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Why is there a shortage of refrigeration technicians? Why do they leave the field? How can the industry encourage people to make a career in commercial refrigeration? These were all questions that were asked during the Food Marketing Institute’s (FMI’s) Energy & Store Development Conference, held last fall in Orlando, Florida.

In a session hosted by the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC), Danielle Wright, executive director of the organization, and Doug Milu, refrigeration and energy program manager at Publix supermarkets, discussed the ongoing technician shortage problem and urged the HVACR industry to come together to address the issue.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The HVACR industry has had a shortage of technicians for years, but there is a particular lack of skilled technicians who work on commercial refrigeration equipment in supermarkets, convenience stores, and the like. And it’s getting worse. According to Milu, about 15% of refrigeration technicians are leaving the field every year, and only 6% are coming into the industry.

TECHNICIAN SHORTAGE: The HVACR industry has had a shortage of technicians for years, but there is a particular lack of skilled technicians who work on commercial refrigeration equipment in supermarkets. (Staff photo)

“At some point, that delta is going to be so great, nobody's going to be able to work on these systems,” he said. “And in transitioning to natural refrigerants, systems are not getting less complex. They have more controls and valves, the components are different, and control strategies are much different than the systems that we worked on of yesteryear. We need to figure out how to close this gap.”

Since a robust workforce will be necessary to help supermarkets transition to natural and low-GWP refrigerants, NASRC established a workforce development initiative to examine the issue. The organization surveyed large service contractors, retailers with in-house technicians, trade school directors and faculty, and service technicians and contractors to find out how to recruit more people to join the industry and how to retain those already here.

In the survey, NASRC asked participants to list some of the advantages of working as a commercial refrigeration technicians. About 85% of respondents said that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their career, and advantages included job security, recession proof, geographic flexibility, low to no debt, satisfaction of ensuring the food supply, and joy of problem solving.

Milu noted that working on commercial refrigeration systems can be tremendously rewarding. “It's very gratifying when you're the technician, and you show up on site and a rack is down, and through luck, or goodwill, or your own skill, you get the system back up and running. You become the hero at that point. It's like, yeah, I did that. It’s very gratifying.”

But there are also some significant disadvantages, including unpredictable hours, being on call nights and weekends, seasonal inconsistency, working under pressure, drive time to jobs, and the work being physically challenging. Some survey respondents also said the job was very lonely.

“All these disadvantages feed into this burnout loop that is just vicious and growing,” said Wright. “The shortage puts a lot more pressure on the existing techs to fill the gaps and creates these unsustainable schedules. That forces them out of the industry; either they leave it altogether, or they go to a different organization but stay in the industry, or they go to the HVAC side.”

Milu recalled that when he started working as a refrigeration technician in the early 1980s, being on call meant working 90 to 95 hours a week. He noted that it was very stressful, both physically and mentally.

“It would be 3:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning, and I've got people screaming up through the roof hatch for me to get something done. It’s very frustrating,” he said. “I almost thought of a career change early on in my career. When you employ these technicians, and you send them on a service call, and you have not spent the time to nurture and train those folks on how to resolve those issues, that level of frustration comes right away.”

That is particularly true for the generation of young people entering the workforce, who have a much different work ethic than previous generations. As Milu noted, this generation has different objectives about what they want their work/life balance to be.

“I’m actually going to flip that around — they’re looking for a life/work balance,” he said. “They want stability with their family. Most young folks are working parents, and their kids are in school. They have Little League and soccer. Life happens. I can probably count on both hands how many weddings I've missed. Birth of my children, because I'm on the roof, changing a compressor in the middle of the night. Together, we have to figure out how to change that.”

Closing the Gap

Wright noted one of the biggest problems is that there is a huge gap in recruitment, and potential techs are leaving at every stage of the recruitment process. It starts with young people not being exposed to the industry, or if they do have the mechanical aptitude, they are discouraged from attending trade school and encouraged to go to college instead. If they do end up at trade school, teachers tend to be HVAC experts, and the refrigeration side is not taught.

“All of this is compiling and compounding into an enormous gap on the recruitment side,” said Wright. “There are individual activities going on around recruitment everywhere. Different companies have plans in place that they're implementing, so it's not like nobody's trying. The missing link here is there's no coordinated action, there's no working together across the industry to build up this industry treasure or resource that we need to all be protecting and nurturing. There's also a lack of data sharing. So we don't know things like, where are the jobs needed?”

A lack of apprenticeship programs also exacerbates the situation, as technicians want to be able to earn money while learning about the trade.

“There's the issue of the time to do the training, versus getting paid to do the work,” said Wright. “That's a big disadvantage, and a main reason why techs turn to HVAC — it's quicker to get through and quicker to get paid.”

One of the companies that is addressing the technician shortage is Publix, which has partnered with several high schools and technical colleges in Florida to create refrigeration programs for students. But academia is also struggling with teaching new technologies, like CO₂ refrigeration systems, because the teachers have not been exposed to it.

“The instructors need everyone — end users and manufacturers — to reengage with the vocational schools to help them learn about the new platforms that we're looking at, whether its controls or components or refrigeration architecture,” said Milu. “They have been oblivious to it in the last 10 years, so it's a real gap.”

Publix has also designed and built a custom training facility for their in-house technicians that contains every type of equipment and control located in their stores — including CO₂ refrigeration systems. Endless troubleshooting scenarios are possible, said Milu, and specific training curriculum will be used for each technician job class, along with testing and validation. The training center is a game changer, he said.

Not every company can create a custom training facility designed to give technicians the exact skills needed for the job — and trade schools often do not teach all the skills desired by local employers. The NASRC has some ideas for how to solve the problem on a regional basis.

“We see an opportunity to first build a sponsor team, which would consist of folks from the industry, leaders in the retailer space, service contractors, and manufacturers, who would agree to work together and support this effort in a particular region — they would share data and information and really provide that cohesion,” she said. “We would then develop a local partnership — get to know the training programs, get to know the high schools and find out their needs. Find out the gaps in that area, then leverage our sponsor team and the entire network to really deliver those specific initiatives.”

This is really a call to action for everyone in the industry, said Milu.

“For end users, what are you doing with your technicians if you have them? What are you doing with your contractors? And contractors, how are you nurturing and training your technicians to be successful once they're out in the field? This job has great advantages from a monetary standpoint, but it also comes with a price, and we need to figure out how to reduce the risk of having people leave this industry.”