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Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News talks to nick Frank, Founding Partner, Si2 Partners, about some of the key findings of a recent research project recently undertaken by the two companies that explored emerging trends in the recruitment and development of both field service engineers as well as service managers across a wide range of industry verticals.

 

Find more from Nick Frank @ Si2Partners

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Will self-service for customers be the answer to the dwindling number of available field service technicians? Prudence Kolong, Editorial Director, Copperberg, joins the ranks of Field Service News associate columnists and in her first feature tackles this important topic.

Join Copperberg and Field Service News in Warwick, UK for the Field Service Summit in April and in Amsterdam, Netherlands in May for the Field Service Forum.

A recent survey by the Service Council showed that 70% of global manufacturing companies with small to large service operations are increasingly concerned with the lack of prospects to replace their retiring workforce.

However, less than half have implemented human capital management strategies capable of addressing talent shortage and competence development. It does not help either that scores of new STEM graduates and millennials, who in a perfect world should be lining up to join the ranks of highly skilled service teams within seemingly economically stable firms, see manufacturing jobs as old fashioned and dated and therefore not appealing.

On the technology front, deep shifts in customer demands drive innovation at a riveting speed. Many service organisations now look into technology as a potential avenue to circumvent the lack of prospects to renew their existing human resources.

On the technology front, deep shifts in customer demands drive innovation at a riveting speed. Since Industrial IoT and digitalisation have stopped being buzzwords meant for technologists, they have quietly slipped into the day-to-day dealings of service directors. The future landscape of field service operations for traditional or advanced manufacturing products will integrate a wide range of technological advancements.

The use of robots, artificial intelligence or automated supports on the production line is not new. However, their utilisation to enhance service lifecycle performance constitutes a new set of challenges for which very few are equipped.

Market leaders are now prototyping innovative solutions, with pilot projects, to engage clients and benefit from value-added technologies ranging from Industrial artificial intelligence, automation, machine learning, robotics processes and big data.

An abundance of opportunities opens with IoT, including hyper-personalised data mining solutions that enable targeted customer response with mission-critical predictive maintenance, optimised time management and strategic deployment of multi-skilled fleets.

The question that remains open is how can an industry slated to generate up to 4,45 billion dollars by 2020, thrive without sufficient manpower? Can it rely solely on progress in technology?To ensure that the right people maintain the effectiveness of their enhanced service ecosystems, smart service directors engage in constant skillset assessment, retraining, reallocation and reassignment. However, the question that remains open is how can an industry slated to generate up to 4,45 billion dollars by 2020, thrive without sufficient manpower? Can it rely solely on progress in technology?

The race for market share has service directors drastically redefining their KPIs, readjusting their resource strategies and the means to achieve them.

Furthermore, a new trend is sweeping the industry: crowdsourced field service. In this instance, the very concept of field service management is revolutionised. Fleet ownership, task scheduling, work order management and SLA’s compliance are no longer the sole prerogative of the product manufacturer and its service department.

In layman terms, the “Uber” business model has come and conquered the field service arena; now anyone can order and/or deliver turnkey maintenance operations and end-to-end field service.  At the onset, uberized field service seems like a palliative solution to workforce shortage, a momentary placebo that may serve its short-term purpose. So how about a realistic solution that identifies the root cause, and just like preventative maintenance addresses issues before they occur.

Gartner predicts that within the coming 5 years, 10% of emergency field service work will be managed by artificial intelligence, implying less use or need of manpower on the horizons.  Nonetheless, service organisations need to invest in out of the box approaches to talent acquisition with hybrid skillsets and become more proactive in handling their single most important asset: people.

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Our latest research project, run in partnership with ServiceMax from GE Digital has take a deep dive into how the role of the field service engineer is evolving. Across the next few months we will be publishing a series of articles both in print and online exploring the findings of this research.

In the first part of this series we looked at the research aims, the threat of the ageing workforce and the changes in training methodologies that are emerging.

Now in part two we explore if and if and how field service companies are utilising their experienced field service engineers to train the incoming generation.

There is also a detailed white paper outlining the wider findings of this report which is available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

Not a subscriber yet? Click here to apply for a complimentary industry practitioner email and get this resource sent to you instantly

(Please note that by applying for your subscription via this link you accept the terms and conditions here and a plain english version is available from our main subscriptions page here) 

Utilising experienced FSEs to train the next generation:

Of course, an optimal solution that keeps older FSEs in the work place longer and ensures their knowledge is transferred to those FSEs entering the workforce, is to implement training programs whereby the more experienced techs are directly involved in the training process.

