Back to blog 12/20/2021

Is Your Facilities Maintenance Partner Effectively Managing the Staffing Challenges

Contributed by Ed Turbeville, National Sales Executive

Finding the right talent and retaining it are critical for company growth. The emerging job market trends, however, require businesses to design effective strategies to face labor shortages, streamline hiring processes, and reduce employee turnover. One of the most important approach toward solving the staffing challenges is to understand industry dynamics and respond accordingly. The facilities maintenance industry, for instance, has always faced challenges related to staffing shortages and high turnover.  As a result of myopic solutions to these challenges, some of the service providers in the industry continue to struggle, while other successful facilities maintenance companies have successfully addressed the potential problems associated with recruiting and retaining new employees.

The post-pandemic economic and labor market conditions have further added to the existing industry-wide staffing challenges, resulting in an employee turnover rate higher than 200 percent. However, some facilities maintenance service providers that have utilized their experience, strategies, and resources effectively have comprehensively some uncommon but important underlying causes:

Competition

With a high turnover and fast-paced recruitment processes, facilities maintenance is a highly competitive industry. Consequently, many service providers with open positions face the challenge of attracting potential candidates to join their workforce, unless they offer better salaries and rewards.

Online Recruitment

Despite being a quick and cost-effective method, online recruitment lacks relationship building and also has the risk of missing out on larger talent pool and better suited applicants. On the other hand, facilities maintenance service providers with a dedicated recruitment team making full-time efforts through multiple channels regularly can better resolve staffing challenges and find candidates that best suit their customer requirements.

Diversity & Inclusion

It has become increasingly important for facilities maintenance companies to attract and increase diverse talent. Not only is Diversity and Inclusion an important competitive differentiator, it is also sought and valued by potential employees. As a result, service providers can outperform competitors in their recruitment efforts and build a strong team with diverse ideas, backgrounds, experiences, and skills.

Diversified Maintenance has maintained its quality standards by addressing labor scarcity concerns head-on with efficient strategies for attracting new personnel, helping them achieve their job requirements, and providing them with enhanced training opportunities to maintain a low turnover rate. To learn more about the benefits of partnering with a facilities maintenance service provider with a comprehensive recruitment strategy as well as effective incentives to boost employee morale and increase retention, send me a note at: Ed Turbeville eturbeville@diversifiedm.com.