National Home Services Companies Solve Technician Staffing Problem

HOUSTON, Nov. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- When it comes to finding qualified, trained technicians in the HVAC, plumbing or electrical residential services industry, hiring managers are often left with few choices nowadays. There has been widespread national coverage about a lack of skilled workers in the trades, but one group of home services companies has found the secret – find a willing applicant with a great attitude and train them with a standardized program. Success Academy today announced a national technician education program through Pearson Education, Inc. to make technical training available to One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning® (One Hour), Benjamin Franklin Plumbing® (Benjamin Franklin), and Mister Sparky® electric locations that choose to utilize the program. The program is called Success Academy Technical Training powered by Pearson Learning Solutions.

"This program gives the knowledge and online resources for locations across the country to hire for character and train technicians from day one," stated David Borowski, Technical Director at Success Academy. "We like to call this option 'Career in a Year.' This is a flexible, self-paced curriculum that can help general managers within our network with recruitment, retention, reducing call backs, and providing technical training,"

In addition to providing courses from beginner to expert levels, technical skills can also be tested prior to hiring an experienced technician.  This will allow the hiring manager the opportunity to understand each applicant's skill level, and then assign technical training as needed once they are hired. Technical training is also available for existing team members who want to improve their skill set.  Training can be targeted according to specific challenges or situations a technician may encounter.

Success Academy, the dedicated training resource for all branded operations at Direct Energy, has been front and center building focused, instructor-led and online training that includes core communications, sales, management, safety, technical, and best practices for their home services teams. Every year there are over 40,000 class completions.  Still, the challenge remains to bring in new talent – either applicants looking to start their first career or applicants looking for a career change, including those being reintroduced into the retail marketplace such as recently discharged military.

Borowski continued, "Our customized trade-specific curriculum, delivery system, on-the-job training, mentorships and our in-house platform of communications training is the perfect way to attract and retain talent, where knowledge equals earning power. This has opened an incredible opportunity to join the ranks of field talent routinely reaching incomes of $75,000+ in the first three to five years with no college debt."  

Success Academy offers a wide variety of learning opportunities for One Hour, Benjamin Franklin and Mister Sparky® electric, all of which are part of the Direct Energy family of brands with company-owned and independently owned and operated franchised locations throughout North America. Direct Energy does not directly or indirectly employ any of the employees or managers of franchised locations.

Pearson Education Inc. is the world's learning company, with 35,000 employees across 70 countries worldwide.  Having a long history of working closely with teachers, learners, researchers, authors, and subject matter experts; their products and services are used by millions of teachers and learners around the world every day.   

About Direct Energy

Direct Energy is one of North America's largest retail providers of electricity, natural gas, and home and business energy-related services with over four million customers. Direct Energy gives customers choice, simplicity, and innovation where energy, data, and technology meet. A subsidiary of Centrica plc (LSE: CNA), an international energy and services company, Direct Energy, its subsidiaries and/or affiliates, operate in 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia and 4 provinces in Canada. To learn more about Direct Energy, visit www.directenergy.com.

SOURCE Direct Energy

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