Maintenance Training

Just curious as to what methods you are using to get your Service Technicians trained out there? Are you relying on peer-to-peer? Classroom? Outsourcing? What are you doing?

A number of companies are using Grace Hills online maintenance training courses. ( www.gracehill.com )

Great question! I'm glad to see that you're thinking about Maintenance Training. It's a great way to add value to your onsite teams.

I've had success with using a diverse approach. Grace Hill is great for raw information. But I wouldn't rely on it as my sole training tool. Hands on is key. And a lot of maintenance technicians are kinetic learners, so sitting in front of a computer screen isn't necesarily the best solution.

Group training exercises with the opportunity to apply new skills in a controlled hands-on environment is fantastic. Not only does it build skills, it also gives teams the chance to get to know one another. Maintenance professionals need strong networks too !

I'm not crazy about the idea of outsourcing. In my former life as a Maintenance Supervisor, I found that my understanding of Electricity was supercharged (no pun intended) when I started facilitating formal training sessions. Why pay someone else, when you can create a culture of leadership and collaboration across your region?

My $.02

I've worked with organizations who have identified Subject Matter Experts within their own portfolio, as Dane has experienced. It not only provided a great, low-cost training session, but it was a public pat on the back and acknowledgement for those Experts to be able to share their skills.

We have been using E-learning solutions for our client base.

E-Learning sounds like a great way to teach. Do you make your own, contract it out of buy an off the shelf lesson?

We have our own content and our client base usually sets themselves up on our university to track their staff accurately. Everyone seems very concerned with compliance and they want to make sure their staff is trained properly. Money is tight, so there is such a concern to economize and not allow any waste. From what our clients have reported to us, maintenance is an important liason to happy residents.

Do any of you have maintenance handbooks you use for training purposes or reference material for the maintenance teams onsite? How do you handle discipline for maintenance techs not wearing their PPE as required?

Hi Michelle,
In reference to your maintenance handbooks question, one of the things we have done for our clients is create an On-Boarding programs for Service Technicians. Rather than a handbook, part of that is really more of a binder of knowledge that helps guide them through their training (with various associates involved in the process, and some online training as well) from Day one through Week 6, and into a 6 month review. This helps to ensure that the Maintenance Supervisor has covered everything necessary and can hold them accountable later for their performance.

This type of training tool is customized for each company based on the needs of the position or knowledge they would like to pass along to the employee. The binder stays with the employee once the On-Boarding is completed, so they could refer to anything necessary later. OSHA Requirements or PPE guidelines could be included, along with disciplinary measures taken if they are not wearing it. You could even have something that they sign off on acknowledging they have read it and understand, which again goes toward accountability. If you don't currently have a policy in place regarding disciplinary measures for that, it should probably be developed and promoted well amongst the maintenance team members at a group safety meeting.