Challenges and Enablers in Recruiting Maintenance Employees

Manufacturing maintenance has always undergone change and development. With Industry 4.0-related technological development, increasingly more complex machining equipment, and an increased focus on sustainability, maybe more so today than ever. This has led to an increased difficulty in finding competent maintenance employees to recruit. Simultaneously, it increases the need for continuous competence development to retain the existing work force up to date with the challenges of future development. The introduction of these new technologies and demands does not reduce the need of competence in basic maintenance skills though, but rather adds new areas of needed competence, making the maintenance profession increasingly more complex. This paper will, through an interview study of maintenance managers in an international manufacturing company located in nine countries, delve into the issues and present both challenges and enablers in how to work with recruitment and competence development within maintenance.