I'm looking for only the best

[icchvac]

Things like paid Nextel, paid cell phone, uniforms and truck priveleges are not really *benefits* to the employees, those are things you need to do in order to run a successful and professional company


My thoughts exactly. Explain how paid cell phones and uniform and company vehicle are a benefit...

They are when you don't get them at all. We've had this argument with management where i work. Our "county" counterparts get a service vehicle to drive home (and burn free gas). We don't.

[berg2666]

They are when you don't get them at all. We've had this argument with management where i work. Our "county" counterparts get a service vehicle to drive home (and burn free gas). We don't.

You must make way more money an hour then us if you have to pay for your vehicle and cell phone to conduct company buisness....


Union contracts require this stuff to do buisness....

[beenthere]

He's not a union shop.

Can't compare his company to a union company.



Employee package might only be 41 an hour, but hourly cost of employee to the company is probaly around 55 to 65 bucks an hour.

[neophytes serendipity]

They are when you don't get them at all. We've had this argument with management where i work. Our "county" counterparts get a service vehicle to drive home (and burn free gas). We don't.

I certainly hope you aren't providing a truck and phone at your expense to benefit the boss.

That would be stupid.

Might be cheaper to pay you to come in and load/unload your tools into the company truck each day.... not.

[Pioneer]

Simsd: 2 b/r apt on the small side are as low as $565.00 month
3 b/r brick rancher 17oosq ft. average about 210,000

Berg2666: you have them and you don't pay for them= benefit.
yes they benefit the company as well, but you are going to have a cell phone so if someone else pays for it do you not consider that a benefit?
Not all companies provide take home vehicles, some require you to pick it up at the shop in the morning and drop it off in the evening, causing you to have to drive to and from work.

No tool reimbersal, Company provides all of the larger tools i.e. recovery, vacuum pump, torch, and specialized test equipment.
Techs. are responsible to supply and maintian there hand tools.

[coolwhip]

"Techs. are responsible to supply and maintian there hand tools."

Pioneer, you should offer a tool allowance of $300.00 per year. I say this because the tools being used are for your jobs. Just make sure you get receipts...no receipt, no allowance.

[Pioneer]

If I am supposed to supply the tools, the truck, the cell phone, the radio, the materials, the training, paid time off, medical insurance, dental insurance, the uniforms, and a means for them to enjoy themselves during there off time.
While at the same time socking away money for them when they are too old to work, and making sure they have a good Christmas bonus and Christmas party every year. What does the tech bring to the table?

[TXTECH03]

Pioneer,
I understand where you are coming from. I operate in the Houston area. Let me put it to you another way. The company provides the tech the truck, phone, insurance, training, uniforms, and other various things. You obviously spent some money on this jet ski and take its value seriously. ok this is the point

You have to provide the truck to carry all of your parts, you have to provide the phone or other dispatching device to your techs. this is so they can go from job to job. The uniforms keep a good appearance and provide an easily attained standard for your company. The insurance keeps your tech healthy. the retirement gives him something to look forward to. The jet ski is nice but irrelevant. Kinda like my old company cutting the dental and vision insurance to purchase a "company" deer lease that we never got time off to use.

You sell your services to the customers. Your services are your technicians. The technicians sell their services to you and you in turn sell them to the customers. With me so far? ok.

Now your great techs will understand one thing and one thing only. MONEY. that is it. if you try to explain what all these other benefits do then most of the time you are wasting your breath. hourly wage is what they pay attention to. I provide all the benefits you do but my pay scale for technicians is 20-35 an hour based on experience. The more you know then the more you make. Pretty simply put if you won't pay they don't work. Yes you can provide these services without your techs but you and you alone would be doing it. remember they are not doing this for fun they are here to make money and have a career.

So set realistic salaries and goals they don't meet the goals then get rid of them.

[Pioneer]

I would think the cost of living in Houston would be far more the the VA. Peninsula cost of gas hears 2.53gal today and dropping. Yet our pay scale is 20 -25hr.
As I stated before I really appreciate the input, but those of you in different geographical areas will never convene me that my pay is sub-standard.
I know we are in the top 5% for residential companies in our area and that we not change just because some members continue to compare it with large metropolitan areas that market mostly to the private sector.
This is a highly military area and perhaps that has something to do with keeping the cost of living down, my office is within 20 miles of 8 military bases, you can't throw a rock in the air without it hitting a soldier in the head when it comes down.

[neophytes serendipity]

Pioneer,
I understand where you are coming from. I operate in the Houston area. Let me put it to you another way. The company provides the tech the truck, phone, insurance, training, uniforms, and other various things. You obviously spent some money on this jet ski and take its value seriously. ok this is the point

You have to provide the truck to carry all of your parts, you have to provide the phone or other dispatching device to your techs. this is so they can go from job to job. The uniforms keep a good appearance and provide an easily attained standard for your company. The insurance keeps your tech healthy. the retirement gives him something to look forward to. The jet ski is nice but irrelevant. Kinda like my old company cutting the dental and vision insurance to purchase a "company" deer lease that we never got time off to use.

You sell your services to the customers. Your services are your technicians. The technicians sell their services to you and you in turn sell them to the customers. With me so far? ok.

Now your great techs will understand one thing and one thing only. MONEY. that is it. if you try to explain what all these other benefits do then most of the time you are wasting your breath. hourly wage is what they pay attention to. I provide all the benefits you do but my pay scale for technicians is 20-35 an hour based on experience. The more you know then the more you make. Pretty simply put if you won't pay they don't work. Yes you can provide these services without your techs but you and you alone would be doing it. remember they are not doing this for fun they are here to make money and have a career.

So set realistic salaries and goals they don't meet the goals then get rid of them.

+1

[neophytes serendipity]

Berg2666: you have them and you don't pay for them= benefit.
yes they benefit the company as well, but you are going to have a cell phone so if someone else pays for it do you not consider that a benefit?
Not all companies provide take home vehicles, some require you to pick it up at the shop in the morning and drop it off in the evening, causing you to have to drive to and from work.

No tool reimbersal, Company provides all of the larger tools i.e. recovery, vacuum pump, torch, and specialized test equipment.
Techs. are responsible to supply and maintian there hand tools.

It is probably safe to say that most people that want a cell phone already own one. I can't envision a company providing unlimited free use of the company phone... but who knows. I certainly wouldn't want my phone numbers showing up on an itemized list in the office....

Taking a vehicle home is more of a benefit to the company, unless the 2 hours of lost wages every day picking up/dropping off the company vehicle costs more than letting the tech drive the truck home.

Driving to and from work is considered "normal".

[beenthere]

Our pay scale is very close to Pioneers.
Techs are reimbursted for cutting tools. Snipes, linesmens, etc.
Vac, recover, torch are provided.
Cost of living isn't that high around here either.
Union high is 31 in the envolope.


If you can't compare the cost of a system installation from one end of the country to the next.
Then how can you compare what tech wages and bennies should be from one end to the next?

[Pioneer]

I never said that there were not some benefits that would benefit the company as well, but that doesn't make it less of a benefit for the employee.
Medical and dental also benefit the company to some extent yet are widely accepted as benefits.
I really can't figure out how my business has made it sense 1990 sense obviously I have been doing everything wrong all along.