Seven Techs, Two Holes, and One Resignation Letter
You manage a 640-unit, three-property portfolio with seven maintenance technicians. Turnover has run 45% for two years and average tenure is 11 months. Two positions have been open for 90 days. Overtime is 13% of maintenance payroll, and because of the vacancies the on-call rotation is every five days instead of every seven. Exit interviews cite pay, 'always on call,' and a supervisor who 'plays favorites.' Last week your best technician, who holds the only HVAC certification on the team, told you he has an offer at $4/hr more. The operating budget allows 3% wage growth. Market data puts your wages at the 42nd percentile, and the benchmark for the HVAC role is $2.50/hr above your current rate. Work orders are closing in 6.2 days against a 3-day standard. Ownership wants a plan by Friday.
1. Diagnose and rank the root causes. Then cost the problem so you can argue in dollars rather than in feelings.
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Ranked causes:
- Compensation structure - 42nd percentile and $2.50/hr under benchmark for the certified role. This is measurable and fixed with money.
- Chronic understaffing - two vacancies for 90 days drives 13% overtime and a five-day on-call rotation, which is the 'always on call' complaint.
- Supervisory fairness - the hardest to fix and the one that pushes your best people out first.
Cost it:
- Turnover: 7 x 45% = about 3.2 separations a year. Loaded cost of a technician is roughly $65,000; replacement at 0.75x loaded (recruiting, onboarding, lost productivity, contractor coverage) is about $49,000, so ~$154,000/yr.
- Vacancy: 13% of a roughly $350,000 payroll is ~$45,500/yr in overtime alone, plus contractor spend and the 6.2-day work-order cycle that is costing you renewals.
- Market correction: $2/hr x 2,080 x 7 = $29,120 in wages, about $38,000 fully loaded.
That is the argument: a $38,000 structural fix against $154,000 of turnover and $45,000 of overtime. It is cheaper than doing nothing, and it is the only way the 3% budget line makes sense.
2. Build a 90-day plan with a dollar ask. What do you fund first and what do you defer?
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Days 1-14 (retention emergency):
- Counter the HVAC technician deliberately, not reflexively: market value for the role is $2.50/hr above your rate, but his replacement cost is roughly $49,000 plus the only certification on staff. A counter at $2.50-$3.00/hr plus a defined on-call stipend and a training budget is defensible; $4.00/hr with no structural change just invites the next resignation.
Days 15-45:
- Market-adjust the whole team to the 50th percentile: ~$38,000 loaded. Do this for everyone, not just the person with an offer, or you create the compression problem you were trying to solve.
- Raise the posted rate for the two vacancies to benchmark and add a $2,500 signing bonus each: ~$5,000.
- On-call stipend at $100/week: ~$5,200/yr.
- Supervisor coaching and a documented assignment-review process: ~$3,000.
Days 46-90:
- Fill the vacancies so the rotation returns to every seven days; that alone removes the biggest exit-interview theme.
- Report work-order cycle time monthly against the 3-day standard.
Total ask: roughly $55,000, which is about one-third of the current cost of turnover. Fund the wage adjustment and the two hires first; defer the signing bonus if you must choose.
3. How do you handle the favoritism allegation and the counteroffer conversation? What is your decision framework?
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On the supervisor: do not act on rumor, and do not dismiss it. Pull three months of work-order assignments, overtime distribution, and shift preference by technician and look for the pattern. If it is there, have a direct, documented conversation with specific examples, set a corrective action plan with dates, and tell the team what changed without detailing the personnel action. If it is not there, still fix the transparency: publish the assignment and on-call rotation rules so the perception has nothing to feed on. Perception of favoritism is itself a retention problem.
On the counteroffer, framework:
- What is the market value of the role? $2.50/hr above your rate, not the $4 he was offered.
- What is the cost of losing him? ~$49,000 to replace, plus the only HVAC certification, plus the message it sends to the other four technicians in a 45% turnover environment.
- Is the outside offer credible and is he a flight risk regardless? Ask directly what would keep him for two years, not forever.
Decision: counter at market plus a retention commitment and a certification/training path, and say plainly that you are also fixing the pay structure for the whole team so he is not the only one made whole. If he still leaves, you have lost a person but not the structure - which is the difference between fixing a symptom and fixing the problem.