have added skills or certs since they were hired.
- No path forward. Nobody told them what it takes to earn more.
- A bad first few weeks. No training, no mentor, thrown into calls they weren't ready for.
- Poor equipment. Unreliable trucks, missing tools, parts runs that waste half a day.
- Unfair on-call or overtime that always lands on the same people.
- Their direct boss. Being yelled at, blamed for callbacks without coaching, or ignored.
The best way to find out which ones apply to your shop is to ask. Do a short "stay interview" once or twice a year with each tech: What do you like here? What would make you leave? What would you change? And do an exit interview with everyone who leaves.
Measure turnover
You can't fix what you don't measure. A simple annual turnover rate:
Turnover rate = (number of techs who left in the year / average number of techs on staff) x 100
Example with made-up round numbers: a shop that averaged 10 techs and had 3 leave has a 30% turnover rate. Track it every year, and also track how many new hires leave in their first 90 days. That second number tells you whether your hiring and onboarding are working.
Then put a dollar figure on it. The Center for American Progress reviewed 30 case studies from 11 research papers and found the typical cost of replacing an employee is about 20% of annual salary for jobs paying $75,000 or less. Source: Center for American Progress, "There Are Significant Business Costs to Replacing Employees" (2012) Plug your own numbers into our free HVAC technician turnover cost calculator to see what turnover is costing your shop. Our HVAC KPIs guide covers the other numbers worth tracking every month.
To see whether your tech pay and turnover are in line with other shops, add your numbers to the anonymous Owner Numbers benchmark.