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Finding and Recruiting Great HVAC Talent

Finding and Recruiting Great HVAC Talent

over 7 years ago Empty Jenni Moulson

Hvac Talent

At Thornhvac, we pride ourselves in being a niche recruitment business specialising in heating, ventilation and air conditioning resourcing, helping top companies find the right HVAC talent to help them grow. This post aims to reconsider age-old approaches at finding talent by questioning if fixed ideas of recruiters and job-seekers need to change.

The Employer

More and more companies are changing the ways they assess potential employees. Traditional recruitment methods which rely heavily upon qualifications, academic prowess, and a standardised interview process are now being reconsidered in favour of assessing an applicant’s behavioural traits. This shift in focus to look at so-called soft skills allows the employer - and recruiters like us - to review how each candidate’s personality might fit in with the company, the team and how the individual might develop over time. With a view to the future, the recruitment process seeks to find a long-term gain over a quick fix.

Personality and behavioural traits to look out for when recruiting HVAC talent for jobs in heating, air conditioning, ventilation and BMS roles include:

Humility – do they put the team’s successes above their own? Are they able to admit mistakes?


Conscientiousness – will they ensure each project reaches a satisfactory conclusion?


Comfort with ambiguity – how well do they handle change; do they make the right decisions?


Sense of fun – to build strong relationships, trust and confidence in people. Can also encourage innovative thinking


Courage – Are they confident enough to try new things, or raise concerns in difficult environments?


A quick scan of someone’s CV should inform you if they are qualified or trained for the job. By exploring the above traits, you will also be able to glean if they will fit in with the team, or the company culture. You will also be able to discover if they might have the attitude to develop in the role and grow in the company. If they can, you will engage their talent and they could become one of your highest performers. Change your focus from their aptitude to their attitude.

For the Job Seeker

Identifying these behavioural traits isn’t just important for the recruiter or HVAC employers. If you think about it, the list above is just a different way of writing out traditional key skills. By thinking creatively about soft skills as well as HVAC skills – and their relationship with your personality – you begin to understand and engage with your true value you have to an employer. Making yourself essential will be a hard thing for them to ignore.

So what are key skills every employer is after? Key skills that employers always ask us for in their candidates will look very familiar to you. They include:

·      Communication

·      Teamwork

·      Problem solving

·      Initiative

Can you think of examples where your sense of fun has aided teamwork, or helped come up with a solution to a problem? Has it even initiated a discussion about a difficult topic in a calm way?

Can you think of the times you’ve gone outside your comfort zone and how that courage has benefitted you? Do you have the humility to explain if it might have been a mistake?

As you can see, these traditionally key skills are ones that are rarely learned through qualifications but are frequently acquired through experience. Experience is continually gained, grown, developed and isn’t specific to your career or professional life. By mining your experience, you’ll be able to demonstrate your personality. By sourcing examples in your personal life you can show potential employers how you might have handles difficulties whilst maintaining or growing in your work.  This shows your dedication and perseverance. Your experience over time is proof of how you’ve developed, and can indicate how you will seek to grow in the future. And this is the engagement an employer wants to see. 

If you’d like to discuss ways we can help you - call us on 0115 871 4777

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