Overcoming maintenance staffing challenges

Infrastructure maintenance with Tunde Obileye

Challenges: The problems faced by facilities managers looking for front-line staff certainly are related, in part, to common mistakes they make along the way. But external forces have made the process more difficult, particularly, with the unavailability of the young resource.

Too often, many managers rely heavily on the Human Resources (HR) department of their organizations. These HR departments do not usually know much about skilled trades and the chance is that many potential candidates that could be good fit are eliminated at the initial stage of the interview process. Managers and HR departments ought to coordinate their efforts in order to hire labour whose competence align with business objectives and the impressive CV submitted.

Another staffing challenge involves overlooking prospective in-house hires who could move from different areas within the organization with the help of internal training to get them up to speed. Those people probably know the building as well as many of the general maintenance people that are on staff.

Unfortunately, maintenance is still looked upon as vocation that people get into because they could not go to college.

Solutions: The rise of social media holds promise for managers who can use it effectively in the staffing process. To achieve any level of success often requires active participation on social media platforms instead of just monitoring them.

General networking is like the old school practice where you ask your friend or family member if they know somebody interested in a job or vacancy. Social media allows you to send it out to people, especially if you have a following.

There are loads of websites to search for potential employees or employers. Increasingly, staffing searches now include updated hiring criteria and interview questions which reflect that the reality of the entire process, as well as the pool of potential candidates, has changed.

An interesting phenomenon with social media, a double-edged sword, is that people can also post negative reviews. Facilities managers are now looking for more well-rounded workers with varied skill-sets than just one particular discipline. During the interview process, prospective candidates may be asked to share other ways they can also contribute to the organization even if they are not certified. It will a huge value add.

Retaining new hires: As the challenge in maintenance and engineering departments continues, it has become even more important for managers to retain qualified new hires. Like every other part of the process, though, they will be wise to revisit their approach given the new considerations for staffing. Successful facilities managers or organizations have clearly defined employee career growth ladders which are completely spelled out. These employees know they can get additional certification including salary increases.

Managers are best served when they understand the motivating factors for each of their team members. Trust, encouragement, responsibility, contribution, challenge, listening and visibility are all means to find and keep qualified skilled talent.

Despite the range of changes and challenges facing managers looking for qualified technicians, there are reasons for managers to stay hopeful.

Many organizations are now tapping into alternative resources to find competent labour i.e technical schools, community colleges to establish some type of apprenticeships. It is also a known fact that employers are now presenting at high schools and tertiary institutions to build interest and working with them to develop a curriculum.

To succeed, facilities managers have to rethink traditional staffing practices.