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Volume 4:
Welcome:
Please select "subscribe to newsletter" on our contact form. RE: Human ResourcesThis month's theme is "Human Resources" to introduce our new human resource area recommended by one of our readers. Hi everyone, and welcome to October's issue of our Feed Forward Newsletter! My name is Don Fitchett, the author of "The Maintenance War Newsletter". This first area of the newsletter is for introductions and commentary. I would like to tell you a little about the new Feed Forward Publications website and then comment on your most important asset, your people. We have put much work into the new website www.feedforward.com.au and I hope you all find it of more value and easier to use. We have been working day and night to resolve issues with our new Australian host provider so that you would have a fully functional website. No worries mate, all should be completely functional now. If you see something, have an idea, or just want to comment, please use the contact form. We have added many of Mike Sondalini's products that could not be found on the old website. We also cross linked and categorized all products so it will be easier for you to find your solutions. All of the product's prices have been greatly reduced (for now), and the online shopping cart is fully functional with automatic and immediate download features. We also started out the resource area with some free ebooks, a power point, and even a free MP3 song about maintenance personnel. :>) As for this month's theme, "Human Resources" as it relates to the maintenance industry, I would like to comment on employee motivation. I think it is time to get back to basics; Leadership and Compensation! Next month we'll focus on the other side of the human resource coin; Training. Leadership - inspires us all, we all are either leaders or followers. Are your managers and supervisors consistently leading and inspiring their subordinates in line with company goals? Compensation - what we receive for our efforts is how we all measure our successes. Are you compensating your employees relevant to the task at hand? Leadership without proper compensation leads to poor attitude and average performance. Un-obtainable compensation (rewards) due to lack of leadership leads to discouragement and frustration. As you examine your greatest areas of opportunity in your facility, keep these basic principles in mind as you need your people to capitalize on those opportunities. I thought of an example while reading the chapter title "Work Order Instructions and History Reporting", the last chapter in the "How to SMASH Maintenance Advisor" book by Mike Sondalini. Mike goes over the importance of the maintenance technician completing in detail the task procedure and method of repair for work orders. Most maintenance managers today are starting to realize what a great cost saving tool their CMMS program is. Not to mention it's aid to ISO certification. But there is an obstacle to CMMS implementation and realizing the full value of CMMS that existed long before CMMS was ever conceived. The obstacle is that the proper leadership and compensation mechanism is not in place to inspire and reward individuals to detail their reports for procedures and repairs. The solution when realizing leadership and compensation are the root cause, is rather simple. Add a field to each assets work order next to the PM procedure, repair details, etc., for the employee's initials who wrote the report in that field.
This management technique would be what I would call a top down - closed loop management technique. The manager will want to inspire his people to use the CMMS, the employees will remind the manager so they can receive their just reward. (World class simplicity at work. :>) Management Help:Baby Boomers - HR's Worst Nightmare When it comes to staffing your maintenance crew with qualified trained maintenance personnel, the job is just going to get tougher as the baby boomers all retire. As if it where not hurting our industry enough that the maintenance trade is for the most part viewed as a lesser desirable occupation by the Generation X'ers. One piece of hopeful news is the latest AARP poll that indicates 45% of the baby boomers plan on working past age 65. How should our HR departments better prepare? Well, by now you should already have your next generation maintenance staff hired. Your company's success will be proportional to how well a job you do to keep the maintenance persons working for your company once trained and the success of your knowledge transfer program. [Success = Low maintenance staff turnover + Training] Keeping the newly trained maintenance person is straight forward. You should already have in place a special section of your human resource plan that addresses your maintenance staff. The key part of that plan being training to give them the knowledge they need to keep up with the constantly changing, and new technology. The second part of the plan is the transfer of existing knowledge of equipment and operation by those about to retire. Besides creative incentive programs to promote baby boomers to pass on their knowledge gained from years of experience, you can also utilize the CMMS recommendation made at the beginning of this newsletter. We will provide current information through our books and training material offered here at www.FeedForward.com.au To learn more about how to deal with the pending maintenance personnel shortage, please attend a Value Added Maintenance (VAM) workshop, free, on us. (See details in left hand column.) For your Maintenance Employee Skills Assessment, I would highly recommend Industrial Training Inc. (www.industrialtraininginc.com) The World Wide Web:Below are some of the best resources for planning your human resource (your employees) development program. Society for Human Resources Management - Home page for the Society for Human Resources Management.
HR.com - Covers employee compensation, HR management, and organizational development. Power Hiring - A hiring system that guides human resources specialists, recruiters, and line managers through every phase of the hiring, interviewing, and recruiting process. Best regards and thanks for being a subscriber to this newsletter, Don Fitchett Tel : (573) 547-5630 Please select "subscribe to newsletter" on our contact form.
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