“The Great Resignation” is still an ongoing wave hitting all industries right now. Businesses are losing employees at such a high rate that there are currently two open positions for every one person looking for work. In the last year specifically, the home services industry has been getting hit hard with voluntary employee resignations.

The loss of talented and reliable revenue-generating employees impacts companies of all sizes, but it is especially devastating for the small to medium-sized who are likely already understaffed to begin with. It halts progress and drops morale for everyone needing to pick up the extra load. This in turn leads to others exiting as well and a tough cycle to hire back out of.

Learn why employees are currently quitting en masse and measures that can be implemented to make employee retention strong.

What you will learn:

• What causes good employees to leave well-paying positions?
• What the current generations of employees value most from their employer.
• How to create a strong culture that retains employees.
• Strategies to implement to not only keep employees but recruit new ones.

Derrek Hofrichter
Business Coach and Trainer, SBE - Service Business Evolution LLC

Hofrichter brings his experience as a business owner, communications professional, and athlete into his coaching and training. Having founded and managed a successful fitness coaching business from a solo enterprise to a staff of 20, he understands how to inspire and motivate teams to reach their goals. Before operating his business, he spent time in various communications roles, from political speechwriter to Director of Communications, and truly believes that to improve your business, you need to improve how you communicate. Hofrichter is a frequent public speaker for seminars, corporate events, and conferences. He has spoken in over seven countries and most of the US. His coaching and training style reflects this communications background through his ability to break things down into easily understood pieces and brings new insight into topics.

Everything rises and falls on leadership. The new generation of workers desperately desires connection, leadership, and involvement. They also want to be held to processes, not how the boss feels today but measurable, task-oriented programs that show them how to win.

Aaron Ruddick
General Manager, Reliable Comfort Heating and Air Conditioning

As a first-generation HVAC guy, Ruddick started with no industry knowledge, experience, or vision of what was in store for the future. He found a home with a small family-owned company. In 2001 along with his two brothers, he launched Reliable Comfort Heating and Air Conditioning, and the future was set. Over the past 20 years, through the highs and lows and a dedication to reading, learning, and applying best practices, Ruddick and his brothers built a company based on service, excellence, and teamwork. He is married to the wonderful Angie and has four girls. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling, outdoors, live theater, and sports.

Callback management is a key concern for leaders across our industry. With practical strategies in place, businesses can improve customer satisfaction, enhance service quality, boost efficiency, cut costs, and foster employee growth and development.

This presentation aims to arm HVACR leaders with a multi-pronged approach to callback minimization. We will delve into a strategic analysis of callback causes, the implementation of proactive quality checks at each service stage, and the importance of ongoing technician training. Additionally, we will discuss the necessity of clear communication, technology adoption, succession planning, and creating a feedback-oriented culture. To drive these points home, Matt will also introduce the concept of incentives to motivate and reward technicians who excel in reducing callbacks.

Matt Akins
Manager of HVACR Education, ACCA

Akins is an industry professional with an extensive and diverse background in HVAC. Throughout his 20-year career as a technician, installer, field supervisor, operations manager, general manager, and national trainer, he has acquired a comprehensive understanding of the challenges that contractors face. This breadth of experience has endowed him with credibility that extends beyond the podium, empowering him to provide insight and solutions that resonate with the realities of the HVAC business.

As a business coach, I hear the same things almost every day . . . "My people just don't care!" "They have no ambition to work," "I can't get anyone to do anything extra," "All they care about is their personal time off," "I think I hired a bunch of whining kids," "These people have absolutely no loyalty," "Some of these folks think they should get paid just for showing up, yet don't want to work," "They just won't do what I ask from them." It seems like a problem that continues to worsen, and it is a concern of every single client over the last fifteen years.

In this session, we will discuss the following:

• How to determine the specific factors that get your employees motivated or demotivated.
• Why it seems employees really don't care.
• Systems and methods that get your employees working as a team.
• Proven methods on how to properly handle problem employees.
• Developing a system that encourages discipline and employee learning and growth.
• Identify attributes in potential leaders.

After completing this session, attendees will have the necessary tools and information to:

• Know what it takes to become a successful leader and/or supervisor.
• Identify attributes in employees that have the potential for growth or leadership.
• Handle employee challenges
• Learn the five reasons that cause employees to not perform at their highest level.

If you have employees, this is a program that you cannot afford to miss.

Frank Besednjak
The Training Source, Inc.

After leaving the Navy and before starting his own business, Besednjak held positions as an electrician, technical support specialist at Sony Business Products, Service Manager for RCA Service Company, Area Manager for GE Consumer Service, then Manager of Service Training and Field Support Operations for GE Appliances globally. While at GE, he received numerous awards for implementing performance improvement programs that saved tens of millions of dollars and improved employee training, customer engagement, and morale. Some of his business processes are still in use at GE today.

Besednjak has a bachelor's degree in marketing and business administration from McKendree University, which he obtained at 40. For the last 27 years, he has worked with thousands of business and service professionals to improve their performance, productivity, and profitability. He presents 30 to 40 business improvement and leadership workshops annually for various businesses, including manufacturers, distributors, retail specialties, nightclubs, home service professionals, and other hospitality providers. An entrepreneur and strategist, Besednjak has started and sold several small businesses that support his customer base. He has also invested and partnered in several start-up ventures changing how businesses operate and market. He was awarded Business Consultant of the Year in 2014 and is one of the highest-rated speakers and coaches in contracting and service businesses. His no-nonsense, real-world, down-to-earth, raw style encourages audiences to pay attention, take immediate action, and make a difference. No one ever leaves his sessions without feeling inspired and motivated.

