An unqualified industrial maintenance technician can greatly affect the performance and success of a manufacturing plant. Not only can they cause increased downtime and low productivity, but they can also create a cascade of other problems, including operational inefficiencies and safety risks. When looking for a maintenance technician, you need to ensure they’re well-trained and qualified for the job.
That means hiring someone who can effectively and promptly handle any repair work and preventative maintenance, such as repairing or replacing broken industrial pump parts, to increase longevity and efficiency and, most importantly, reduce costs.
However, finding and hiring a skilled candidate for this position can be extremely challenging. Hiring the best candidate goes beyond oral interviews; you need to assess the specific skill set required to support your operations. Below are a few tips to help you hire the best maintenance technician for your company:
1. Search for Soft Skills and Hard Training
Along with technical skills, maintenance technicians need the right soft skills to effectively and productively perform their duties. Almost every job opening requires candidates with the right soft skills since they can make the difference between a successful hire and an expensive mistake. For instance, a maintenance technician should possess excellent communication skills to effectively establish the cause of a mechanical problem.
However, it’s often difficult to determine a candidate’s soft skills based on their resume or during the interview stage. That’s because these skills are intangible and aren’t always apparent on a resume. Other soft skills to look for in a potential candidate for the maintenance job include adaptability, accountability, problem-solving skills, multi-tasking, and time-management skills.
2. Test whether knowledge matches what’s on the resume
While job applicants must list areas of expertise on their resume, some may lack the knowledge or skill set to support these claims. Besides discussing prior work experience, you need to provide potential candidates with tests that help verify they possess the skills and knowledge for the job.
Testing the knowledge and prior experience of the candidates can help you determine if they have what it takes to meet your company’s maintenance needs.
If they possess most of the required skills but lack only a few, check whether they’re open to training under best tools company and alike while working.
Demonstrating interest in career improvement implies they aren’t just interested in the open position but also want to build a long-term career, which is beneficial for your company.
3. Tailor the Job Description to Your Needs
Sometimes, failing to find a suitable candidate for an open position can make you consider lowering the requirements to get more applicants and increase your chances of hiring. For instance, a competent and proficient candidate for a maintenance technician role should be knowledgeable and skilled across a suite of areas, which is only gained through extensive work experience.
However, if the opening stays unfilled for several months, you may end up settling for just the core competencies. This can be problematic since some of your company’s maintenance needs will still be unmet even after making a hire. To avoid such issues, consider creating a compelling and comprehensive job description for the maintenance technician role in your company.
Your job description should include a list of responsibilities and duties and the preferred and required skills for the job. Make sure you include relevant keywords or the terms that most job seekers use while searching for maintenance technician jobs online in your job descriptions to improve your listing’s visibility on search engines.
4. Expand the search geographically
One of the biggest mistakes you could make while recruiting for a maintenance technician position in your company is limiting your search to your local geographical area. This is highly detrimental, especially considering the high scarcity of qualified and skilled maintenance technicians.
Expanding your search beyond geographical boundaries and providing the necessary funding for relocating interested candidates for the job opening can greatly increase the talent pool. This can increase your chances of finding a highly skilled candidate for the maintenance technician position in your company.
Endnote
Hiring a highly qualified and skilled maintenance technician shouldn’t be difficult. If you don’t have the time or the technical skills required to effectively and promptly handle your company’s maintenance tasks on your own, it’s always best to enlist the help of a dedicated maintenance technician.
Moreover, leaving these tasks to your other employees will only lower their productivity in their primary roles, negatively affecting your company’s overall performance.
The good thing is that there are many qualified and competent maintenance technicians out there. You only need a well-thought-out recruitment process in place to help you connect with them.
Along with creating a compelling and detailed job description with prospective candidates, share your company’s corporate culture, goals and mission, and how you can help them further their careers.
