I live in a state where certification is not required..yet. I have 12 installers and growing under me at this point in time. The problem that I'm having is that a lot of my guys are "lazy" when it come to figuring out for themselves how to fix problems, or overcome problems, yet everyone seems to think they're the best. The owner and I were talking, and are thinking about breaking down the installers into "tiers" (like tech level 1,2,3). The only way to progress would be to finish a competency test to move on. What I'm hoping to do (rather than start from scratch) would be to find some sample tests for lisencing from states that require it and use those. Can anyone help? If not, how does everyone else handle with this, as we can't be the only company dealing with it.. and firing them all is not an option!

There was a very good thread on ip on almost this identical topic. I just searched, but cant find it readily. Might try searching over there.

integrationpros.com

Dont just test NEC. Test A/V, programming, networking etc. Then you could also know strength and weaknesses and schedule them accordingly.

Or rather then a "test" that they may fear, and resent possibly. Have a competition once a year, and have some fun with it but still collect the data you need.

How about CEDIA level 1-2-3?

Flame On....

Seriously now.. a previous employer of mine a long time ago gave us our raises based on new things we learned and or competency on our new skill. Rather than once a year raises we would get lets say $.25 raise for learning how to hook up and wire a basic Panasonic phone system, when the lead tech decided that you were capable of doing this without further instruction you would get your raise. Then lets say 4 months later you leaned how to completely program that phone system and proceeded to program a few more effectively then you would get another raise. This provided a means for people to study and learn things on their own as well as want to learn things on the job.

On the other hand the last company I worked for chewed us out every day and went for three years without giving anyone raises because the "economy was bad" as he just signed another $Million dollar job. Nobody at that company wanted to learn anything new, if you did it was just another thing that he could yell at you for.

You need to figure out what still sets your people need and set up your own testing.
We use to have a Monday morning meeting of the installers. In the meeting we would go over jobs, complaints, equipment.
What I started doing was to give out a hand out every monday on a different area of integration. Alarm programming, phones, networks, wire types and use, theater setup, every week something different.
The following week we would have a test on the hand out from the week before.
We would give the high score prize money $5 or $10 ( Lunch money) and put there name up as high scorer of the week. Then we would go over the test.
By seeing the week to week scores you can see where they need work.
The whole process never took more then 20 to 30 minutes.

The Florida test I took had NOTHING to do with CI. It was the same test a friend of mine took for a sign lisence and I also had almost the same test as the Unlimited Electrical guys. The only difference is my test had no questions about 3 phase circuits. I do now know that you need a GFI outlet on a truck mounted generator over 5kw output. Yeah, I use that every day in CI.
Added: It was just a test to see how well you could find your way around the NEC 2002. 100 obscure questions in 5 hours. Oh they did have one question about 3 way -24 db cable splitters. I think they must have been munster brand splitters because not even the freebee junk I keep on the truck is that bad.

Comptia ([Link: comptia.org]) under the auspices of the CEA has a session scheduled for next week to work up criteria for the different levels of CI technician. I will be attending and will let you know the results.

At first glance, I had a glimmer of hope so I checked out the site.

"Sears uses CompTIA HTI+ techs"........SEARS????

Are they going to have a HTIB classification???

Well........let us know how it turns out anyway :-(

Maybe you got the impression that they were splitters, but they were actually taps or line taps or even directional line taps.

When you want to send a signal a long way and drop it to a lot of different places without home runs for everything, you amplify the crap out of the signal, then pick off a tiny bit of signal wherever you need it. A tap at -24 dB would give you a signal or signals 24 dB below the trunk, and the trunk would only decrease by about a half dB going past that point. If you do the arithmetic you'll see that you might be able to feed a hundred TVs with one trunk this way.

These are often directional so that any garbage emitted by a TV can't go back up the line. And, yeah, I'm the one who did three stores with more than four hundred TVs.

Apprentice, Tech, Lead Tech, Foreman, David Hasseltech, Zenstaller, Ninjaneer.

