The MaintenanceCompass presents an accurate picture of the trends and developments in the world of maintenance. For example: consultants and service providers generally employ more skilled personnel than suppliers or asset owners.

Further, assets are the least planned in the real property area and unplanned assets are entirely unavailable in that sector; a larger organisation in terms of number of employees also means a larger maintenance budget. Yet another development is that the number of firms embracing ‘the new way to work’ continues to increase.

Our comprehensive look at the current trends and analyses of the market, the personnel, and performance as a whole yielded three salient developments: the continuing economic crisis, increased focus on core activities and a continuing shortage of technically trained personnel. This year’s MaintenanceCompass can to a large extent be explained on the basis of these three aspects.

The economic crisis

The economic crisis has not yet left the Netherlands, and exerts more influence than ever before on the maintenance sector. Of primary importance are two trends: shareholder influence and stricter regulations. Possible consequences of these trends could be even stricter regulations, with a need for greater compliance and an increased role for IT.

While some growth is expected in most sectors, a budget shrinkage is observable in infra, manufacturing, food, beverages, pharmaceuticals and other sectors. Other sectors show limited growth, with the exception of real estate. Nevertheless, more than 70 percent of maintenance companies expect growth in the sector in the coming year.

The economic crisis also has possible consequences in the HR area. Companies are more reluctant to give permanent contracts and the number of individuals in flexible employment is rising. Further, an emphasis on operational excellence can be observed, leading to increased work productivity, without negatively impacting sick-leave figures.

Focus on core activities

Yet another consequence of the continuing crisis and operational excellence is an increased focus on core activities. Possibly as a result of this, a clear need can be seen for knowledge and expertise in the strategic and organisational areas, as well as concerning specific maintenance processes.

Focusing on core tasks of course means a reduction in focus on subordinate activities. The result is a greater need to eliminate or outsource these tasks, which is now one of the important trends. Focusing on core tasks leads to increased use of flexible personnel when more knowledge is needed in a specific area or to accommodate a peak in work volume. There is a correlation between the increase in flexitime working and that in the numbers of one-person businesses.

Shortage of technically skilled personnel

Although the shortage of trained personnel became obscured by the economic crisis itself, this problem has now re-emerged among the top trends in the NVDO MaintenanceCompass. It continues to have a high score and could even ultimately intensify the problems due to dependency on technology and knowledge/expertise, a dependency that makes itself more clearly felt where there is a shortage of technical knowledge.

Thirty percent of respondents indicate that they have a need for more technical knowledge and an increasing percentage, currently at 35 percent, feel they will not be successful in attracting more such personnel in the future.

Most problems are expected at the MBO (intermediate vocational) III and IV and HBO (higher vocational) educational levels. The result is an increased willingness to work on recruitment in partnership with other firms in the same sector, as well as with training institutions and knowledge centres to become better connected to the labour market than in previous years. Yet another possible consequence is increased outsourcing, which is expected to occur more frequently if companies lack the knowledge they need in house.

All things considered, it can be concluded that the economic climate is having a visible effect on the maintenance sector. Nevertheless, it can also be observed that maintenance firms are working hard to counteract this, and this is one of the reasons why the outlook for the future is positive.

The NVDO will continue wherever possible to support its members in this regard, by promoting transparency and partnership, which are among the most important tasks in the coming three years.

Ellen den Broeder-Ooijevaar

NVDO,

ellen.den.broeder@nvdo.nl