Hart & Iliff Hiring System Becomes Model For The Industry
In 1971, my parents purchased Hart & Iliff. I was in college at the time and never anticipated running the company. After college, I went to law school and practiced law for many years. In 1987, my father passed away and it soon became clear I had to get involved in the business. In January 1988, I joined the company.Hart & Iliff, which was founded in 1889, has always had a stable work force. However, in 1988, there were a number of experienced service technicians who were nearing retirement age. One of my first problems was how to replace these technicians as they retired.
I quickly discovered that it was very difficult to find quality service technicians. I had no clue where to begin or what to do. I ran newspaper ads looking for experienced technicians and visited technical schools. In each case, I found the experience frustrating and unproductive.
Over the years, I hired a number of experienced technicians who had worked for other oil companies. I wasn’t happy with them because they didn’t represent my company the way I wanted it represented to my customers. For years I tolerated behavior that was unacceptable because I was afraid if I let a technician go, I wouldn’t be able to replace them. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that, in general, hiring experienced technicians is not a good idea. If they couldn’t make it at another company, they certainly wouldn’t make in mine.
Once I came to this realization, I began to study and analyze the problems associated with finding, hiring and training service technicians. My legal training helped because I’m an analytical thinker and I’m very persistent. Little by little, over a period of 14 years, I developed and refined the details of a program to successfully find, hire and train quality service technicians.
This program has been highly successful and has been expanded to cover hiring of all new employees. I have spoken about our hiring system at industry conventions and have written articles about it that have been published in industry trade magazines. Hart & Iliff ’s hiring system is rapidly becoming a model for the entire industry. Presently, there are more than 25 oil and HVAC companies around the country that are using Hart & Iliff ’s hiring system.
If you would like more information about Hart & Iliff ’s hiring system or to view a list of companies that are currently using it, log on to www.hirebetternow.com.
