When a facility team is short a technician, every open work order seems to make the case for another hire. Sometimes that case is right. But hiring alone does not recover the knowledge that lived in the person who knew which valve actually isolates the wing, which alarm calls for immediate action, and which vendor has solved the same issue before.

The most expensive staffing gap may be the information gap that follows turnover. A new employee can inherit an equipment list and still have no reliable way to learn the building. The work then depends on interruption: asking the one experienced person, calling a former technician, or rediscovering the same fix through another service call.

Make knowledge transfer part of the work itself. For consequential repairs, capture the observed failure, the steps taken, the parts used, the result, and anything the next technician should check. Give new staff a walkthrough of critical equipment and isolation points. Pair that with a list of recurring problems and trusted contacts. Review records for clarity while the people who performed the work still remember it.

None of this eliminates the need for adequate staffing or fair pay. It does help the team spend scarce time solving new problems instead of repeating old investigations. In a small department, that is a meaningful increase in capacity.

If your most experienced technician left tomorrow, what would the rest of your team have to rediscover?

Source context: IFMA FMJ, Addressing the FM Labor Shortage.

— Donnie Moore – FMP – MaintenanceOps App – Strategy | Stewardship | Facilities Leadership
Stay excellent. Stay humble. Keep building.