Subscriber Discussion

What Is An Accepted Percentage Raise Amount For A Good Tech?

DM
David Matyas
Apr 25, 2018

What is an accepted percentage raise amount for a tech that has been working for a year and has been pretty good?

 

Thank you

DF
David Fogle, CSEIP
Apr 25, 2018

I would think that has everything to do with where he started at and how much the tech has developed in the period in question.

Does he add to your bottom line? (Value to you)

Is he efficient in his work? (Value to you)

Does he take direction well? (Value to him) Learned skill

If you give him a task that you have billed out for two hours and he completes it in less than 1 hour CORRECTLY. (Value to you)

 

Good techs bring value and profits to your company and if you want that to continue than show that in ways that matter to the Tech.

 

Raise in pay check (permanent reflection of your value)

Bonuses periodically (reflection of measured efforts during a controlled period)

Do the math since it is so easy to review the metrics of everything the Tech touches to determine what he brings to your bottom line and then respond accordingly.

Everyone thinks that only sales brings profits to the company, but an intelligent and efficient tech does as well.

Do not use them, value them.

 

 

 

 

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Daniel S-T
Apr 25, 2018

If it's any help, when I worked for a big integrator, non union (my first job was union, so raises were determined by the union contract), I started at $22/hour. After the first year I was given a 6% raise. The next year I received a 4% raise. 

It was nice and unexpected. The boss had originally told me I was the only one to receive such a raise. I later found out that wasn't true, but that didn't bother me. From my point of view the other person that received the 6% deserved it.

I did end up leaving the company, but it was more because of the politics of the corporate structure, increased pressure from head office to do more with less, and the increasing micromanagement. I would have liked to stay, but my stress level was skyrocketing every day.

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U
Undisclosed #1
Apr 25, 2018

I do not like the union and security industry mutating into each other, we have Senior Technicians that cannot carry their own weight. It is just a title, a little seniority and a few certifications before their egos spawn. If you peruse SF bay area technicians you will find it is an area wide shortage to find the top dogs in the game. The best technicians seem to be promoted into project management(while I am against this) and or sales engineers with no training! It is not uncommon to find a tool belt bearing field technician knocking down $150-$200K in the bay area. Not all of the integrators can sustain one of these guys but they do exist and are breeding. The windshield time for service technicians to dispatch is outrageous burden and some techs only respond to 2 calls a day, 30 miles apart yet 2.5 hours traffic. There are some technicians that are exceptionally experienced and deeply committed to providing the best version of themselves but most other technicians follow this golden rule here to get a raise and climb the ladder.

Bid for it, raise you stakes, practice applying and stretching that offer letter higher and higher. If you do not have every certificate under the sun then work for one of the big guys, they train everyone with aptitude. Once you have a few customer references and certs you look like the real thing(I know you aren't) you can make these integrators bid for you, they are all hurting for technicians. $35-45 an hour, just remember to google the cost of living in the bay area before moving here. Living in the valley does not solve the cost impact as you will be up at 3am so you can commute to the jobsite everyday.

As far as the integrator, to protect yourself from these hustling level IV technicians, senior techs etc...when you interview bring them into the office and have your engineer throw their butts on the white board. If they cannot draw logic, or identify sequences in a migration or project schedule then it is not exist in their brains. Hand them a laptop with no utilities and have them scope for devices on your network. The white board will either be the proving grounds or RIP. 

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Ari Erenthal
Apr 25, 2018
Chesapeake & Midlantic

Give a good tech just enough of a raise that they won't go looking for a new job. This amount will differ from place to place and from tech to tech. But a good tech is hard to find nowadays. So figure out how to keep them. 

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