Role playbook
How do you recruit skilled trades workers?
Recruit skilled trades workers by searching per trade and type of work (installation, service, maintenance or repair) rather than for "technicians" in general. Check the certificates the work requires, look well beyond LinkedIn, and consider career switchers you can train. Reach out with the concrete terms: region, van, on-call duty, hours, pay and training.
Which roles count as skilled trades?
Skilled trades here means hands-on technical people at vocational level who install, service, maintain and repair: service and field technicians, maintenance technicians, HVAC and heat pump installers, plumbers, mechanics for vehicles and machines, and electricians working within those teams. They keep buildings, factories and fleets running.
Two neighbouring pages go deeper on specific groups. Electricians and electrical technicians, with their own qualifications and safety roles, are covered in how to recruit electricians. Degree-level engineers who design products and systems are in how to recruit engineers. The distinction matters because a "service engineer" job title is usually a technician role.
Which titles and synonyms should you search for?
Trades titles vary by employer and region, and many workers describe their job by what they fix rather than by a title. Search the trade, the equipment and the type of work together.
- Service and field: service technician, field service technician, field service engineer, breakdown technician, call-out engineer
- Maintenance: maintenance technician, maintenance fitter, multi-skilled technician, mechanical fitter, facilities technician
- Building services: HVAC technician, heat pump installer, refrigeration engineer, plumber, gas engineer, heating engineer
- Mechanics: vehicle technician, HGV mechanic, agricultural mechanic, plant fitter, forklift technician
- Metal and production: welder, fabricator, CNC machinist, toolmaker
Which certificates and skills matter, and which are noise?
Certificates that are legally required for the work are hard requirements. Most other skills are learned on the job, so fault-finding ability and the equipment someone knows matter more than years of experience.
Where are skilled trades workers online, and what makes them move?
Few trades workers use LinkedIn actively. Those who do are often supervisors, planners or self-employed. Combine LinkedIn with trade job boards, Facebook groups, vocational schools and apprenticeship programmes, referral schemes among your own technicians, suppliers and wholesalers, and people in adjacent trades such as the military or car workshops who are open to retraining. Staffing agencies play a large role in this market; see staffing agencies.
Motivation and objections
Technicians move for a region close to home, a van they can take home, fair on-call arrangements, variety in the work, good tools, a planner who does not overload them and paid training into more technical work.
- "How often am I on call, and what does it pay?"
- "I am tired of driving three hours a day."
- "I only get the boring jobs here."
- "I don't have the certificate yet." Offer to pay for it.
What does a boolean string for skilled trades look like?
Combine titles for the trade with the equipment or type of work, and exclude office and sales roles. Example for a heat pump service role: ("service technician" OR "HVAC technician" OR "heat pump installer" OR "refrigeration engineer") AND ("heat pump" OR HVAC OR refrigeration) AND (service OR maintenance OR breakdown) NOT (sales OR "account manager" OR planner OR student). Adapt it in the boolean search generator; the boolean search guide explains the operators.
- Search equipment words: they often appear where titles are missing
- Run a separate string for adjacent trades you could retrain
- Filter on commuting distance early
How should you write to a technician?
In plain words, short enough to read on a phone between jobs. Region, type of work, van, on-call pattern and pay basis first; company story later. Offer a quick call or a visit to the workshop. For message structures, see LinkedIn outreach messages.
What mistakes do recruiters make with skilled trades?
Searching for "technician" in general
It mixes installers, service technicians and engineers, and nobody feels the message is meant for them.
Only looking for the perfect match
In a tight market, trainable people from adjacent trades are often the best hires.
Hiding on-call duty
Technicians find out anyway. Say how often and what it pays.
Slow follow-up
Technicians read messages in the evening and answer later. Consistent follow-up keeps you in the running.
How does AIcruiters automate this with human control?
Vacancy intelligence splits the vacancy into must-haves such as certificates and region and preferences such as brand experience, and maps adjacent trades as career paths. AIcruiters searches, ranks with reasons and runs short, practical LinkedIn outreach with consistent follow-up. Where LinkedIn coverage for a trade is thin, it is one route next to your other channels, not a replacement.
- Your team sets tone, rules and approval steps
- Missing certificates are shown as missing, not assumed
- Interested technicians handed over with profile and conversation history
Questions about recruiting skilled trades workers
What is the difference between a technician and an engineer?
Technicians install, service and repair; engineers usually design and develop. In job titles the words overlap, so check the actual work.
Should I hire career switchers for technical roles?
Often yes. People from adjacent trades with a practical background can be trained, especially when you pay for the required certificates.
Why do technicians not answer on LinkedIn?
Many are not active there. Use several channels and keep messages short, practical and easy to answer.
What matters most to service technicians?
Region and travel time, the van, on-call arrangements, variety of work and training. Pay matters, but these usually decide.
Does AIcruiters replace job boards for trades?
No. It automates sourcing, ranking and LinkedIn outreach within your rules. For trades with thin LinkedIn coverage you keep using your other channels next to it.
Test it on one of your technical vacancies
In 30 minutes we run AIcruiters on a real technician role and show the ranked candidates, the reasons and the draft messages.