Unlock your team's potential with a clear career path!

Unlocking your team’s potential: why career pathing and education matter in pest control

By Seth Garber, CEO of Pest Daily

When you’re running a pest control company, you’re guaranteed to have plenty of things to keep you busy every day. There are customers to service. Materials to buy. Performance metrics to analyze. But arguably one of your most important responsibilities is to support your technicians and guide them in their growth as pest control professionals. That’s where career pathing and education come in and when you bring these two critical elements together, you’ll not only be helping your people develop their skills, you'll also be creating a framework for continued success and profitability in your business.

Why career pathing matters

What exactly is career pathing, anyway? Well, you can think of it as a roadmap that’s designed to lead your technicians through the various stages of their career within your company. However, the concept of career pathing goes deeper than that. Essentially, it serves as a strategic foundation for motivating the people on your team. By showing them that there’s a clear path for them to grow and advance, you’ll instill a sense of direction and purpose that will drive them forward. The result? Technicians who are engaged and see a future at your company. And these days, when the demand for quality service is higher than ever, having committed technicians isn’t simply something that’s nice for your company to have - it’s a must.

The role of technical education

Just like most other fields, the pest control industry is constantly changing and evolving. That’s why continuing technical education through your state association and NPMA is imperative for technicians at all career levels. As a leader, it’s critical to encourage your technicians to take advantage of all the learning opportunities they can. That way, they can build their knowledge base and in turn, be able to provide even better service to your customers. That’s always a good thing, right?

Beyond fieldwork: understanding the business

While technical skills are certainly vital for a technician to have, it’s also important to expose them to the business side of your organization, especially if they’re interested in moving into a managerial role someday. By teaching them about marketing, sales, finance and operational KPIs, you’ll be helping transform your technicians into well-rounded professionals who understand how the different elements of your company fit together. This knowledge isn’t just theoretical, either. When you take the time to really explain key concepts such as the average value per service and the ins and outs of job costing to your technicians, it can significantly impact your company’s performance in a positive way.

Building an integrated training program

If you want to truly empower and energize your technicians and get them excited about their future, start by identifying the core skills and knowledge they’ll need to progress. Then, create a training program that clearly outlines the steps required to reach different milestones. Encourage them to continue down the learning path with ongoing education through NWCOA and e-learning platform Pest Daily. Additionally, meet regularly with your technicians so you can provide them with guidance and feedback and encourage them to talk about their goals with you. The goal is to create a program that’s not only comprehensive but engaging and accessible. And remember that fostering a culture that values continuous learning is as important as the training itself. In other words, you have to do more than just talk the talk - you have to walk the walk as well!

The bottom line

By emphasizing the importance of career pathing and education within your organization and keeping it at the forefront of everything you do, you’ll be making an important investment in the future of your company and your team members. It’s a win-win all around and the payoff will be greater than you ever imagined. Good luck!

Ready to transform your team?

Pest Daily is proud to support 1500+ pest control companies across the U.S. through continuing education on topics including sales, marketing, finance, HR, operations and many more. To learn what we can do for your team, please visit our website at https://growing.pestdaily.com/.