PlumbingBossPro Blog — Running a Plumbing Business

Hiring Plumbers for a Small Plumbing Business

Every plumbing owner says the same thing: good plumbers are hard to find. That is true. But small companies have advantages the big shops do not. You can offer a real relationship with the owner, a say in how things are done and a clear path to more responsibility. The trick is hiring for the right things and giving people a place worth staying.

Hire for the Business You Are Building

Most first hires happen right around the second van, covered in Adding a Second Van to a Plumbing Business: When and How. Before you post a job, decide what this person will actually do.

A plumber who will run service calls and drains alone needs strong diagnosis and good customer manners. One who will help on water heater installs needs to be steady and careful. An apprentice needs a willingness to learn and someone to learn from. Write a short description of the job as it really is, including the van, the hours and the on-call expectations.

Requirements around licensing and who can do what work vary by place. Check those with your local authorities. This article is about the hiring itself.

Look Beyond the Wrench

Technical skill matters, but it is rarely why a hire fails. Most problems come from everything else. When you interview, look for:

• How they talk to customers. Your plumber is the company in the homeowner's kitchen. Can they explain a problem without talking down?
• Whether they write things down. A plumber who records equipment and writes clear notes makes the next visit easier for everyone.
• Reliability. Showing up on time, every day, matters more than being the fastest.
• Honesty about what they do not know. A plumber who says “let me check” is safer than one who guesses.
• Comfort with a phone app. Your tech app is how the day runs. They do not need to love technology, but they need to use it.

Test, Do Not Just Talk

Interviews tell you how someone talks. A paid working day tells you how they work. Many owners bring a candidate on a ride-along or a short paid trial before making an offer.

Watch the small things. Do they put down drop cloths? Do they explain what they found? Do they clean up? Do they take before and after photos without being told? Hand them the tech app and see how fast they pick up Start, Skip and Complete.

Where to Find Plumbers

Job boards work, but they are rarely where the best hires come from. Better places to look:

• Referrals from your own crew. Good plumbers know other good plumbers.
• Supply houses. The counter staff know who is looking.
• Trade schools and training programs. Especially for apprentices.
• Your own reputation. Plumbers talk. A company known for treating people well hires more easily.

Make the Job Easy to Do Well

A lot of good plumbers leave jobs because of chaos, not money. Missing addresses, unclear schedules, angry customers who were never told the plumber was coming, and a phone that rings all evening with questions.

Clear systems fix most of that:

• The day's calls in route order on the phone, with navigation.
• Equipment and access notes on each card, so they are not guessing.
• Automatic on-the-way and arrived texts, so customers expect them.
• Complete bills the job, so they are not filling out invoices at night.
• A time clock on the same phone, so hours are recorded as they happen.

Those things make a small company a calmer place to work than many bigger ones.

Set Up the New Hire Properly

On day one, the new plumber gets a personal PIN and a van assignment in PlumbingBossPro. From then on, their jobs, photos, notes, completions and clock-ins are under their name. That is fair to them and useful to you. Training them on your way of doing things is the next step, covered in Training Apprentices and New Hires in a Plumbing Business.

Keep the Good Ones

Pay fairly, pay on time and be clear about what you expect. Say thank you when a customer calls to praise someone. Give good people more responsibility as they earn it. Small companies keep great plumbers by being the place where the work is organized and the owner is fair.

When someone does leave, the records stay. Their jobs, notes, photos and the equipment they recorded remain on each house, so the next plumber picks up where they left off. Turn off the departing plumber's PIN the same day, and their access to the tech app ends with it. That is one more reason to keep the company's knowledge in the system rather than in any one person's head.

For more on building a plumbing team, visit the PlumbingBossPro plumbing business software page.