Search the forum,

Discuss Hiring staff in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

Status
Not open for further replies.

mfgs

Plumbers Arms member
Plumber
Gas Engineer
Messages
3,469
To all the people who have full time staff working for them. How did you go about finding the right candidate?
For the last 2 years I have always had full time subcontractors working for me. My current one is leaving to go and work for himself. So I am needing to find a replacement, where is the best place to look? I have always taken on people I have known and seen the quality of their work beforehand.

I am also deciding whether to stick to a subcontractor or take the plunge and take someone on properly and provide a van etc. Any advice from people who have been in my position previously?
 
Both work very well if you find the right person.

Both work disastrously when you find the wrong person.

Saying that, it's harder and more expensive to get rid of an employee than a subcontractor.
 
I am leaning more towards a sub contractor. The difficulty is, I don't really know where to look to find the right person. I have always known the standard of the other guys before I have asked them to come and work for me. I feel like placing an advert on a job site will obviously attract a lot of people, but I get the impression than more of them will be chancers than people actually any good.
Also the danger with a subby that I don't know is that they could easily leave for another job at no notice and could potentially look to poach customers etc. With someone taken on properly on the cards, I feel this would be less likely.
 
What area are you in? Maybe there's someone local on here that could help?
 
Based in Croydon/Purley area, but work all around South London and down to the coast.
 
Has no one got any advice on where to look to find the right person?

Also any tips would be good on what to put on the advert, need to start the process pretty soon as I have a lot of working coming up.
 
As Adam said pm Masood see what hes after and what you can offer might then suit both parties
 
You must know people in the trade that sub decent blokes who are worthy of some work ??
 
Anyone had an issues with taking on sub contractors, I could do with taking on a subby but feared that they'll just try take the work for themself
 
You must know people in the trade that sub decent blokes who are worthy of some work ??

I know a few but most are good mates, and I don't think that set up works. The odd job it is fine, but a prolonged period would probably put strain on our friendship.
 
I know a few but most are good mates, and I don't think that set up works. The odd job it is fine, but a prolonged period would probably put strain on our friendship.

I said I would never work for a mate and then I did, it was ok for a bit but when I had a job too big for 1 person and he didn't listen to me then it got very awkward very quick, I ended up giving my notice and having to take him to court for my last 2 weeks pay.
 
Best thing to do is go into merchants and let them know your looking, the problem is finding the good ones as a lot of them are usually being well looked after by the companies they work for.
 
Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because you employ them that they wont steal your customers, that's how most start up on there own, by undercutting your price, + the cost of employing someone, pension fund sick pay, holidays, maternity leave, the list go's on,
 
Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because you employ them that they wont steal your customers, that's how most start up on there own, by undercutting your price, + the cost of employing someone, pension fund sick pay, holidays, maternity leave, the list go's on,

It is obviously a risk, but one I would be willing to take. I don't want to be 60 years old still lugging a tool box around. I want to expand my business and try and get off the tools. That is my aim, and this will be my first step to getting there. Yeah it is a worry, but I think if I put the effort in now to finding the right first permanent member of staff then it will pay off in the future.
 
Ive put up signs in a couple of merchants but yet to get any feed back, mind you that was on Friday!

Taking people on is a massive worry but like you if you want to expand your business then it has to happen.

I don't worry too much about stealing my work initially rather more they will muck up one of my jobs and lose me business that way.

Good luck your not that far from me.
 
Ive put up signs in a couple of merchants but yet to get any feed back, mind you that was on Friday!

Taking people on is a massive worry but like you if you want to expand your business then it has to happen.

I don't worry too much about stealing my work initially rather more they will muck up one of my jobs and lose me business that way.

Good luck your not that far from me.


Let me know if you have any success with finding anyone please mate and if you decide to go down the subby or on the cards route. Always good to hear how people in a similar position get on.
 
QUOTE=jtsplumbing;876173]Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because you employ them that they wont steal your customers, that's how most start up on there own, by undercutting your price, + the cost of employing someone, pension fund sick pay, holidays, maternity leave, the list go's on,[/QUOTE]

Most of the employees that go this route, run out of customers very quickly.
When you think about it, they may get very busy doing your work after hours and on weekends, but fulltime, run out of work from your customers after a week or two.

Subbies on the other hand usually have numerous contacts.

