What You Should Know About Your Operations Workforce

Take our quiz & learn more

You know your routine well: what time you wake up, when you clock in, what’s on your to-do list, when your next vacation is coming up. 

But how often do you think about what your workforce looks like compared to 5 or 10 years ago – or what it will look like a few years from today? You probably don’t have time to sit and think about the speed of change, but it may be affecting you more than you know. 

We created a quick, 5-question quiz to help get your thoughts going and test your knowledge on the subject. Take the quiz and then consider the questions we’re outlining below. 

Who are you working with? 

You already know who exactly you work with every day – Bob, Ryan, Carol, Katie – but across the operations spectrum, what does the average team look like? 

Statistics note that it’s getting more diverse, with five generations in the workforce for the first time. There’s likely a bigger gap between your oldest team member to your younger. 

But that’s not a bad thing! This is an ideal time to get the most out of knowledge sharing and mentoring, letting each generation share their skills with the other. 

Explore these 4 ways to align your multi-generational team. 

Now, think about your team: 

• How many generations are represented on your team? 

• Do you work directly with different generations? 

• Are you open to learning from each other? 

• Are you open to teaching others in your expertise? 

How is hiring? 

If you’re like most facilities, maintenance or operations teams, you have gaps on your team that you’re trying to fill. But budgets are tight, too. This and the specialized skills gap make hiring difficult. 

In fact, blue collar positions are harder to fill than white collar ones.  

This training may come in the form of: 

• Digital/technology training 

• Technical skills training through a partnership with a local college or trade school 

• Soft skills training 

Prove that you’re invested in your employees, current and future, and their growth, and you will reap the benefits. 

Get more training ideas in our guide to Navigating the Changing Workforce. 

How digital are your operations? 

We live in a highly digital world – and it’s growing.  

Think again about those daily, routine tasks we mentioned at the beginning. How you wake up/set an alarm, exercise and plan out your day looks much more digital than it did 5-10 years ago. 

Now, go to your workplace. What are you doing digitally? 

Some questions to consider: 

• Are you tracking your daily work, inventory and assets in a CMMS? 

• If yes, is your CMMS easy to use and flexible with mobile capabilities and robust reporting? 

• Are you using digital means to survey employees and the people who use your facilities to see how you can improve? 

Not only does digital technology open up the lines of communication and automate once-manual tasks, but it expands your operational toolset to allow you to work more efficiently and plan ahead. 

How can you keep up? 

There is a lot of change in the operations field, from turnover to new technology to change in the way you do work. But there’s also a lot of opportunity to rework processes to be more streamlined and fully utilize the skills of everyone on your team. 

This is a critical time for your operations workforce – and you’re a critical part of planning out a strong future for your team, organization and industry. 

Let us help you own your operations today and plan better for tomorrow with software that make sense for your organization. Register for a demo to learn more.