Pay matters. But when service engineers tell me why they're moving, it's usually on-call, travel and control over their week. Those are things an employer can fix.
When a service engineer tells me they’re open to a move, I ask why before I ask what they earn. The answer is rarely just money.
What the data says
Pay is the biggest single reason people give. The CIPD’s 2022 survey of more than 6,000 UK workers found that, among people planning to quit, 35% cited better pay and benefits. 27% cited job satisfaction and 24% work-life balance.
In building services, Hays and CIBSE Journal’s 2026 salary survey found 64% of building services professionals surveyed intended to look for a new role in the next 12 months. That’s a recruiter’s survey, so read it as a signal rather than a census. The 2025 edition found that, of those planning to look for a new job, 65% could be tempted to stay by better pay and benefits. The 2022 edition found 60% would accept a lower-paid job for a better work-life balance or a job with more purpose.
So pay is real. It just isn’t the whole story, and it’s often not the thing that tips someone into picking up the phone.
What I hear on calls
The same themes come up again and again:
- On-call rotas with no standby allowance.
- Planned maintenance moved into on-call weekends, so a Saturday on call becomes a Saturday at work.
- A patch sold as local that keeps growing once they’ve started.
- Engineers who’d take less money for a proper 40-hour week.
- Engineers moving to FM roles for the same money, because the new job has no call-out and they’re home by four.
None of these are about the base salary. All of them are about how the week actually works.
On-call and the law
This is where employers sometimes get caught out, so it’s worth being precise. This isn’t legal advice.
- The 48-hour limit is an average, normally over 17 weeks. Workers can opt out, but it must be voluntary and in writing. They can cancel it with at least seven days’ notice, or up to three months if the agreement says so.
- An opt-out doesn’t remove rest rules. Workers are still entitled to 11 hours’ rest a day, 24 hours a week (or 48 hours a fortnight), and a 20-minute break if they work more than six hours. Some roles, including emergency call-out work, can vary these, but the worker must then get equivalent compensatory rest.
- Travel can count. Government guidance says that if you have no fixed workplace, travel from home to your first job and from your last job home counts as working time for the 48-hour and rest rules. That’s separate from how it’s paid. For a home-based field engineer, that’s most days.
- On-call can count too. Government guidance says time on call away from the workplace doesn’t count as working time. Acas says it depends on how free the worker is to use the time. In Truslove v Scottish Ambulance Service, relief paramedics who had to stay within three miles of the station, with a three-minute response target, were found to be working rather than resting. A tight response time, especially combined with a location limit, can change the picture.
What keeps engineers
Pay the market rate before someone resigns. By the time you’re making a counter-offer, the engineer has already decided something’s wrong.
Pay for standby, and write it down. Engineers compare allowances, call-out rates and minimum hours. A clear, fair structure gets noticed.
Keep planned work out of on-call time. If PPMs creep into weekends, the rota stops being on-call and becomes scheduled weekend work.
Be honest about the patch. Put it in the offer, and stick to it. A patch that keeps creeping outwards is one of the quickest ways to lose someone.
Have enough people on the rota. One in nine is a very different job to one in three.
Take hours seriously. Some engineers would trade money for a 40-hour week. If you can offer it, say so in the advert.
One service manager I’ve worked with for years is scrapping call-out altogether. It won’t suit every contract, but it shows how seriously some employers now take this.
Flexible working is changing
Employees can already request flexible working from day one. They can make two requests in any 12-month period, and employers must discuss a request before refusing it and decide within two months unless the employee agrees to longer. Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, employers will have to explain why a refusal is reasonable. Acas says that change is due in 2027, with no date set yet. For service teams, that’s a good reason to think about rotas and hours now.
Before you advertise
Ask your own engineers what they’d change. Then put the answers in the advert: the rota, the allowance, the patch and the hours. They’re the first things good candidates ask about, and most adverts leave them out.
If you’re rebuilding a service team, talk to us.
Sources: CIPD, workers planning to quit (June 2022); Hays/CIBSE Journal salary surveys 2022, 2025 and 2026; gov.uk, Maximum weekly working hours; Acas, Working time rules and on-call (updated Mar 2025); Truslove v Scottish Ambulance Service (EAT, UKEATS/0053/13, 2014); gov.uk, Flexible working; Acas, Employment Rights Act 2025 (updated 25 Sept 2026).
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