How to keep a crew until the job is done

Give the crew a reason to be there on the last day: a completion bonus paid with the final check, a next job they already know about, per diem paid on time with trips home, and a schedule with an end date. On a 13-week job with 10 hands on 6-10s, a $1,500 completion bonus per hand costs about $17,500 for the crew before burden, once you add the overtime it triggers.

01Why crews leave before the job is done

A hand on a 3-month job knows when it ends, so he starts lining up the next one before you do.

One national electrical contractor told us it plainly: "This job specifically doesn't pay enough to hold these guys down to where they can stay long term until the job's over." They needed the hands for at least three months. Their agency hands kept "getting called to other jobs for more money," and each time they had to start over.

Three things pull a crew off a job early:

• A better check somewhere else. Sometimes a higher rate, often just more hours or a bigger per diem.
• No next job. If he has to find his own next job, he'll take it when it comes up, not when yours ends.
• The road. Housing that fell through, per diem that's late, no trip home in six weeks.

Agency hands leave for a fourth reason: the agency moves them. That's its own problem, covered in why agency electricians leave mid-job. For the bigger picture on retention, start with how to keep good electricians from leaving.

02How to set a completion bonus on a 3-month job

Tie the bonus to staying to a date or milestone, pay it with the last check, and make it bigger than what a rival's raise would pay him for the weeks left.

Here are three ways to set it up on a 13-week job with 10 hands on 6-10s. The amounts are examples.

Size it against the threat. Say a rival offers $2 more an hour for the last 6 weeks, also on 6-10s. That's $80 straight plus $60 overtime a week ($2 x 40, plus $3 x 20), or $840 over 6 weeks. A $1,500 bonus paid at final beats it, and he only gets it by staying.

The split version works better on longer jobs. A hand who'd lose $1,500 by leaving in week 3 may decide it's too far off to count. A $750 check at rough-in or energization proves the money is real.

03The overtime catch on a completion bonus

A promised completion bonus counts toward overtime, so on long weeks it costs more than its face amount.

The Department of Labor says "nondiscretionary bonuses are included in the regular rate of pay," and that keeping the option not to pay "does not make the bonus discretionary" (DOL Fact Sheet #56C). A bonus announced up front to keep people on the job is the kind that counts. When it's paid at the end, federal rules say it "must be apportioned back over the workweeks" it covers, and you owe extra overtime for each of those weeks (29 CFR 778.209).

The math on a $1,500 bonus over 13 weeks of 6-10s, spread evenly:

1. Per week: $1,500 / 13 = $115.38
2. Per hour that week: $115.38 / 60 = $1.92
3. Extra OT owed: half of $1.92 is $0.96, x 20 OT hours = $19.23 a week
4. Over 13 weeks: $250 per hand

So the $1,500 bonus costs $1,750 per hand, $17,500 for 10 hands, or $19,635 with payroll burden at 12.2% (the BLS construction average for legally required costs). Your payroll service can run the allocation. Just make sure it does.

Two more rules. Write the terms down before day one: the amount, the date or milestone, what happens if you lay him off early. State wage laws decide when a promised bonus counts as earned, and some are strict, so have your employment lawyer read them.

04Raise or bonus?

For a single job, a bonus is usually cheaper, because only the hands who stay get it and it ends with the job.

A $3 raise for 10 hands on 6-10s for 13 weeks costs $27,300 in wages, $30,631 burdened. The $1,500 bonus costs $17,500 in wages. The raise makes sense when the rate is the problem across the whole crew, or when you want the hands on the next job too. What a $1 raise really costs has the full raise-vs-replace math, including when a raise pays for itself.

05Tell them about the next job

If there's a next job, say so early. If there isn't, say that too.

The question every hand asks on a travel job is what phase they're in and whether there's a next job. A hand who knows there's work after this one has a reason to finish it with you. Be specific: where, roughly when, what kind of work, and whether his rate and per diem carry over. "We've got a hospital in the spring" beats "we've always got work."

Don't promise a job you don't have. A hand who finishes for a next job that disappears won't finish the one after that, and he'll tell the others.

06Per diem timing and trips home

Pay per diem on time, the full amount, every week, and plan the trips home before the crew shows up.

• Pay it weekly with the check. Not in arrears, not "when the expense report clears."
• Say the unit. Per day, 7 days or workdays only. "Per diem available" is how a hand ends up short and angry in week two.
• Never cut it mid-job without warning. If the job changes, tell the crew before the check does.
• Use the federal rate as a yardstick. The GSA standard rate for fiscal 2027 is $113 lodging plus $68 meals and incidentals, $181 a day (GSA per diem rates). Seven days is $1,267 a week. Reimbursement at or under the federal rate is treated as reasonable and stays out of the overtime rate (29 CFR 778.217). More on setting the amount in what per diem to offer traveling electricians.
• Line up housing before they show. The first night in a bad motel sets the tone for the job.
• Set the trips home. Example: a long weekend every fourth week, with a paid drive or flight. Put it on the calendar in week one.

07Set a schedule with an end date

Run long weeks with an end date. Open-ended 6-10s wear a crew down, and OSHA says long work hours may increase the risk of injuries and worker fatigue. "6-10s through energization, then 5-10s" holds a crew better than 6-10s until further notice. Which schedule keeps electricians has the pay math for each schedule and what electricians say they want.

08A hold plan for a 13-week job

Use this week by week. Adjust the weeks to your job.

1. Before day one. Terms written down: rate, schedule and its end date, per diem amount and unit, bonus terms, trips home, and the next job if there is one.
2. Week 1. Foreman checks in with every new hand. Housing problems get fixed this week, not next.
3. Week 4. First trip home. Ask each hand one question: anything about this job that would make you leave?
4. Week 6 or the midpoint milestone. Pay the first half of a split bonus. Tell the crew what's after this job.
5. Week 9. Ask each hand his plans after the job. Offer the next job to the ones you want.
6. Final week. Pay the bonus with the last check. Thank them by name. Tell the ones you'd hire again.

If you're already down hands and can't wait for the next job, apply here and we'll see if we can put 5 licensed electricians in front of you in 14 days.

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