{"id":80007,"date":"2023-11-20T06:35:39","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T21:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=80007"},"modified":"2023-11-20T06:35:39","modified_gmt":"2023-11-19T21:05:39","slug":"in-house-vs-subcontractor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/in-house-vs-subcontractor\/","title":{"rendered":"In-House Vs Sub-Contractor Solar Installers: Which Is Best?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"In-house<\/p>\n

When wading into the murky waters of rooftop solar for the first time you may have come across people advising you to check that the solar company doesn’t use sub-contractors to install their systems.<\/p>\n

Dig a bit deeper and you’ll find companies proudly advertising that they only use in-house installers. Beware the sub-contractor or suffer the wrath of Helios the sun god who will strike down your system inoperable before it’s use-by-date!<\/p>\n

Is there any truth to these blanket allegations, or is it a baseless advertising ploy? The poor subbie seems to be copping a lot of flack. Is it warranted? Read on and you’ll find that, as usual, the answers aren’t always black and white.<\/p>\n

In The Subbie’s Defence<\/h2>\n

Before we jump in, let me pose you a question; If you were given a job to do in your chosen field, would the quality of your work be different if you were paid wages compared to if you invoiced the client? I’d be surprised<\/span> disappointed if you answered ‘yes’1<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Having worked as an electrician and a solar installer myself – on wages, as a sub-contractor, and also as a contractor, I can tell you that it was the same person doing the job every time. I had the same skill set and the same work ethic.<\/p>\n

Sure, some days were more challenging but good or bad, it was still me, whether or not I was a wage earner or a subbie.<\/p>\n

So, which is best, an in-house or sub-contract solar installer<\/a>? My answer every time – it depends on the person, or in the case of a company – the people.<\/p>\n

Eddy’s Take On Sub-Contractors<\/h2>\n

Eddy May from NRG Solar<\/a> nails it in this short interview with SolarQuotes founder Finn Peacock earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Finn:<\/strong><\/em>
\n“Eddie, you’re in the solar business. Are in-house solar installers better than sub-contractor solar installers?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eddy:<\/em><\/strong>
\n“It’s certainly easier to get your processes and culture followed with in-house installers, but it’s not impossible with sub-contractors. If you have a good culture, good processes, and good sub-contractors that are good people, it really doesn’t matter how you pay them.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finn:<\/strong><\/em>
\n“So don’t necessarily knock back a solar company because they use sub-contract installers?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eddy:<\/strong><\/em>
\n“If you’re looking at somebody’s reviews, and their reviews are great, and the customers are getting great experiences, and they look like a solid company. They’ve come out and done the design properly, then really, how they pay the person installing the system is pretty irrelevant.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finn:<\/strong><\/em>
\n“Is it fair to say that a lot of really good solar installers don’t want to be someone else’s employee?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eddy:<\/strong><\/em>
\n“Yeah, it is fair to say that. We’ve got in-house installers at NRG, and we’ve got sub-contractors as well. I would love to employ some of our sub-contractors, but they’re like “Bugger you, I’d rather go fishing than work for you on Fridays.” They get that choice as a sub-contractor, but it doesn’t make them any less of a good installer.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finn:<\/strong><\/em>
\n“If you say you’re not going to use sub-contractors then there’s this whole pool of brilliant guys that are never going to work for you.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eddy:<\/strong><\/em>
\n“I can tell you now, we’ve got this shortage of people now in this industry. (Virtually) every solar company is trying to employ a sub-contractor. We can’t afford to wait four years for an apprentice to finish their apprenticeship to then learn how to lead a team.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So what do you do? You go out there and say that guy’s a great sub-contractor, I’d love to give him a job. “No thanks, I’m happy doing what I’m doing and I’m actually getting paid pretty well for once in my life!”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Having said that, I can see why businesses that have only in-house installers promote that heavily. I can see why the average person might accept that, but what they don’t understand is that there’s a big difference between a sub-contractor to one of the huge companies like AGL (than a smaller company).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(With the bigger company) the person selling the system will never ever meet the sub-contractor, have a relationship with them, or ever talk to them. With someone at NRG Solar, the contractor and consultants know each other. They attend our meetings and are friends. It’s a lot different of a dynamic.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n