Heating and Cooling, Human Resources, Maintenance and Operations

Get Your Best Facilities Workers by Promoting Within

Looking for the perfect candidate to take care of your facilities? Rather than trying to recruit open positions externally, organizations should provide career development opportunities for their current facilities employees.

That’s what Facilities Director Ken Midgett, with over 40 years of facilities management experience, and Facilities Maintenance Market Director Dan Clapper, with over 25 years of experience in the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) market, recommended as they spoke about the benefits of internal hiring during the Facilities Management Advisor webinar, “How to Upskill Your Custodial and Maintenance Teams for Success,” sponsored by Interplay Learning. Both Midgett and Clapper work for Interplay.

“So, you know, here’s an interesting stat right off the top. I’m sure I’m not telling anyone here anything new, but by 2028, there’ll be over 370,000 open maintenance technician positions,” Clapper said.

Retirement Statistics

One of the statistics cited during the presentation was that “35% of facilities maintenance team members [are] eligible for retirement in the next five to seven years,” according to Clapper.

So hiring managers in the maintenance technician field are asking, how do we replace the workers who are retiring?

Current Employees Are the Best Candidates

Clapper explained that current workers are the most promising pool of candidates for organizations to consider for the following reasons:

  1. Strong institutional knowledge. Current employees more fully understand processes, customers, and buildings.
  2. Lower hiring costs. Organizations can reduce the money they spend on recruitment by promoting internal candidates.
  3. Reduce ramp and onboarding time. There is less of a learning curve for internal candidates versus training new hires.
  4. Boost employee morale and retention. Internal promotions show an organization’s commitment toward talent development, career progression, and increasing employee retention.

Two ways that were mentioned in the webinar to successfully upskill maintenance teams include:

  • Communicate laddering opportunities. Signage should be displayed at the workplace so employees can view opportunities to move up within the organization. For example, a chart could show entry-level positions (like custodian, housekeeping, and groundskeeping), middle and senior-level positions (like maintenance tech, maintenance supervisor, and lead maintenance technician), along with senior and director-level positions (like maintenance director, area manager, and general manager).
  • Assess skills and identify candidates. Organizations should assess employees’ skills to determine their strengths and weaknesses and create a customized training plan that would help them achieve a future position.

Learn More

Additionally, the speakers discussed mentorship programs, as well as the importance of communication from leaders in helping current employees grow.

To learn more, watch the full webinar for free by clicking here.

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