You've tried bonuses, spiffs, and commissions. So why isn't your team performing its best?

The problem may be your pay plan.

Pay Plans That Actually Work reveals why most compensation plans accidentally reward the wrong behaviors, frustrate top performers, and quietly cost owners millions in lost productivity, unnecessary payroll, and employee turnover. Home-service leader Tom Howard introduces six principles rooted in behavioral science that transform compensation into your greatest competitive advantage.

Inside, you'll discover how to:

• Design pay plans that motivate the behaviors you actually want.
• Attract, retain, and reward top performers while encouraging underperformers to move on.
• Build trust with simple, transparent compensation systems.
• Customize pay plans for technicians, installers, salespeople, managers, CSRs, dispatchers, and office staff.
• Roll out a new compensation plan with confidence-without losing your best people.

Whether you lead an HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, garage door, pest control, or other home-service company, you'll get the tools to change what you reward-and change what your team delivers.

Perform better, grow faster, and become a place where great people want to stay.

Tom Howard got his start in the HVAC and plumbing industry when he was fifteen years old. He was the son of a hardworking single mother who demanded that he get a job as soon as possible. Tom found one, sweeping floors and cleaning trucks for a small contracting business near his childhood home. His boss offered him a raise if he started taking classes in the trades, and he grew from there.After high school, Tom served a full-time religious mission in Hungary for two years and then attended Brigham Young University, where he earned a degree in finance. After college, he took a job as the general manager of an HVAC company that he would later purchase. Tom has since acquired more than thirty companies, both inside and outside the trades. He still owns the first company he purchased, and, as of 2025, it is generating more than $100 million in annual revenue. He is the proud father of four sons and resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.