How to Hire Maintenance Technicians in Mesa

Current Environment

Since the inception of the Industrial Revolution, our world has been one that consistently includes a plethora of mechanical devices. With each year that passes, these devices become more and more complex. No matter the simplicity or complexity of these devices, though, there must be a competent mechanic to not just keep up with the changes, but be prepared to deal with the current mechanical realities and the future ones that are, literally, right around the corner.

Depending on the size of the organization and maintenance budget, maintenance technicians have varying degrees of responsibility. For instance, a maintenance professional for a small apartment community is a “jack of all trades.” Simultaneously, one within a world-class manufacturing plant specializes in preventive, predictive, and emergency maintenance on specific types of equipment.

Maintenance technicians have different skill levels that are specified with roman numerals, usually I through IV. A lower numeral indicates less experience; a higher numeral indicates more experience. Each skill level has the same amount of responsibilities but, depending on the skill level, responsibilities require more or less technical aptitude and leadership.

History

The second industrial revolution started the need for maintenance professionals. Historically, maintenance has been viewed as an expense, necessary but not wanted. Although some organizations may still hold this idea to be true, many companies today regard maintenance as an essential part of business operations and an area where an experienced maintenance professional can find ways to decrease costs and diminish the impact on the bottom line.

How will Recruiting maintenance technicians Help Your Company?

How will Hiring maintenance technicians Help Your Company?

While the exact scope of work differs depending on the size of the company, a typical maintenance technician is responsible for keeping machinery running and production flowing properly.

Hiring the right skilled maintenance mechanic can and will make a significant difference when it comes to ensuring your company’s machinery is running and production is flowing properly – and it will reduce the stress of knowing that even the smallest of details are well cared for and looked after.

While many companies are moving toward outsourcing their technician requirements due to a shortage in properly trained and competent technicians, finding and retaining strong talent can and will make a world of difference as your company can do things in-house and save time, money, and effort that is otherwise spent on working with external contractors.

Before we get to exactly how to hire the best maintenance technician in [city_name] let’s review some of the details…

maintenance technician Details

Responsibilities

A highly skilled maintenance technician will have the capability to perform a broad range of tasks. Hiring the right technician(s) will impact areas including procurement, supply chain, and storeroom management. These are important day-to-day tasks that go hand in hand with maintenance functions.

Maintenance technicians also carry out the following tasks and responsibilities:

Performs different types of reactive and proactive/preventative maintenance
Disseminates site-specific knowledge to contractors
Performs Quality Assurance on components manufactured in-house or purchased from vendors
Updates PMs and work orders in the CMMS
Works with other departments such as production support and manufacturing engineering to keep a facility and related equipment in good working order

Looking for another position? View other positions we place in Mesa, Arizona.

Education

Maintenance technicians typically need a high school diploma; a year or more of training after high school will help them significantly. Some may go through an apprenticeship program that could last several years.

Some maintenance technicians complete a 2-year associate’s degree program in industrial maintenance. Industrial maintenance programs may include courses such as welding, mathematics, hydraulics, and pneumatics.

Community colleges often offer the types of courses and certifications needed for positions that require it.

Here are resources to help you find community colleges in California, Arizona, and your own state.

Top Schools

Community Colleges in California
Community Colleges in Arizona
Search Community Colleges in Your State

2019 U.S. National Data

Salary Range

maintenance technicians in the U.S.

$33k

Low

$52k

Average

$76k

High

$51k

Average AZ
Salary

$24.28

Average AZ
Hourly

521k

Total maintenance technicians Employed in the U.S.

95.9%

Men

4.1%

Women

maintenance technician Salary Comparison

National

Maintenance technicians are integral to a company’s operations, particularly in manufacturing. Highly qualified maintenance technicians are difficult to find and highly coveted by companies today. It is a great opportunity to break into a rapidly growing field that provides a tremendous opportunity for growth and development and, eventually, well-paying salaries.

Arizona

The average annual salary for maintenance technicians in Arizona was 51k in 2019. The hourly wage averaged $24.28.

For more detailed compensation information for maintenance technicians in Mesa, download our free compensation/salary report below.

Working in Mesa

Do maintenance technicians enjoy working and living in Mesa? It’s considered a highly sought-after location.

Located just 15 miles east of Phoenix, the city is the third-largest city in Arizona, with a population just shy of 500,000. The town (and the greater Phoenix metro area in general) has been and still is, growing. That population has fueled the development of many of the amenities of larger metropolitan areas while still maintaining a distinctly suburban feel.

It’s also a short distance from some of the most spectacular outdoor scenery and recreational activities, including hiking, kayaking, and paddleboarding.

Here are a few other thumbs-up things about living and working in Mesa.

