Running Your Maintenance Department Like You Do Your Household

Running a business is very similar to organizing a family household. There are about a hundred moving parts that all need to be attended to, and only a small team of people to make things happen. If you want to succeed, you need to attend to both with careful attention to detail, as well as develop excellent communication skills to ensure everyone is on the same page. If you are struggling to manage your facility’s maintenance department, take a few tips from home in order to improve preventative care and the organization of your team: Organize  At home, you likely have a to-do list or weekly routine that keeps you and the family accountable for all that needs to be done. This is exactly the kind of organization that is needed for your maintenance department as well. A preventative care checklist can help ensure that maintenance services aren’t missed on a monthly or quarterly basis and that your preventative care program actually works according to plan. Delegate  In most households, the work is divided by role to ensure everything gets done and everyone pitches in. Dad does the grocery shopping, mom cleans the bathrooms, the kids tend to the family pet, and so on. This division of labor happens in your maintenance department not only by specialty (such as plumbing vs. HVAC) but by team seniority and skillset development. Your maintenance team should have a pecking order based on experience and evaluated skills to ensure young talent is cultivated, but your best technicians are available for important service. Communicate  The strength of a household is fully dependent on communication. If you can’t communicate with our team, then you can’t consider yourself a team at all. This is why open communication is a core value for the MaintenX team. We encourage technicians to ask questions, raise concerns, and communicate honestly with clients to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that nobody is operating without the full information they need to do the job. In a workplace where communication is encouraged, the best service is possible. These family values can easily translate to the workplace if they are cultivated within your team’s culture. To learn more about developing your maintenance team for success, visit our Resource Center.