SiteIt comes up over a brew. The new distribution centre on the retail park is hiring. Days only, and more an hour than you pay. Your best electrician mentions it like it's nothing. Then goes quiet.
You know the next bit. A dentist appointment on a Tuesday. A long lunch. Then the envelope.
When it lands, you lose more than a person. You lose the only one who knows why the old sorter trips when it's cold, the one who wrote half the fault notes, and the one who's always been on the end of the phone at 3am. And that's before you think about filling the job.
Pay matters. It's rarely the whole story
We won't pretend money doesn't count. If you're well below what the area pays, you'll lose people, and no amount of free pizza will fix it. Find out where you stand. Our post on what engineers earn in your area shows where to look.
But think about why an engineer starts looking in the first place. In our experience, a pile of things builds up first. The pay rise elsewhere is what tips it.
The usual pile looks like this:
- called in every other weekend because nobody else can do the job
- the same machine failing every week, and no budget to fix it properly
- spares that never arrive, so every repair is a bodge
- a rota they had no say in
- no training since the day they started
- being blamed for downtime caused by a decision made in the office
Each one on its own is a grumble. Together, they're a reason to leave. A bigger hourly rate somewhere else just makes the move feel worth it.
Fix the things that cost you little
Some of that pile is cheap to fix. Start there.
On-call. If one person carries the phone because nobody else can deal with the faults, that's a skills problem dressed up as loyalty. Spread it. Train a second person on the kit that keeps dragging your best engineer back in. Our post on single-skill risk covers how to find those machines.
Overtime. Be honest with yourself about how much you're relying on it. HSE's fatigue guidance has a line every maintenance manager should read: problems with overtime and shift-swapping "may indicate inadequate resource allocation and staffing levels" (HSE, fatigue). In other words, if the rota only works because the same people keep saying yes, you're short. We've written more on when overtime as cover breaks people.
Hours. The new site offers days. You can't. But you may be able to offer something. Since 6 April 2024, employees can ask for flexible working "from their first day in a job" (GOV.UK, flexible working). You have to deal with the request in a reasonable way, and decide within 2 months* unless you both agree longer (GOV.UK, after the application). Don't wait for the letter. Ask your team what would make the pattern easier. A fixed weekend off a month, a later start, a swap with someone who likes nights. Some of these cost you nothing.
Being listened to. When your engineer says the gearbox on line 3 needs replacing, and it fails three weeks later, they remember. So does everyone else. Give them a way to put the case and a straight answer, even if the answer is no.
Make the job worth staying for
The bigger levers cost money. They often cost less than losing someone.
Training is the one engineers mention most. An electrician who wants to get into PLCs will go where they can learn. If that's your site, they stay. If it isn't, they go. Pick the courses that cut your downtime and back the people who want them.
Then the kit. Engineers want to fix things properly. A site that runs on bodges wears good people down. Budget for the repairs that keep coming back, and they'll notice.
Last, the pay itself. If you can't match the hourly rate, look at the whole package. Shift allowance, call-out pay, overtime rates, a tools allowance, holiday. Lay it out side by side with the other job. Sometimes the gap is smaller than the headline suggests. Sometimes it isn't, and you need to decide whether matching it is cheaper than replacing them.
Count what leaving costs
Most sites only see the cost of keeping someone. Count the other side too.
The job sits open for weeks, often months. The rest of the team covers, on overtime, and gets more tired. Breakdowns on that person's kit take longer, because the knowledge walked out with them. Our post on the real cost of a vacant engineer post works through it. Add those slower fixes at your own downtime cost per hour and the pay rise you didn't give can look very cheap.
If they've already handed in their notice, a counter-offer can work, but it rarely fixes the pile that made them look. We've covered that in counter-offers and resignations.
Our view
Find out what the area pays and get close. Then fix the cheap things first: spread the on-call, cut the overtime, give people a say in their hours and a straight answer about the kit. Good engineers will take a bit less to work somewhere that runs well. They won't take less to work somewhere that runs on them.
What to do on Monday
- Ask each engineer, one to one, what would make the job easier. Write it down and act on one thing each.
- Count who's done the most call-outs and overtime in the last three months. If it's the same names, train a second person.
- Check your rates, shift pay and call-out pay against two local adverts.
* The 2-month decision period for flexible working requests is correct as of 17 September 2026. Check GOV.UK for the latest.