Pros

Outdoor life is an often stated “pro” for people living and working in Mesa. The Superstition Mountains are popular for their scenic hiking trails, Lost Dutchman State Park is a beautiful place to camp and nothing beats tubing down the Salt River in the summer.
The weather is a pro, especially for those people with a burning desire to leave their puffy coats behind. You can count on more than 300 days of sunshine and a temperate climate almost all year.
It’s a happy city for family life, according to WalletHub. Compared with 180 cities across the U.S., Mesa ranked #69 for cities that are the happiest based on criteria such as family life, cost of living, and work-life balance.
In general, Arizona’s economy is very strong and a reasonably low cost of living makes Mesa a great place for young professionals or young families.
Recruitment agency and staffing company services are also available from Amtec for Mesa.

Of course, there are a few “cons” that folks new to Mesa mention.

Cons

Urban sprawl is a common complaint in Phoenix and all the surrounding towns. The geographic area is enormous. It can take almost an hour to travel from one side of the Valley to the other.
For some people, the changing of the seasons is important. The temperate weather most of the year means seasonal changes in Mesa are not very obvious, although the early spring wildflowers in the desert are a sight to see.
The other climate consideration is heat. The temps soar to well above 100 degrees in the summer.

Mesa, Arizona

Current Weather

Not your city? View other cities where we place maintenance technicians.

Demand for maintenance technicians in Mesa

Any organization with a large amount of machinery will employ a maintenance technician or a team of them in order to make sure machinery is functioning properly and that business is not lost due to malfunctions or outages.

There is a quickly growing need for qualified maintenance technicians and is projected to be so for the next 10 years. In fact, projections are that this field will grow at 13%, much faster than the average job growth rate of 4%. Now is a great time to enter into the profession, knowing that there is job growth potential and these positions tend to be well compensated.

The supply of candidates and demand for open positions have a direct correlation to a company's ability to hire. Download a free Supply and Demand report for maintenance technicians in Mesa, Arizona below.

How to Hire the Best maintenance technicians

Finding and hiring the best maintenance technician candidates can save you money right away and well into the future.

The costs of making a bad hire are well documented. The cost can run as much as 30% of the employee's first-year earnings according to the US Department of Labor. Bad hires can cost a whopping $240,000 in expenses related to hiring, compensation, and retention per The Undercover Recruiter. 74% of companies who admit they've hired the wrong person for a position lost an average of $14,900 for each bad hire according to CareerBuilder. These statistics support our long-held position that behavioral questions are the best way to get to know your candidates and past behavior is the best indicator of future performance.

Recruiting Best Practices

The information below comes from the best practices Amtec uses for finding the highest quality candidates.

Defining the Position

When defining the role you are creating, we recommend a position profile to fully evaluate the position you are hiring for. You must decide if the engineer can work remotely or must work in Arizona. If working in Mesa is essential, make sure you include that in your job posting so candidates can decide how many miles they can commute.

How to Source the Best Candidates

When you are looking to source the best quality candidates for your open positions, make sure you have done the legwork to hire an "A Player". You can do this by making sure your company's perspective is aligned with the current market, you have taken into account the job responsibilities, as well as what type of characteristics you are looking for to fit your company culture. Then proceed to write a job posting to attract high-quality candidates.

Characteristics of maintenance technicians

In the big-picture sense, maintenance technicians can be considered the “glue” that keeps the facility operating as it should, in numerous ways. When you are searching for maintenance technicians, look for candidates who are safety-focused and experienced with the types of equipment and machinery in use.

For more detailed compensation information for maintenance technicians in [city_name], download our free compensation/salary report below.

How to Screen Candidates

You wrote a job posting, posted the position online, and received a lot more resumes than you’d bargained for! Next comes the enormous task of sorting through those resumes to eliminate the ones that are clearly not a good fit. Now, you have a stack of resumes for candidates who have potential. So how do you go about screening the remaining candidates?

It starts on the phone! As a recruiter, the goal of your telephone screening is to learn more about your candidates. You can confirm that they have the educational qualifications and relevant experience, but you also need to determine if they would fit into your company's culture. To make this job easier, use a system to consistently evaluate results. This way you can equally and objectively compare candidates and evaluate their "soft skills", like communication and thinking process. Download Amtec's Professional Assessment Questionnaire below to help with screening candidates.

Free Professional Assessment Questionnaire

An individually customized questionnaire that helps assess a candidate's competence with written communication skills, thinking processes, and other relevant skills.

How to Interview Candidates

At Amtec, we believe in the power of behavoral interview questions to go beyond the experience and skills listed on the candidate's resume. Although you will want to confirm in the interview that the candidate does indeed have the experience listed on their resume, your assessment needs to go much deeper than that. An interview using behavioral questions can help you determine how well the candidate will fit with your company culture.

Download Amtec's best practices on conducting super effective interviews to find the best candidates and fill your open jobs.

Behavioral Interview Guide

Get the info you need to hire the best maintenance technicians

Free Interview Guide