Maintenance managers play a critical role in keeping a facility running smoothly. If you want to advance your career, you should focus on becoming a good maintenance manager. This means you need to get out of the office and start working from home. You’re likely to see increased productivity because you don’t have to waste time commuting or waiting around for meetings. Plus, you won’t risk missing important emails.
Maintenance manager responsibilities include supporting the building operations in various industries such as office spaces, hotels, retail establishments, manufacturing plants, etc. They ensure that these properties operate efficiently and safely through repair, replacement, and monitoring activities.
Major Duties of a Maintenance Manager
Ensure Compliance with Health and Safety Laws
Health and safety laws protect the workers. If someone breaks the law, legal action will be taken against them. This includes the prevention of accidents and injuries that may occur due to the negligence of the workers. A manager can report such violations to the appropriate authorities.
Monitor Construction Projects
Construction companies hire maintenance managers to monitor construction sites. This is usually performed during peak business hours since this period requires more human resources than usual. For example, a construction site can take a few days to complete a single project. Therefore, a manager must keep constant tabs on the progress of each project.
Manage Budgets
Budget management is another great skill that a maintenance manager must master. A competent manager knows how much money is spent on different expenses like rent, utilities, wages, supplies, insurance, taxes, and depreciation fees. They use proper accounting techniques to estimate the amount of profit after operating costs.
Plan Repairs and Maintenance
Planning repairs and maintenance is yet another considerable responsibility for owning a company. It involves planning everything before starting anything. Once repairs are made, accurate invoices are generated. A qualified manager can find solutions to problems quickly using relevant experience and training.
Oversee Maintenance Contracts
Some facilities on their maintenance staff while others contract out services to outside vendors. Regardless, both types of arrangements require maintenance managers who possess extensive knowledge about specific fields. For instance, if the property belongs to a contractor, then a manager should know what contractors do best and which ones don’t do well. On the other hand, if a facility hires its team, the manager should ensure that all aspects of the service are conducted appropriately.
Keep Records and Prepare Monthly Reports
A maintenance manager needs to keep records on every aspect of their job. This means keeping copies of bills received, receipts from repairs, purchase orders, inspection sheets, and monthly reports. All these documents need to be analyzed to determine whether or not the company has been treated fairly. Without good documentation using a reliable computerized maintenance management system, disputes could arise between owners, managers, suppliers, and customers, leading to bad relationships. Read more at limblecmms.com.
Here Are the 8 Skills Every Maintenance Manager Needs to Master to be Successful
Team Management
You must understand how to lead and motivate employees through proper communication. This is one of the most critical qualities of any maintenance manager. Your ability to communicate clearly with everyone in your organization helps reduce conflict and improves productivity throughout the entire team. In addition to speaking, you should also use visual aids such as posters, charts, graphs, schedules, plans, and flowcharts to explain complex ideas.
Customer Service
Being friendly and polite when interacting with clients goes a long way in creating long-term customer relations. While it might sound simple, this type of behavior requires constant practice and dedication, primarily if you work with demanding clients. When dealing with a customer, your attitude matters most since many people judge your character based on how you deal with them.
Budget Management
Analyzing costs and making cuts can be very beneficial to an organization. If you have accurate numbers in front of you, you can quickly see how much money certain decisions will save or earn. Additionally, identifying ways to cut costs without compromising service quality enables you to find new revenue streams.
Problem-Solving
This skill comes in handy when there are problems in the workplace. There could be plumbing leaks, malfunctioning equipment, or even human error. Since problem-solving can take time, you should learn to prioritize tasks accordingly.
Negotiation Skills
As mentioned earlier, conflict resolution skills play a significant part in a manager’s success, particularly in a team environment. It’s vital that you understand when negotiating with other people or groups to avoid wasting time. For example, if you’re trying to secure funding from investors, knowing the best times to call or email them is essential.
Leadership Skills
When dealing with a team, you’ll need to demonstrate leadership by delegating responsibilities to your team members. Also, you’ll need to set deadlines to ensure that each job gets done on time. Lastly, you’ll need to keep track of all progress and results. All these things require discipline and persistence, which are two traits that every good leader possesses.
Time Management
Managing time efficiently and effectively is crucial to any manager since it determines the amount of energy they devote to their work and whether they succeed or fail at delivering results. You must know what needs to get done right now, so you don’t spend too much time doing unimportant activities like checking Slack for messages. Instead, you can focus on completing important projects.
Organizational Skill
One of the things managers do after becoming effective leaders is delegate responsibilities. This means assigning specific tasks to others that complement yours. To be successful, you’ll need to organize workflows and processes based on priorities.
Project Management
Managers often oversee multiple projects simultaneously. They usually have a budget and deadline attached to every project they handle. Therefore, the ability to plan projects well is a necessity. A good project manager keeps everyone informed about upcoming milestones, sets goals, budgets, plans timelines, organizes schedules and assignments, and monitors progress against the allotted schedule.
Relationship Building
Finally, the last thing we want to mention about being a manager is how necessary relationships building is. Most businesses value personal connections over financial connections, even though many prefer the latter. Therefore, developing professional and personal bonds pays off greatly because friends are always there for us.
