Finally decided to employ a gas fitter

[cr0ft]

We have 7 bathrooms/wetrooms and a kitchen booked in plus a property development job this year already. Looks like we are booked up to the end of April already. It's given me the confidence to recruit a gas fitter with experience of installing bathrooms too. If anyone is looking for a change then here's the advert!

http://www.ukplumbersforums.co.uk/i...r/75533-job-vacancy-gas-engineer-plumber.html

And no I'm not looking to recruit one for £8 per hour before anyone takes the mick

 

[Riley]

Well done croft glad it's going well mate. I'd be dead keen if you weren't oh so far away

 

[julesverne]

Great news croftster that's your doing well enough to take another guy on.

 

[parkesy_plumb]

40k a year?

 

[IDCHAPPY]

40k a year?

Basic

 

[stevetheplumber]

shame its not closer sick of jeremy kyle

 

[newcastle phill]

Thats ok. Hes offering rent free accommodation too

 

[kay-jay]

hi kieran, im in a similar position but not ready to take the plunge yet. terrified of having the responsibility of being an actual proper employer. i have 2 lads who subby to me on an as and when basis for gas work which is working well for me and jc off here helps out on the wet side and ive just found a young lad on here 18 no apprenticeship but half way through his level 3 who seems like he might work out, and i have a mature trainee who does one day a week.

hoping business keeps getting better. have big plans this year and sooner or later i am going to have to take the plunge and hire a proper employee.

i may need some advice nearer the time.

 

[MOSSEP]

So what are you offering as a wage then Croft? Not that its for me s Im no where near you but I employ people so interested to see what rates are offered.

Regards

Martin

 

[cr0ft]

To be honest mate I expect I will need to be offering the right candidate between £28.5k and £31.6k a year. I'm kind of basing it on JIB rates of £13.70 per hour for a gas fitter with less experience to £15.21p per hour for an experienced gas fitter/plumber.

I am looking for quite a lot though. I don't just want someone who does gas, they need to be able and happy to work on bathrooms/wetrooms initially as it's a new service I will be building up. In effect they will be the best paid bathrooms fitter/plumber ever to start with! I know I can get gas work in pretty quickly though once I start advertising it. I don't advertise it now and still get lots of people asking me to do stuff so I know there's a demand for it.

Whoever we take on is going to be joining a nice small business with a good team in place already. They will be training our team (read me) up on jobs to get Gas Safe Registered myself so we have cover for holidays too. I really like to look after my employees as long as they look after my business so there's also going to be further opportunities for people who help me grow my business too.

The wage is a very good wage for the Lincoln area which isn't the richest area in the world. The average wage here is just over £18,000 and cost of living here is pretty low.

 

[cr0ft]

hi kieran, im in a similar position but not ready to take the plunge yet. terrified of having the responsibility of being an actual proper employer. i have 2 lads who subby to me on an as and when basis for gas work which is working well for me and jc off here helps out on the wet side and ive just found a young lad on here 18 no apprenticeship but half way through his level 3 who seems like he might work out, and i have a mature trainee who does one day a week.

hoping business keeps getting better. have big plans this year and sooner or later i am going to have to take the plunge and hire a proper employee.

i may need some advice nearer the time.

Hi KJ.

I was equally worried about taking staff on and there is always that first 6 month period of an apprenticeship where you think that the guy is more hassle than he is worth. Yesterday I left the 2 of them to lay new plywood flooring throughout most of the upstairs of the house though and they did a cracking job. I had to invest a day of my time training them on how to cut it neatly and correctly though but now it's a skill I can utilise to grow my own business.

Other than the gas engineer I have accepted I am going to have to buy in, anyone else I employ will start off on an apprenticeship with us. Our first apprentice is now at the stage he's really useful (albeit still a bit slow but that's to be expected) and he is only going to get better with time.

I am of the opinion that not all apprentices are out to jump ship as soon as they qualify or within 5 years. Whether they stay or not is likely to be down to good management as much as anything else. I'm going to make sure we pay our guys a fair wage and make sure they enjoy coming into work. Hopefully that way it will be all worth it one day!

It's not all great though, you do have to be harsh with employees at time if they mess up and I don't really like that bit.

Feel free to drop me a PM if you want the benefit of my limited experience!

 

[Ch4 plumbing]

2 great post there Croft, where did you get your apprentices from?

 

[cr0ft]

Phoned our local college and asked for their best students on their level 1 course first time round. Second time round I had plenty of people asking for apprenticeships that year so interviewed a few and then did a 1 week unpaid work placement with both of them. It was obvious to me by the end of the week which one to employ basically. One sat round with his finger up his behind unless you gave him tasks to do, the other one got on with cleaning up the customer's house to get rid of building dirt etc if he didn't have anything to do.