004 - Comfort Systems USA - Mylett Interview

Annmarie's Breaking Ground Podcast Show

Comfort Systems USA is a nationwide company that provides commercial HVAC, mechanical, and electrical contracting to customers ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies offering a wide range of technical expertise and experience. They employ approximately 7000 employees, 1600 that directly service customers and is amongst the top 5 HVAC service providing companies in the country.

James is a fellow Brooklyn, New Yorker who started as an apprentice when he was only 18 and is now the Senior Vice President of Service. He comes from a family that’s dedicated their lives to serving others. His initial boss who gave him the apprenticeship opportunity, had one stipulation and that was for James, to go back to school. Following through on his word, education and teaching set the foundation of his career that led to 7 years at Carrier and 14 years at Johnson Controls. He left as the Vice President and General Manager of Service for North America at Johnson Controls to join Comfort Systems USA approximately 3 years ago. With the recent strides accomplished, he is fulfilling on the initial reason he joined, which was to help build their service team.

In the interview you'll hear what was discovered in their research when interviewing recent hires, existing technicians, technicians who worked for other contractors, and those who left them and went to other companies. This information gathering session involved James putting on a uniform and shadowing a technician for a day in the field. It was an interesting learning experience as he compared the similarities and differences of what was once wanted by the field technicians to what’s expected today. It took almost a year of collective research before they implemented their Technician Development Program with HVACRedu.net, the number 1 online resource for HVAC training, but they have been open for enrollment since November of 2015! What you'll really want to hear is the results of the group they least expected to embrace this online method of learning.

You should definitely take a look at this video that provides a condensed version of the details. When you listen to the interview you will get the full details of what was anticipated to where they're at as of August 2016. Enhanced Building Solutions is proud to be an affiliate partner with HVACRedu.net and excited to share the similar methods, as a turnkey solution to potential clients, for what Comfort Systems USA has offered their technicians.