Your Biggest Opportunity Is in Your Workforce
Your results point to strengthening the systems that help your maintenance team sustain performance and retain critical expertise as your workforce changes.
Fix the foundation to break the cycle
Don’t Let Critical Knowledge Walk Out the Door
You saw the pattern from the 55 maintenance leaders we measured in the State of Maintenance Report. Your assessment shows that it applies to your operation, too.
Your results suggest that while your operation has a solid level of resilience, Skill/Team Gaps may be limiting your ability to sustain and improve maintenance performance. In most operations, this can show up in a few consistent ways:
- Critical knowledge is concentrated among a small number of experienced employees
- Skill gaps leave important maintenance responsibilities dependent on too few people
- Knowledge transfer and succession planning aren’t keeping pace with workforce changes
These gaps can make an operation more dependent on individual employees than the systems and processes supporting them.
Don’t panic: This does not mean your operation needs a full overhaul. It means your best opportunity is to strengthen how critical skills and knowledge are developed, shared and retained.
YOUR RESULTS MAPPED TO THE RESEARCH
Share the AssessmentIs your workforce ready for change?
The report identified several workforce challenges that can make it difficult to sustain long-term maintenance performance:
- Thin or Skill-Gapped Workforce
76% had a workforce identified as thin or skill-gapped, leaving critical maintenance responsibilities concentrated among too few people. - Critical Knowledge at Risk
67% had critical maintenance knowledge concentrated in employees nearing retirement, increasing the risk of losing decades of experience. - No Succession Plan
40% reported having no meaningful succession plan in place to prepare the next generation of maintenance leaders.=
Are your maintenance fundamentals strong enough to support long-term improvement?
Workforce development becomes more difficult when immediate maintenance demands consistently take priority.
As you saw in the report, 45% of organizations were still operating reactively or with only limited planning, making it difficult to consistently train employees and equip the next generation of maintenance leaders for success.
How can you gain organizational support?
Preparing for the future doesn’t always mean adding more people or investing in something new. It starts with making sure the knowledge and capabilities your operation depends on today can continue as your workforce changes.
The strongest organizations build on a solid maintenance foundation rather than trying to solve every challenge at once.
Build a Workforce That Can Sustain Performance
Identify where critical knowledge lives
Determine which equipment, processes and maintenance responsibilities depend heavily on one or two experienced employees, and where losing that expertise would create the greatest operational risk.
Make knowledge transfer part of the work
Create opportunities for experienced employees to share what they know through hands-on training, documentation and working alongside less-experienced team members.
Build the skills your operation will need next
Look beyond today's open positions and identify the technical skills and capabilities your maintenance team will need as equipment, technology and operations evolve.
had a workforce identified as thin or skill-gapped.
had critical maintenance knowledge concentrated in employees nearing retirement.
reported having no meaningful succession plan in place.
faced all three workforce risks at the same time.
Warning: Don’t assume hiring alone will solve the problem!
A stronger workforce takes more than adding headcount. Make sure your operation has the time and structure employees need to develop skills, share knowledge and prepare others to take on critical responsibilities.
Ready to Take the Next Step Toward a Stronger Maintenance Team?
The assessment can show you where your biggest gap is. The next step is understanding why it exists in your operation and what will have the greatest impact first.
Pro Services works alongside maintenance organizations to address skilled workforce gaps, strengthen maintenance capabilities and provide the expertise needed to keep critical work moving.
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