by
Jeff Walkup
, Vice President, Sales & Marketing
The industrial maintenance field, like many other industries, has been experiencing the impact of an aging workforce and the retirement of experienced professionals. This loss of domain knowledge and experience can severely impact on the overall capabilities of a maintenance and reliability department. Several factors contribute to this trend including the aging population, shifting demographics, and increased job opportunities in other sectors.
So with that, here are some key points to consider:
- Retirement Rate: Many industrial maintenance professionals belong to the baby boomer generation, born between 1946 and 1964. This generation has reached retirement age over the past decade and will continue to do so in the coming years. As a result, the retirement rate has been increasing steadily, significantly losing experienced workers and the plethora of domain knowledge they embrace.
- Skills Gap: Retiring experienced maintenance workers can lead to a skills gap within the industry. These workers often possess specialized knowledge and skills acquired through years of hands-on experience. Therefore, replacing them with new entrants to the workforce can be challenging, as it takes time to develop the same level of expertise.
- Job Opportunities: The industrial maintenance field has faced increased competition for talent from other sectors, such as technology and engineering. As a result, some individuals may pursue alternative career paths instead of entering or remaining in industrial maintenance roles.
- Training and Workforce Development: Many organizations have focused on training and workforce development programs to mitigate the impact of the retiring workforce. These initiatives aim to attract new talent, up-skill existing workers, and ensure a smooth knowledge transition from retiring professionals to the next generation. But, unfortunately, my experience has shown that once training is completed, some will take the training and certification and go elsewhere for a promotion or better pay.
- Employee Movement: This will take place in any organization due to promotions, lateral transfers, being terminated, leaving for another organization, etc. and it can be approx. every 18 to 36 months. It requires you to continually pick up the pieces or start over.
Fluid Life can provide a solution for this much-needed gap within the maintenance and reliability world: CARE. With CARE Programs and Services, we never leave you, we continually train our people on technology and the issues relevant to your assets, and can do this for a fraction of the cost of an in-house resource.
Let's face it, "You have better and more pressing challenges that require your time!" so reach out and let one of our talented staff walk you through our program. It's worth your time.
