Employees or Valuable Assets?
Monday, September 28th, 2009When companies think about their resources and/or assets, most of the time, the employees are not included in this category. It is no different with reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals; they too are not seen as an extra resource or asset to a company. With the ever changing workforce and economy, this way of thinking needs to change. Too many companies postpone talent management innovations in the work of a global economic crisis. The thinking is that people are so grateful to have a job that they will give 100%. However, the really important piece is that the employees are committed to the company. A recent survey conducted by the Center for Work-life Policy (CWLP) showed that during the economic downfall, the number of employees expressing loyalty to their company plummeted from 95% to 39%. On the contrast, companies that had altered (and continue to alter) their talent management models with the changing workforce have set themselves up with a winning model for when the economy turns around.
The point being that even though times may be rough, cutting out or laying off valuable employees, is like giving away some of your most valuable assets. Some companies tend to view reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals as an added perk in good economic times. When they have the money they will be hired; but as soon as the budget gets tight, reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals are on the chopping block. When in reality people in the reliability engineering and predictive maintenance industry can help companies continue to work smoothly. During a recession, when production is already slow, the last thing a company wants is to have machines break down and production to come to a stop. This is why predictive maintenance and reliability engineering is so important, it keeps your company going forward!

