I want to talk about the maintenance skills gaps, as I see this a little differently than some. I see the biggest gap in maintenance process management, not necessarily in technician skills.
There are really two types of technicians that we need. We either need the highly skilled technician or the entry level technician. This requirement is typically dictated by the maintenance environment at the operation, either proactive or reactive. Depending on which group we find ourselves in determines which type of technician we will need. In our very proactive operations, there is the ability and opportunity to hire entry level personnel to train and develop then into the technicians we need. We also have the ability to create opportunity for high performing operations personnel to enter maintenance as entry level technicians. Creating this opportunity is highly advantageous for the high performing operations personnel. It changes their futures, incomes, and career paths and creates a better life for them and their families, so why would we ever hire from outside of the operation? There is another great benefit, there is a pool of untapped resources in our operational personnel. They understand considerably more about how the operation works than the technicians will probably ever learn. These personnel already know the what, when and how we do things. Since we provide them opportunity, we also have the opportunity for better retention. They are a perfect fit and complement to the maintenance team. We have a maintenance training program that is designed to develop these entry level personnel to high level technicians. This program incorporates E-learning, hands on training, and work experience. This development program has a two to three year timeframe and moves the technician from entry level to high level over the course of the training program.
I will tell you in the very proactive operations we are assigning value added work to new technicians typically the second or third week on the job. I have seen some operations that have the new technician shadowing another technician for up to six months to train and teach them everything they might need to know before they are on their own. This shadowing greatly reduces the amount of work the new technician completes during this timeframe. You may be thinking how is a new technician that doesn't know anything doing value added work? With well-developed PM inspections and standard work plans along with solid planning this provides many jobs that new technicians can perform at a very high level of execution with minimal knowledge because the knowledge is in the plan and doesn't require the knowledge from the technician. They just need to be able to follow the plans to execute the work effectively.
Let's talk about the reactive operation. When we are very reactive, we don't have time to train technicians. We need someone who is skilled and that can provide relief to the operation. We need an experienced firefighter that can contribute immediately to the operations unreliability. There is a real struggle to find these experienced technicians in some of these locations. One of the drivers for the shortage of technicians is the increase in the number of energy and technology jobs. A good technician can increase their pay scale by moving into these higher paying industries. The biggest gap I see is in some of the traditional manufacturing industries is that the pay scales are not nearly as lucrative as the better paying jobs. Hiring, highly skilled technicians in lower paying industries is sometimes a challenge so we end up hiring the lower skilled, less experienced technicians.
There are three gaps from my point of view.
1. The gap in not having the proactive operation
2. The reactive operation must hire the skilled worker
3. The pay gap
If these three things are impacting the hiring of maintenance personnel, there is definitely a struggle in finding and hiring the skilled talent.
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Mark Robertson
Reliability Specialist
Land O'Lakes, Inc.
Gainesville GA
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