{"id":36279,"date":"2021-06-17T10:43:56","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T14:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/?p=36279"},"modified":"2021-06-17T10:43:56","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T14:43:56","slug":"electricians-in-region-say-work-is-plentiful-but-finding-people-for-jobs-is-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2021\/06\/electricians-in-region-say-work-is-plentiful-but-finding-people-for-jobs-is-a-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Electricians In Region Say Work Is Plentiful, But Finding People For Jobs Is A Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Electricians in the area have plenty of work, says, one in the industry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Jill Nagy<\/p>\n

Area businesses are taking different approaches to deal with a shortage of skilled workers in the building trades.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jim Curran Electric in Saratoga Springs is a situation where the owner was rescued by a son who, seeing his father \u201coverwhelmed,\u201d relocated from Virginia to join the company.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Electric of Queensbury runs ads year round on several online help wanted sites. Eastern Heating and Cooling has a well-established apprenticeship program in order to \u201cgrow our own.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Electricians are busy. \u201cThere is an avalanche of work,\u201d according to Fred Giardinelli of Eastern Heating and Cooling. \u201cNine out of ten companies will give you the same answer: it\u2019s \u201calmost impossible\u201d to find qualified people. <\/span><\/p>\n

Curran reported that he is \u201ctoo busy to train somebody in the proper way.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Mr. Electric also is \u201cextremely busy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Curran, for his part, has soured on the idea of trying to hire and train new people.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI used to try to hire people,\u201d he said, \u201cbut they were not skilled enough.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

People hired as apprentices often did not show up. At the other end of the spectrum, \u201cif they get too trained, they go out on their own.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He has been on his own for most of his 33 years in business. Since March, his son Jeff, a licensed electrician in Virginia, has been working with him and will soon become a partner in the business. Jeff and two other sons all worked with him as kids, he recalled, but the other two are following other career paths.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe trades are paying very well now,\u201d Giardinalli pointed out. He starts novices at $20 an hour, plus a 401(k) retirement plan, paid vacation, insurance, and 80 percent of their health care costs. More experienced employees may earn as much as $50 an hour. \u201cA lot of people are making a six-figure income,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

He filled some vacancies in the last few weeks but still has openings, especially for sheetmetal workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once they are trained, Mr. Electric\u2019s employees start at $14.50 an hour plus profit sharing. He pointed to one recent hire, someone who was close to completing a master\u2019s degree in psychology, and said \u201cI am looking at him being our next rock star … Education is good. It doesn\u2019t matter what it\u2019s in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The former graduate student, however, is an anomaly. The more common new employee is a recent graduate of a high school BOCES vocational program or a community college, according to Giardinelli. At his company, their initial training is in safety. \u201cSafety is such a big deal; it\u2019s the first training we do.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Then the new employees ride with an experienced technician for a year, learning on the job. After a year, they get their own truck \u201cand we start them out with baby steps. Our people are out in the field. They\u2019re on their own.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Training is \u201cdefinitely a serious investment,\u201d he said. \u201cWe train them so they can leave and treat them so they will stay.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>He said his company has a very low turnover rate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Giardinelli bought his company in 1986. In 1997, he and 12 other contractors combined to create Comfort Systems USA, a national company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Comfort Systems has $2.6 billion in annual revenues, he said.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Electric of Queensbury is quite a bit smaller. They have nine employees, each in his own truck, which they bring home at night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI could probably hire three more if I could find them,\u201d said Sean Dion, who owns Mr. Electric of Queensbury, a franchise of a national company. A call center handles telephone calls. There is a warehouse but no office, except Dion\u2019s home office. While the technicians are pretty much on their own, everyone meets on Monday and Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dion came to the area in 2011 to work for GlobalFoundries in Malta. He became Mr. Electric in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

He prefers to hire people currently employed in the field who are looking for a change and sees a gap in an applicants resume as a warning sign. When screening people, he says, he looks for integrity and motivation, \u201csomebody currently working and looking to grow.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He thinks the current shortage of qualified people may be the result of many factors, including generous unemployment benefits. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make much sense to work if you can earn more not working,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Giardinelli said \u201call the good people are working.\u201d Meanwhile, the easing of the COVID pandemic has released a lot of pent-up demand.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cProjects are coming out of the woodwork,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

His formula for meeting the demand for skilled workers is, \u201cpick them carefully, train them well, and treat them with respect.\u201d When someone makes a mistake, his aim is to fix it, learn how to avoid it in the future, and then move on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are constantly investing in our employees,\u201d he noted, providing training and proper tools and the opportunity to \u201cadvance as you progress.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jill Nagy Area businesses are taking different approaches to deal with a shortage of skilled workers in the building trades. Jim Curran Electric in Saratoga Springs is a situation where the owner was rescued by a son who, seeing his father \u201coverwhelmed,\u201d relocated from Virginia to join the company. Mr. Electric of Queensbury runs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":36280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-building-trades"],"yoast_head":"\r\nElectricians In Region Say Work Is Plentiful, But Finding People For Jobs Is A Problem - Saratoga Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2021\/06\/electricians-in-region-say-work-is-plentiful-but-finding-people-for-jobs-is-a-problem\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Electricians In Region Say Work Is Plentiful, But Finding People For Jobs Is A Problem - Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jill Nagy Area businesses are taking different approaches to deal with a shortage of skilled workers in the building trades. 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