Finding suitable profiles for the maintenance supervisor position can be tough. To ensure you end up with the right candidates, one of the first things you need to do is to draft a comprehensive maintenance supervisor job description.
Recruiting for maintenance teams is difficult since some job titles, like the maintenance supervisor, tend to overlap with others and their requirements vary from industry to industry.
To clear the smoke and help you find the right person to oversee your emergency and preventive maintenance program, in this article, we’ll break down the maintenance supervisor job description and list the typical duties and responsibilities that the job entails.
Let’s get started.
What Does a Maintenance Supervisor Do – Typical Roles in Organizations
A maintenance supervisor, as the name suggests, is responsible for planning, directing, and leading the maintenance activities of an organization.
In a typical departmental hierarchy, maintenance supervisors are considered middle managers (in some smaller organizations, they assume the responsibilities of a typical line manager). This means that they directly manage maintenance technicians and report to maintenance managers or directors.
They are mainly responsible for allocating tasks among the maintenance staff, oversee the repair work, and direct equipment maintenance (such as building systems, HVAC/air conditioning, etc.). Furthermore, they report everything to their supervisors, implement their policies, and create a safe working environment by enforcing relevant safety regulations.
The maintenance supervisor role is a critical one, since it serves as a bridge between the technicians and the top-level management.
What separates a maintenance supervisor from a maintenance manager job description is the fact that their jobs mainly revolve around the smooth execution of the maintenance and repair work.
On the other hand, maintenance managers, in addition to delegating tasks and ensuring execution, are also involved with strategy.
If you're interested in learning more via video, then watch below. Otherwise, skip ahead.
https://youtu.be/qaowDvyAXjs
Maintenance Supervisor Job Description Template
Creating a job description, especially for a complex position such as a maintenance supervisor, requires some time and patience.
That’s because drafting a JD isn’t as simple as listing down the duties that the incumbent would be responsible for. Instead, it requires breaking everything down into multiple sections – starting off with a job brief (or “overview,” if you will) that summarizes everything and is suitable for online job boards.
Your brief should sum up the job responsibilities, how they align with the grander strategic objectives of the organization, and what is required – without getting knee-deep into the specifics.
Here’s a ready-to-use maintenance supervisor job description brief that should work for almost any organization (simply replace “X” with whatever your requires):
“We are currently on the lookout for suitable candidates to join our maintenance department as a maintenance supervisor. The ideal candidate should have at least X years of experience in a similar role, where they were responsible for organizing, directing, and leading all the unplanned and regular/preventative maintenance work.
You will be responsible for creating maintenance schedules, ensuring all the assets are repaired/maintained on time, and creating a safe working environment. Furthermore, you will directly report to X, implement policies, and resolve any issues of the maintenance personnel.
The role requires strong leadership, time management, and excellent communication skills are required.
In addition to all of the above, ample hands-on experience with a modern computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) is a plus.”
Again, this is just a generic skeleton that should work for most companies. You can tweak it and add the special requirements of your organization to it.
Maintenance Supervisor Job Description – Duties and Tasks
Once you’re done up a brief, the next step in creating a maintenance supervisor job description is to list the different duties and responsibilities that the role entails.
Of course, the specific details will vary from company to company.
Here are some typical maintenance supervisor responsibilities and duties:
- Plan out, supervise, and report all the maintenance activities carried out by the maintenance workers.
- Create and manage maintenance schedules to ensure the longevity of the facilities, equipment, and other assets.
- Work with the human resource department and maintenance managers to recruit, select, and onboard capable personnel for the maintenance department.
- Work with maintenance managers to create and implement a training program for new technicians.
- Follow up with technicians on the maintenance and repair activities conducted over fixed intervals.
- Conduct safety inspections, ensure that all personnel are using safety equipment, and are in compliance with OSHA standards.
- Coordinate with the maintenance managers and/or the director to create strategies and policies.
- Implement the internal policies created by the management.
- Resolve issues of the technicians to the best of their abilities, gather feedback, and convey it to the top management.
- Use the company’s computerized maintenance management system to ensure the smooth execution of the maintenance and repair work.
You may pick all or any of the duties and responsibilities listed above for your job description and even add some additional ones that fit your company’s requirements.
Maintenance Supervisor Job Description – Required Qualifications
We’ve gone over the summary and the main responsibilities.
In the next section of your maintenance supervisor job description, you’ll have to specify the academic and professional criteria for the role.
While there are no universal requirements, here’s a list of requirements that can help you attract highly competent candidates:
- The candidate should at least have a high school diploma. A bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (like engineering, operations management, etc.) is a huge plus.
- A certification or two in maintenance supervision/management is a huge plus. Some popular options include the International Maintenance Institute (IMI), Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP), and the National Apartment Association (NAA) certifications.
- The candidate should have ample knowledge of global safety regulations.
- They should have 3-5 years of maintenance experience. An additional 2 years of experience supervising technicians is a substantial edge.
Out of all the above, ample hands-on maintenance experience is the most important.
Maintenance Supervisor Job Description – Typical Skills and Abilities
When it comes to maintenance supervisors, the ideal candidate should possess both technical and managerial/soft skills.
Let’s take a quick look at the ones that are high in demand:
- Strong leadership skills, such as the ability to delegate, guide, and motivate followers, are necessary.
- As mentioned before, the candidate should also possess impeccable oral and written communication skills.
- They must be team players and should be able to cultivate and maintain positive interpersonal relationships with their colleagues.
- Since maintenance supervisors have to supervise a lot of tasks, their time management skills should be on-point.
- They should be comfortable working with computer programs (including MS Office and an advanced CMMS software or two).
In addition to the above, the ideal candidate should meet the physical demands for conducting routine inspections of the facilities, building systems, and/or the equipment.
Becoming the Ideal Maintenance Supervisor
With all of the information at your disposal, you can now easily create the perfect maintenance supervisor job description.
Furthermore, a technician who aspires to become a supervisor can use this as a roadmap to take the next step.
However, realistically speaking, not every candidate will possess all of the qualifications, skills, and required experience listed above. If you manage to find a profile that ticks all of those boxes, consider yourself extremely lucky.
But you’ll probably have to compromise in one way or the other, and there’s nothing wrong with it.
There's a lot that the maintenance supervisor job description entails. Read on to learn everything you need to know to attract competent candidates for the role.
Josh is a partner at Maintenance Manager HQ.