Best put someone on fulltime, give them a vehicle and monitor the stock put into the van.
And also monitor their purchases at the suppliers.
( Not hard to do when employing only 1 person )

Just get them to do a stocktake once a week of whats in the van and monitor whats been purchased.

Losing stock is inevitable, but you will bring a conscience factor into the equation, when you constantly monitor stock.
Also - fit GPS tracking in the vehicle.
Make it known - but don't push the point.
For your info only.
 
I have put an advert up on this site, as well as asking around everyone I know in the industry. No luck in finding anyone even looking for work at the moment. Has anyone used any particular websites to advertise for suncontractors? Or agencies, guessing they will be expensive though.
 
I have put an advert up on this site, as well as asking around everyone I know in the industry. No luck in finding anyone even looking for work at the moment. Has anyone used any particular websites to advertise for suncontractors? Or agencies, guessing they will be expensive though.

Have you considered hiring a trainee rather than a fully qualified plumber?
 
Have you considered hiring a trainee rather than a fully qualified plumber?

I have had 3 apprentices, none of which have worked out. Had to sack one and two quit. I wouldn't rule out another one in the future, as it is something I would actually enjoy if I could find someone with the right attitude.

However, at the moment I have a big 6 month project starting in about a week or two and need someone decent.
 
I have had 3 apprentices, none of which have worked out. Had to sack one and two quit. I wouldn't rule out another one in the future, as it is something I would actually enjoy if I could find someone with the right attitude.

However, at the moment I have a big 6 month project starting in about a week or two and need someone decent.

Try a local college, the academic year just finished so you can have a pick of either level 2 apprentices who want to move on to more hands on work or fresh level 3 apprentices who can be as good as any plumbers. Can always do a probation period
 
They can be ok, but I really want someone experienced who I can trust to work on their own if need be. With the volume of work I have coming up, I don't have the time to personally supervise an apprentice. Its just knowing the best place to find people.
 
It is obviously a risk, but one I would be willing to take. I don't want to be 60 years old still lugging a tool box around. I want to expand my business and try and get off the tools. That is my aim, and this will be my first step to getting there. Yeah it is a worry, but I think if I put the effort in now to finding the right first permanent member of staff then it will pay off in the future.
In that case, use Subbies you know but also get an apprentice you can train how you want
 
What are you willing to pay for a good subby? I know few good lads I can recommend
 
I've got 3 lads working for me now, 2 trainees and 1 experienced plumber who can also fit bathrooms and kitchens for me.

One of the trainees is older and being trained up by me to do electrical and gas work. The other is an 18 year old apprentice who has just finished his first year.

I did try sub contracting work out but from my experience: -

1.) There's very little profit left in a job after paying subcontracting rates for someone else to come in.
2.) Most subcontractors will always prioritise their work over yours and end up stiffing you at some point. Not great if this happens half way through a bathroom installation they are doing for you.

When you employ staff you have more control, this is the big advantage for me. An employee should care much more about the work they do for you than a subcontractor. That's been my experience anyway.

This said, I've had some awful employees in my time. The good news is that all employees are basically on a 2 year probation period with you, despite what you may set formally. If they are crap in this time and you sack them, they have no right at all to take you to an employment tribunal (exception - if you sack them because of their gender, sexual orientation or race).

We recruited our bathroom fitter through a free job centre advert.

https://www.gov.uk/advertise-job

Do be aware that plenty of people will come and offer to work for you despite not having the experience you ask for. We had one awful experience where I took someone on who claimed to tile. I sat about while they started. After 2 hours he had put 2 tiles on the floor. He was awful, even my first year apprentice knew how to tile better than he did.

As long as you closely supervise anyone you take on until you know you can trust them you should be ok.

Keeping track of van stock etc is something worth bearing in mind. We have a stock control program we've had designed ourselves specifically for the plumbing industry. It allows me to track stock levels for all of our stock items in any van. I can do this from my PC in the office or using my smart phone. Stock is scanned in and out from the vans using the lads smart phones and QR codes. This allows us to automatically order new stock for the vans as required. One thing I didn't really think about before expanding to a 2 van business. It also allows us to keep a close eye on what is being used and to make sure no one is taking stock without permission!

Finally, remember that if you sub-contract a lot of work to one person they will be considered as employed by HMRC.

Hope some of this is useful and helps.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Reply to Hiring staff in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

Creating content since 2001. Untold Media.

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock