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For years, the HVACR sector has grappled with a labor shortage, but there is a particular lack of skilled technicians who work on the commercial refrigeration equipment found in supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants, etc. And the situation is only getting worse, with roughly 80,000 HVACR technician jobs currently unfilled, or about 39% of the workforce.

That stat comes courtesy of Morgan Smith, program and communications director at the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC), who hosted a session on workforce development at the Food Marketing Institute’s (FMI’s) Energy & Store Development Conference [below], last fall in Baltimore, Maryland. The NASRC has a vested interest in creating a robust workforce, as its goal is to help supermarkets transition to natural and low-GWP refrigerants. For that to happen, more skilled technicians are needed.

Workforce Development

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT: NASRC’s Morgan Smith led a session on how to bring more technicians into the HVACR industry. (Staff photo)

The lack of technicians in the HVACR industry has been a problem for decades. As a result, contractors find themselves continuously looking for ways to not only recruit technicians but keep the ones they already have.

“There are simply not enough technicians not only to address this transition that the industry is going through right now away from HFCs, but also just to keep up with ongoing operations and maintenance needs,” said Smith.

This is happening, because existing technicians are older and starting to retire, and there's a shortage of new technicians entering the field to fill their positions. This results in increased workloads and unsustainable schedules for the incoming workforce, prompting them to exit the industry, thereby perpetuating a cycle of technician burnout, said Smith. “This is the biggest issue and challenge that’s facing the industry right now.”

To that end, NASRC has identified four key points that need to be addressed in order to create a more robust workforce:

1. Recruit more technicians into the HVACR industry;
2. Increase training opportunities, making sure there’s access to training on the latest technologies;
3. Retain existing technicians; and
4. Create an industry-wide effort so that everyone is involved in solving the problem.

On recruiting more technicians into the industry, Smith said that questions need to be asked, such as how do we get more HVACR students? How do we support schools, and what do they need? What do the faculty need? How do we promote this career at a much higher level to attract new people who don't have a family or who don't have a connection to this industry?

“Under training, we're looking at offering more access to training on the latest technologies, then under retention, how do we identify and promote best practices that reduce attrition rates for technicians?” she asked. “What do we need to do to build our culture to make it not only more attractive under this recruitment piece, but also so that people stay? And what other things can we be doing to support our technicians and provide a career path for technicians as they progress through their careers?”

NASRC has not only identified the problems, it is working actively to solve them. For example, in April 2023, the group organized its inaugural natural refrigerant training summit in Southern California, which was extremely well-received, said Smith. This included a student networking session where over 100 students and faculty from local HVACR programs learned about the industry, made connections with potential employers, and had the opportunity to establish relationships.

“We're also looking at some areas where we can support schools; for example, developing a CO₂ curriculum in partnership with the ESCO Group, which should be available soon,” said Smith. “We’re also looking at ways to not only train faculty on natural refrigerants, but also on refrigeration in general, so that refrigeration can get a bigger representations in our schools.”

Finding Techs

Refrigeration contractors were also part of the session, and Smith asked them to share some of the successful strategies they’ve used to attract technicians to the industry. Bryan Beitler, vice president of CoolSys in Anaheim, California, shared his experience of participating in a middle school career fair.

“There were a lot of people there representing a lot of different vocations, and they were all vying for these students,” he said. “And there I was, with my little table and my little sign and my giveaways, and I had no kids to talk to. I wondered, where are they? What’s happening? Turns out, they were all over in the corner with the YouTube guy.”

From that experience, Beitler gained several valuable insights for improving his success at future career fairs. They included having a compelling story to tell, involving parents (crucial!), and having plenty of candy at the table. He also noted that talking to a few middle schools isn't enough; instead, everyone in the industry needs to think about how to connect with the kids in their regions.

“Our trade is one of the few vocations where a single paycheck can support a family,” he said. “It pays well, it's a good trade. But we all have to be saying the same story. We need to make the effort. A little effort that goes a little ways, but a bigger effort is going to go a longer ways.”

Todd Ernest, CEO of Climate Pros in Chicago, Illinois, had a similar experience at a high school career fair in his area. At the event, most of the students showed no interest in talking to him or taking some of the items he had to offer, such as screwdrivers and such; instead, they were flocking to the table in the back corner that had donuts. However, he did attract the attention of one young man, whom he went on to hire.

“It wasn't my doing, but one of the dads was an electrician by trade, and he was encouraging his son to join the union and find a good contractor to work for,” said Ernest. “They were interested in my company, and a week or so later, he and his dad came over to my house, and we talked about the trade and where it's going and all the things we're doing. Needless to say, that young man started working for us right after he graduated high school, and he's just been super so far. We're putting him through our training program that we've developed, and we're hoping to start the next generation.”

Apart from career fairs, Ernest said he has had success recruiting from the automotive industry, the railroad industry, and even the elevator industry. He noted that all these industries produce skilled technicians who understand controls, as well as safety protocols, and the complexity of systems. But they also offer hours that may be better than those worked by a refrigeration technician.

“The work-life balance is absolutely an issue, and we've got to do something to fix that as well,” he said.

Ernest noted that the industry is working on addressing that challenge through the use of software and AI, which can predict equipment failures and reduce the need for service calls on nights, weekends, and after-hours. Solving this problem may also help retain technicians who often switch to HVAC — or other careers — for better work-life balance, he said.

“We're working on that,” said Ernest. “If we can eliminate the service calls after-hours, nights, and weekends, we'll stop losing technicians to HVAC, where they can make the same money but not have the on-call running these guys ragged. For the young guys, they love it, because they get to make a lot of money. They don't have kids at home, or they're not married, or they've already been divorced at least once. In the end, when they get older, and they start having kids and developing that family, that work-life balance is important.”