Disrupting employees to carry out maintenance tasks is not good for production. If you’re making the work of your employees more difficult or slower, this will cut into your bottom line – not ideal for a business.
When carrying out office maintenance tasks, it’s important to have as little disruption as possible.
Here’s how:
Schedule Tasks Afterhours When Possible
Some maintenance tasks can be scheduled well in-advance. If you need to have HVAC maintenance performed every 6 months, you can choose to schedule the maintenance afterhours.
This may be after all employees have left for the day, or on the weekend.
You may have to pay more for these services, but they will allow you to avoid costly disruptions in the workplace.
A few tasks that may be able to be done afterhours are:
- Small plumbing issues
- Some electrical issues
- Heating and cooling
Any repairs that need to be made in the workplace will need to be assessed to ensure that waiting doesn’t lead to costlier repairs or maintenance.
Set Policies for Maintenance Days
Office policies are a must-have, but many of these policies neglect to mention maintenance. A smart plan will include policies that mention:
- How maintenance will be scheduled
- Who is responsible for scheduling maintenance tasks
But you should go a step further and also mention how maintenance should be conducted. This means:
- Trying to schedule maintenance at a time of the day when the least disruption will occur
- If maintenance cannot be performed afterhours, setting policies and preparation to reduce disruption should be listed
Employees may have to work in a different office for the day, or the day can be used for a company team building event outside of the office.
Policies will be able to minimize the disruptions that maintenance days cause. There may also be policies in place wherein employees come in later during the day or leave work earlier in the day. While this may seem counterproductive, it’s better to be able to get some work done than it is to miss an entire day of production.
3. Make the Maintenance Known and Work on a Solution
Sometimes, just telling staff of the proposed maintenance will help correct many issues. Perhaps meetings can be rescheduled to later in the day and some busy work can be done during maintenance hours.
Employees may be brought into the discussion and will come up with a few good suggestions on how to handle the often-time-consuming maintenance tasks in the office.
If work needs to be cancelled for the day, then it’s better to get the maintenance done rather than wait in many cases. Professionals will be able to explain which tasks need to be completed now, and which tasks may be allowed to wait until a later time.
Service providers are often able to work business owners to find a time that works best for everyone.
Remember, it’s better to perform maintenance as a precautionary measure rather than wait for a small issue to escalate into a major one where the office needs to be closed for days.