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Why Plumbing Contractor Hiring Is Broken

If you are experiencing a labor shortage among plumbing contractors, you are not alone.

If feels like all the good technicians have vanished, you're not imagining it.

The labor market structure has shifted, and your old playbook is working against you.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects about 44,000 openings each year for plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters over the next decade. However, most of these jobs will come from retirements or people leaving the trade, rather than from new growth.

Bottom line, you’re trying to grow while refilling the same bucket over and over.

As a certified business coach I meet with plumbing contractors who are losing workers at a faster rate than it is gaining them. That is the definition of a constrained market.

Unless you change your operating model, you'll continue to compete for the same handful of active candidates that every competitor is chasing.

Everyone is chasing the same people.

The workforce is packed with the same mid-career candidates every contractor wants. If your company doesn’t offer sane schedules, clear career paths, and strong leadership, you’ll keep losing them to competitors who do.

Also, if you’re only looking for “experienced” hires, you’re setting yourself up for constant disappointment.

Without a formal helper-to-tech pipeline, you're asking the market to deliver a fully trained technician on your timeline magically.

It won't.

The Real Cost of an Empty Truck

Owners consistently underestimate the cost of an empty truck in their company parking lot.

When a truck sits without a tech, you:

Lose ticket revenue
Create overtime for the rest of the crew
Push jobs out
Get more callbacks because rushed people tend to make mistakes

Turnover is expensive, and often equal to half or even double a worker’s yearly pay.

For plumbing contractors, the losses pile up quickly: time spent recruiting, slower jobs during training, missed upsells, angry customers due to delays, and burned-out employees picking up the slack.

So when an owner says they “can’t afford” to improve hiring or fix leadership habits, the truth is they’re already paying the price in lost revenue. They just don’t see it on paper.

Your Hiring Process Is Part of the Problem

Speed wins. Slowness costs you talent.

In this market, good candidates last days, not weeks. If your process drags—posting ads, waiting a week to reply, scheduling interviews weeks out—you’re signaling that you don’t care. The best people move on.

Competition is fierce, and every delay leaves you picking from leftovers instead of top talent.

Fast doesn’t mean sloppy.

It means discipline:

● Same-day replies

● Quick phone screen within 24 hours,

● Working live or Zoom interview that same week,

● Written offer within two days of the interview

That pace shows respect and competence. Anything slower tells candidates to look elsewhere.

Retention Before Recruitment: How Plumbing Contractors Build a Strong Team

To build a strong plumbing team, you must first identify which roles are most needed in your company, such as master plumbers, apprentices, and support staff.

Ensure that everyone in your company clearly understands their current job duties and the ways in which they contribute to the business.

Now, write a detailed job description for each employee. Ensure that you include the skill set and personality traits that align with your company culture.

Create a positive work culture where workers are respected, ideas are shared, and achievements are celebrated.

Setting up team lunches, group activities, and public praise help build team spirit, while regular meetings keep communication open.

Very important- invest in your people, they appreciate it.

Invest in training and consider hiring a professional business coach (1:1 biz coaching page) so your managers can continually acquire new skills and remain confident.

Remember to reward team members who go above and beyond with thanks, bonuses, or awards to show they’re appreciated.

Finally, create a safe and comfortable work environment, ask for feedback, and ensure that everyone feels heard.

When employees feel valued and included, they’re more likely to stay and contribute to the business's growth.

Tie Hiring Directly to Profit, So Decisions Get Made Faster

If you want quick decisions from yourself and your managers, connect hiring to profit. Vacancies are not abstract. They represent lost revenue and weaker margins.

Picture this. A two-person truck should bring in a set amount of revenue each day.

Leave that seat empty for sixty days, and you create a six-figure hole in the top line. Add the overtime, callbacks, and mistakes that come from pushing the rest of your crew too hard, and the real cost multiplies.

I started working with a plumbing contractor in Columbus, Ohio, who ignored an open truck for two months because he “didn’t have time” to hire.

He quickly learned that the lost revenue from that truck alone was over $120,000.

Additionally, his existing technicians were stretched thin, customer complaints had spiked, and one of his top employees had quit due to burnout.

The vacancy cost far more than the pay raise he was afraid to offer.

This view turns hiring speed into a discipline tied to cash flow. Every day of delay is a day of lost money.

It also forces a clear truth.

Wages and pricing move together. In most markets, you will need to raise wages yearly.

When you do, raise your prices at the same time each year.

Protect your margins by tightening schedules, holding stronger job standards, and improving quality so higher pay translates into higher performance.

Owners who raise wages without touching pricing erode their margins and blame the labor market.

Owners who raise wages, set firm standards, invest in leadership, and enforce pricing discipline usually see net profit hold steady or improve.

Their schedules stabilize, their quality improves, and their team becomes more productive.

That is why hiring must be treated as a financial decision. It is not a side issue for HR. It is the lifeblood of the business model.

Reputation Management for Talent Is the New Marketing

You spend big to win customers. Do the same to win technicians.

Your website and Google Business Profile should both set the tone and sell your company to prospective employees.

Important: Make sure you have a professional, up-to-date website. A polished, professional website is one of the first things potential hires check before deciding if your company is worth applying to.

If your site looks dated, vague, or sloppy, they’ll assume the business is the same way.

A great site proves you invest in your people and your operations. It shows career paths, training, and a culture that takes pride in its work.

Pair that with an up-to-date Google Business Profile, and you’re signaling to top candidates that you run a serious, growing company they’d be proud to join.