Seriously, I focus more on attitude.

Don't work late or work overtime, but finish a task if you're close to the end. Most guys who do this get noticed, and the guys who work OT because they want to buy a new surfboard will be called out.

We have tech meetings that are encouraged but not mandatory, not paid, that is a decent carrot to filter out the wannabes and the commitments. You get pizza and get to learn something.

Another thing I'd look at is ICIA, more prevalent in commercial AV. Online training, cheap, and you learn stuff. Probably most of CEDIA cert for a fraction of the cost.

Paul, I feel your pain. I just lost a guy that had been with me for 3 years. At first I was devistated because he was my go to man. Then I realized he was never my go to man, he was milking the clock every chance he got. Last year, at review time, I told him I needed him to step up to the plate and take control of the other techs. In exchange I would give him a lot more than the other guys. He did more morale damage than anything. When I was meeting with a customer and the other techs would call him, he would turn off his phone. When they asked him how to do something he would tell them to figure it out on their own. He refused to do anything audio related (was mainly my vac guy), and would whine and complain if I made him do anything like that.

He has been gone 4 months now and things are a lot better. My new main guy is doing a fantastic job and wants to take over scheduling. He even sat down with a buddy and wrote a customer program to track jobs.

Back to the testing thing. I think the level thing is good, but do more than written test. Mix some hands on and some manufacturer training in there as well. CMA had a great idea of giving raises or promotions based on actual, proven knowledge. Although the videos are horrible The Learning Co. and LSD have some good test in their how to programs. Leviton, OnQ, etc all have basic structed wiring classes that cover how to terminate and run cable. Leviton charges, but you get a nice tool kit at the end. Big Pappa makes a point in to quickly weed out the committers from the nons. If I would have had my eyes open a long time ago, I would have saw the signs this guy was giving. But I was too consumed with getting the next job.

For some quizzes go to www.wildbullet.com

Under resources is a drop down for quizzes. They are somewhat limited in scope but decent and FREE! There is a sales quiz too.

I appreciate the responses from all of you! We've had in house off time meetings with vendors, and stuff we do on a regular basis. We are Ceida members, and have considered doing training, but how do you justify the cost for someone who is too lazy to pickup a manual and look through it? The problem becomes what's easier, call and ask, or figure it out. Some of this stuff is painfully easy, but it just doesn't sink in... and don't even get me started about trying to find new techs!

I like the ideal of smaller incremental raises for acheivements made. I suppose I could write down all the technical things for techs to learn, and maybe a page of stuff dedicated to leadership and management skills.

Then, figure out my 100% wage of Lead Tech pay such as unions do with their pay scale. I used to ask union guys how much they made, and I'd get comments such as 'I'm at 78% journeyman' or something like that. It makes managing discussions with employees about wages easier to deal with when we talk of 'how much of a Lead' they are, as opposed to a guy wanting a few bucks more an hour just because it's been a year since his last raise.

One thing I've been driving that the company I work for didn't do was to create a mindset that there's Techs, Lead Techs, and Foreman. Before, it was Techs and Lead Techs, then PM's. When I came here, most of the Leads were pretty smart fellas that knew how most of the stuff worked and could hook it up, but there wasn't any drive to actually take charge of a job and own it since there was always a PM. Not only that, there wasn't much of a difference between a Lead and a Tech. Creating a Foreman position somewhat bridges the gaps and creates a carrot for a guy to not just install stuff, but use some PM'ing, management, and leadership skills. Not only that, it stretches the available skillsets out so there's more of a differences between Techs, Leads, and Foreman.

Tech=Needs management most of the time, can hook up a lot of stuff.

Lead=Doesn't always need management. Handles smaller jobs, larger jobs with PM and engineering support.

Foreman= The Man. Needs minimal help from a PM (sort of an 'on site' PM) yet the actual PM still handles billing/contractual issues and material orders. Will directly manage other Techs via mentoring and leadership.

I'll bet a lot of you guys would kill for a few actual 'Foremen' out there. I know I would.