Hiring Your Next Technician: A 30-Point Checklist
What This Checklist Is For
This is a 30-point hiring checklist for home service contractors looking to add a technician without the usual hiring chaos. It is built for owner-operators, service managers, and small-shop leaders who need to move fast but cannot afford a bad hire. Use it from the day you decide to post a job through the day the new tech signs the offer. The checklist covers job definition, sourcing, phone screens, working interviews, background checks, reference calls, and onboarding prep. Follow it in order. The outcome is a disciplined hiring process that filters out 80 percent of bad candidates before you waste time on them and gives you real confidence in the tech who shows up on day one. Great shops hire slow and fire fast. This is how you hire slow without losing momentum.
Why It Matters
A bad tech hire costs a home service company an average of $35,000 to $75,000 when you add up training, lost revenue, callbacks, customer churn, and recruiting a replacement. A single angry customer review from a weak hire can cost 10 future bookings. Meanwhile, a great tech generates $400,000 to $700,000 of annual revenue in most residential service trades. The spread between a great hire and a bad hire is enormous, and the checklist below is how you tip the odds in your favor. Shops with a disciplined hiring process have half the turnover and keep their labor cost as a percent of revenue 3 to 5 points lower than shops that hire on gut feel.
Define the role
Write a scorecard before writing the job postMust do
List the outcomes the role must deliver in the first 12 months: revenue target, average ticket, close rate, callback rate, customer rating. If you cannot measure it, you cannot hire for it. The scorecard becomes the contract of success.
Pick a specific experience level and pay bandMust do
Are you hiring an apprentice, a mid-level tech, or a senior closer? Each has a different pay band and training investment. Trying to hire all three at once dilutes your message and attracts the wrong candidates.
Confirm truck, tools, and uniform are ready
Before you post the job, confirm you actually have a truck, tool set, and uniforms ready for day one. A new hire waiting two weeks for a truck will start job hunting again the next Monday.
Document the training plan for the first 90 days
Map out what the new hire will do week by week for 90 days: ride-alongs, training classes, first solo calls, first coaching sessions. A tech with a plan stays. A tech who is winging it leaves.
Sourcing and screening
Post to industry-specific boards, not just generic sites
Use trade-focused job boards, union halls, and local technical schools alongside mainstream sites. The best passive candidates rarely scroll the big boards. Go where the trade lives.
Offer a referral bonus to current techs
A $1,500 referral bonus for a tech who stays 90 days is cheap compared to a recruiter fee. Your best techs know other good techs. Ask them first, every time.
Run a 15-minute phone screenMust do
Short, structured phone screen focused on experience, tools owned, commute, and motivation. If they cannot answer clearly in 15 minutes, they are not worth a shop interview. Protect your calendar.
Verify license and certificationsMust do
Look up the license on the state board website. Do not take the candidate's word. Check expirations, disciplinary history, and whether the license is actually active. Takes five minutes and catches real problems.
Interviews and working audition
Run a structured in-person interview
Use the same question set for every candidate. Include behavioral questions about past customer escalations, difficult diagnostics, and ethical dilemmas. Structured interviews predict performance roughly 3x better than casual chats.
Pay for a half-day working interviewMust do
Invite the finalist to spend 4 hours in the shop or on a ride-along with your top tech. Pay them for the time. What they do with tools and customers in 4 hours tells you more than any interview.
Get feedback from the tech they rode with
Your senior tech will tell you within 30 minutes whether the candidate has it. Trust their read. They can see through resume polish faster than any owner.
Check three professional referencesMust do
Actually call them. Ask about attendance, customer interactions, and whether they would hire the candidate back. If a former manager hesitates, that pause is the answer. Move on.
Run a background and motor vehicle check
Non-negotiable for anyone driving a company truck or entering customer homes. Use a reputable screening service and comply with local laws. Disqualify based on policy, not gut feel.
Offer and onboarding prep
Deliver the offer verbally before putting it in writing
Call the candidate, walk through the numbers, and answer questions live. A cold written offer gets ghosted. A warm phone call gets accepted. Follow up with a clean written offer the same day.
Provide a clear compensation breakdownMust do
Base pay, commission or spiff structure, benefits, PTO, uniform allowance, tool stipend, and training hours. Everything in writing. Ambiguity at offer time breeds distrust on day 30.
Prepare the truck, phone, and logins before day one
Have the vehicle washed, stocked, and fueled. Phone set up with field management app. Uniform hanging. First-day schedule printed. The first impression of your company matters as much as their first impression of you.
Set a 30-day and 90-day review on the calendar
Put the review dates on the calendar before the hire starts. Use the original scorecard. Catch issues early. Most bad hires reveal themselves in the first 30 days if you are actually looking.
Pro Tips
- ★Hire for character and coachability first. Technical skill can be taught faster than attitude can be fixed.
- ★Never hire because you are desperate. A bad hire costs more than an empty seat for another two weeks.
- ★Have your top tech sit in on the final interview. The chemistry read is invaluable and it builds ownership in the new hire's success.
- ★Keep a warm bench of candidates you liked but did not hire. Reach out quarterly. The right person usually opens up eventually.
- ★Use smart automation to handle application acknowledgments and scheduling so candidates feel a professional process from day one.
- ★If a candidate disrespects your CSR on the phone, cancel the interview. How they treat the gatekeeper is how they will treat your customers.
Turn this checklist into a live workflow.
Kaldr Tech lets you build every item into a job template — your techs see it on their phone, check off as they go. $0/month.