Within the site, explain how a tech can move up. Post photos every month that prove your trucks are clean and your shop is organized.

Serious candidates will check you out. If all they find is a brochure and a photo from ten years ago, they’ll move on to the competitor that appears to actually run a professional operation.

The Reality Is the Job Market Won’t Ease Up

Stop waiting for a flood of new techs to appear magically. It isn’t happening.

The job market stays noisy. Even when openings cool, there are still millions of jobs available, and construction demand has remained well above pre-pandemic levels.

You are competing in a crowded, opportunity-rich environment, and that will not change.

Your edge comes from running a clean, fast, respectful hiring process. Not from waving a bigger “we’re hiring” banner.

The companies that succeed are those that move with clarity and discipline. They make all their employees feel like valued professionals from day one, and they back it up with a structured approach and genuine respect.

Money Isn't Enough: Coaching, Leadership, and Why People Actually Stay

If you think you can solve your hiring and retention problems with money alone, you will be very disappointed.

Wages must be competitive, but that is only the starting line.

What actually keeps good people is predictability, credibility, and leadership that treats them like professionals.

What your ideal hiree wants is:

A schedule that respects their time
Clear standards for what constitutes good work
Managers who coach, guide, and provide feedback before things escalate
A career path that is spoken and laid out

A mid-sized plumbing company in Delaware brought in a certified business coach which offered its technicians ample pay, but still experienced constant turnover. The problem wasn’t the paycheck. It was the manager.

Techs only heard from him when mistakes happened. Morale plummeted, and the best talent was already seeking employment elsewhere.

We changed the playbook.

Lead technicians were retrained to teach while working, rather than just pointing out mistakes.

Instead of only correcting errors, they learned to show junior techs how to do the job correctly, step by step.

Also, the path for advancement was written in plain language, so every tech knew what mix of skills and job types they needed to progress. Nothing was left to guesswork.

This structure gave technicians confidence because they could see exactly how to grow and what their manager expected of them.

Within six months, the results were clear. The situation completely turned around, and the team was finally happy and cohesive.

Bottom line, when the company decided to bring in an industry expert, the changes in structure and leadership ultimately saved the team time, stabilized scheduling, and prevented profit from slipping further.

That’s why outside expertise is not optional; it’s a company lifeline to growing faster while still maintaining profitability.

Key Takeaways for Plumbing Contractors: Labor Shortage

Your hiring problem is structural, not seasonal. Make peace with the reality and build a system that assumes replacements will be a constant.
Vacancies are not merely annoyances, but profit leaks. Technician turnover easily runs into tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars quickly.
Speed is a hiring strategy. The pace you set from application to offer signals how you run the rest of the company. If you are slow now, your best candidates never see day one because another contractor moved faster.
Leadership is the retention engine. A clear path, predictable schedules, and managers who coach will beat a marginal wage premium at a chaotic shop most days of the week.
Build a pipeline. Apprenticeships and a formal helper-to-tech pipeline are the sustainable path out of churn, because the market will not deliver fully formed people on your schedule. Treat training as production work and measure it.

Invest in your team. Companies that invest in outside coaching build a very positive company culture. It is a place where employees want to stay because they know they are growing and being taken care of.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can plumbing contractors actually find skilled techs when everyone’s hiring?

You win by being faster and clearer. Acknowledge applications within one business day, phone-screen within 24 hours, schedule a working interview that week, and put a written offer out within 48 hours. Publish a visible career path with defined raises and skills required—this lowers the risk candidates feel when considering you over a competitor.

What’s the fastest retention move I can make this month?

Implement three quick wins:

● Publish a two-step progression plan with criteria you’ll actually honor.

● Put your on-call rotation in writing.

● Run weekly ride-alongs for new hires.
These alone reduce anxiety, improve fairness, and show techs they’re building a career—not just punching a clock.

Are apprenticeships still worth the effort?

Yes.

They turn hope into a controlled pipeline. State-registered programs and partner models remain one of the most reliable ways to grow your own bench.

Contractors who use them consistently report steadier staffing.

Why not just pay more and be done with it?

Because the market already expects higher wages.

Pay absolutely matters, but it alone cannot buy loyalty. Without sane schedules, transparent standards, and credible managers, turnover will continue.

Pay should be part of a complete package that respects time and career growth.

What should I include in an offer to improve acceptance?

Be specific: base pay, average weekly take-home, on-call details in plain English, the first raise trigger by skill or performance metric, and the gear you provide.

How do I know if my hiring process is working?

Track it like you track sales. Every week, measure:

Applications received
Phone screens completed
Working interviews held
Offers extended
Offers accepted
30-day retention

When one stage bottlenecks, fix it before spending another dollar on ads. Hiring is an operating system, not random activities.

This isn’t a luck problem; it’s a systems problem.

Retention stabilizes when leadership is credible and schedules are predictable.

Hiring becomes repeatable when you move quickly, show respect, and measure your funnel on a weekly basis.

Stop the bleeding before your best people walk out the door

Claim your complimentary Hiring Strategy Session.

Book Now

Availability is extremely limited, and your competitors are already moving ahead of you and signing up the best talent.

As a certified executive coach with over 25 years of experience successfully coaching plumbing contractors, I'll work with you in just one focused Zoom session to map out your bulletproof hiring plan.

Don't wait another day. Every week you delay is bleeding profit, killing predictability, and handing market share directly to your competition.

Plumbing Contractors and The Labor Shortage Fix