How do you teach junior field service engineers maintenance best practices?

1 Explain the benefits

Before you dive into the details of maintenance procedures, you should explain to your junior engineers why they are important and how they benefit both the customers and the company. Maintenance best practices can help prevent breakdowns, reduce downtime, extend equipment lifespan, improve performance, and ensure safety and compliance. They can also enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention, as well as increase revenue and profitability for the company. By highlighting these benefits, you can motivate your junior engineers to follow maintenance best practices and appreciate their value.

2 Demonstrate and supervise

The best way to teach maintenance best practices is to show them in action. You should demonstrate how to perform each task correctly, following the manufacturer's guidelines and the company's standards. You should also explain the rationale behind each step, the tools and materials needed, the potential risks and hazards, and the quality checks and documentation required. Then, you should supervise your junior engineers as they practice the same tasks, providing feedback, guidance, and support along the way. You should also encourage them to ask questions and clarify any doubts they may have.

3 Review and reinforce

After your junior engineers have completed a maintenance task, you should review their work and evaluate their performance. You should praise them for what they did well, identify any areas for improvement, and suggest how they can do better next time. You should also reinforce the key points and best practices they learned, and test their knowledge and understanding. You can use quizzes, checklists, or scenarios to assess their skills and competence. You should also provide them with additional resources, such as manuals, videos, or online courses, to help them learn more and deepen their expertise.

4 Encourage and empower

Finally, you should encourage and empower your junior engineers to apply maintenance best practices consistently and independently. You should recognize their achievements and progress, and reward them with incentives, recognition, or opportunities. You should also challenge them with more complex or diverse tasks, and give them more autonomy and responsibility. You should also foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement, and invite them to share their feedback, ideas, and suggestions. By doing so, you can help them grow as field service engineers and deliver excellent service to your customers.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?