Besednjak has written numerous articles and has been interviewed in almost every trade publication in the nightclubs, bars, contracting, and home services industry. He has spoken to tens of thousands of business leaders and worked with and assisted various organizations with unique challenges. As a person who loves to help others, he has mentored dozens of individuals and future leaders who have become great success stories in business and life, including raising, as a single dad, his two children, Rocco, who is a medically retired police officer after being injured during a felony pursuit, and now operates Camp Hero, Kentucky, a non-profit that provides nature experiences for wounded first responders and veterans. His daughter, Brianne, holds an executive position with one of the largest insurance companies in the world. Besednjak has devoted much of his life to helping others reach their dreams. He has mentored dozens of individuals and changed the lives of thousands.

Website: www.TheRealFrank.com

The secret to building a successful business is no secret, we know the answer. It's culture! We will talk about why culture is so difficult and how to build a culture on purpose instead of by accident.

• Building the team: People are the most important part of your business. The wrong people and you are sunk! Build the right team, and there is no limit.
• Create a plan: Cliche' alert, no building stands for long that was built without a plan. Setting meaningful goals and achieving them is what keeps people moving.
• Hold people accountable: If everyone on the team has written goals with time limits and they meet regularly to update each other amazing things happen.
• Growth takes cash: Cash is the fuel that keeps the machine running. All managers should know and understand the P&L.

Tom Lucas
Owner/General Manager, Dayco Systems

Lucas has spent 30 years in the HVAC industry and is the Owner/General Manager of a successful HVAC company in Acworth, Georgia. He is a father and grandfather and has been married for 27 years to the love of his life.

The modern-day workplace has four generations working under one roof. Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, Millennials, and soon Generation Z all work together to accomplish common organizational goals. But with differences in each of these generations’ viewpoints, upbringings, culture, ideas, beliefs, and experiences, it is likely to see some tiffs or clashes within the organization. This makes managing four different generations in the workplace an extremely difficult task to accomplish, though not impossible. With the right guidance, support, and advice, managing these four generations under one roof is achievable. That support may come in various forms, including this program.

In this program about managing four different generations in the workplace, best-selling author Jeff Butler, backed by a decade of psychological research, shares insights about these four generations' motivations, differences, and communication styles. You will learn how various organizations thrive with a multigenerational workforce. And how yours can too. Through this program, you’ll find specific, actionable strategies to manage your cross-generational challenges and turn your multigenerational workforce into a competitive advantage.

Learning Points

• Discover potential points of generational conflict and tactics to handle them.
• Learn how to strengthen cross-generational communication.
• Obtain specific strategies to leverage multi-generational opportunities.

Jeff Butler

Butler is an author and workplace strategist who explores human behavior within the working world. His experience spans over 40 industries on four continents on how different cultures and employees interact with each other. He studies common threads of behavior in industries such as IT professionals, underground utility workers, police officers, clothing retail chains, and companies like Google, Amazon, John Deere, and Coldwell Banker. As a researcher and practitioner, he also runs a consulting company and a tech company, TrinityFix, where he can test his ideas in different workplace environments. His ideas have made it to TEDx twice and appeared in dozens of media outlets, including two books on human behavior: The Authentic Workplace and The Key to the New You. Currently, he lives in Dallas, Texas, as an out-of-place Californian.

As leaders, what do we do in situations where there is no playbook?  How do you navigate some of the more “personal” issues that we often get presented with.  Let’s chat about some of the uncomfortable things we have to deal with on a day-to-day basis, but aren't in the employee handbook.  Dean Perez, Service Manager from CroppMetcalfe (ACCA Service Manager of the Year), and Katelyn Machem, HR Director from Gillette Air Conditioning Co. Inc. (ACCA Contractor of the Year), walk through these situations with some of their own examples.  We’ll chat about how to deal with them from a Service Manager perspective and an HR perspective.  Bring some of the issues you are working through, and we'll workshop them together.

Dean Perez
Service Manager, CroppMetcalfe 

Dean Perez has been the Production Manager for CroppMetcalfe Services Warrenton Branch since 2017, and in the home services industry for the past 15+ years. His team has implemented practices resulting in 10% growth year over year since being part of the CroppMetcalfe family. A frequent attendee of ACCA Conferences for years, he enjoys the renewed excitement for our industry that comes with participating in the conferences and was selected as ACCA's Service Manager of the Year in 2023. When he's not setting his team up for success, he appreciates spending time with his wife and 5 kids all while coaching local Little League Baseball.

Katelyn Machen
Resource Manager, Gillette Air Conditioning, Co.

Katelyn Joined Gillette Air Conditioning Co full time in 2013. Currently she is our Human Resource Manager. Katelyn is the proudest member of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Class of 2010. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Resource and development with a minor in Business Administration. With her Human Resource Team Katelyn handles onboarding, creating and updating policies, recruiting, payroll, benefits, insurance, and culture.