Traditionally, the potential for such undertakings was limited somewhat by the very nature of a field service role. Some senior technicians could take on trainer roles perhaps, providing classroom style learning, but such positions are by default limited. Also, much of a young FSEs true training begins once they’ve left the classroom and are actively in the field. Again, some companies run highly successful programs, pairing up newer engineers with more experienced counterparts to deliver on-job training - doing so can be costly and an inefficient use of FSE resources - doubling up engineers on each job.

Over half (54%) of respondents stated that such an undertaking was certainly something that they are exploring but that they currently don’t have the technology/processes in place.However, emerging technologies - in particular Augmented Reality have shown huge potential to widen the possibilities of using older FSEs in a training and support role. This has dual benefit of both extending the FSEs potential career within the field service organisation whilst putting valuable insight, knowledge and experience in to the hands of less experienced engineers as and when they need it.

But are field service companies harnessing both the power of technology and the experience of their older engineers in such a manner?

We asked our respondents: “A number of companies are now using remote assistance technologies (e.g. Augmented Reality) to keep their older and experienced FSEs in the work place for longer, both as a means of training new recruits and also as a way of ensuring that the knowledge and experience of older engineers is not just walking out of the door. Does this apply to your organisation?’

The responses again somewhat reflect the findings of the previous question around training methodologies, in that whilst the majority of companies agree with the notion of using their older, more experienced FSEs as part of training and support programs and that technology was key to that process, most were still (at best) just beginning down that path.

In fact, over half (54%) of respondents stated that such an undertaking was certainly something that they are exploring but that they currently don’t have the technology/processes in place.

However, perhaps surprisingly just under a quarter of companies (24%) stated that they did not envisage implementing any such plans. This is a surprisingly large number given those companies who do not involve their older engineers in the training process risk seeing years of amassed ‘tribal knowledge’ simply walking out of the door in the not too distant future.

Looking forward it may well be that it is these companies, i.e those who have gotten the head-start over their competitors in such programs, will reap the benefits of doing so and it may well be at the expense of those who don’t.

However, with currently just 20% of companies actively using senior engineers in a remote expert capacity - it seems there could still be room at the top table, for a while at least.

Soft skills taking precedence?

Another major driving factor which is often seen to be impacting how we view the core skills of the field service engineer is the widely reported increase in customer expectations and demands - largely driven by disruptive companies such as Uber and Amazon raising the bar in terms of visibility and immediacy.

Today’s customers are empowered by technology, and easier access to information than ever before makes them more insightful and more expectant. They also have a louder voice than ever before thanks to social media, whilst the ongoing digitisation of all industries makes finding competing service providers a quick and easy process for dissatisfied customers.

And of course the majority (if not all) of this can now be done without the need to actually meet another human being in person. But what does this mean for the FSE?

Well given that in many instances the FSE may be the only face-to-face touch point your customers have with your customers, the old image of a FSE being a recluse, lurking in dark corners, happier tucked away fixing machines than speaking to those pesky customers who just get in the way - has thankfully made way for a new breed of confident, customer-friendly FSEs.

An incredible 98% of respondents stated that people skills were now a higher priority for them than they had been beforeToday’s FSE is armed with all the knowledge they need to hand courtesy of a modern FSM system. They’re confident speaking with customers at all levels of seniority and are true brand ambassadors and are as comfortable selling as they are fixing.

But, is this actually a true reflection of how field service companies are beginning to view their FSEs? Have soft skills become more important than technical skills? There is an argument that it is simpler to train technical skills and that good inter-personal skills are that much harder to teach - but does this hold any truth and are field service companies moving towards placing greater emphasis on soft-skills in their recruitment today? We asked our respondents ‘Is the need for softer, interpersonal skills – becoming a higher priority than before when recruiting new FSEs?

From the results it would appear that this is indeed a major trend amongst field service organisations. An incredible 98% of respondents stated that people skills were now a higher priority for them than they had been before with 46% of companies going as far as stating that people skills are at the top of their list when recruiting new FSEs.

Want to know more? There is also a detailed white paper outlining the wider findings of this report which is available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

Not a subscriber yet? Click here to apply for a complimentary industry practitioner email and get this resource sent to you instantly

(Please note that by applying for your subscription via this link you accept the terms and conditions here and a plain english version is available from our main subscriptions page here) 

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Our latest research project, run in partnership with ServiceMax from GE Digital has take a deep dive into how the role of the field service engineer is evolving. Across the next few months we will be publishing a series of articles both in print and online exploring the findings of this research.

There is also a detailed white paper outlining the wider findings of this report which is available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

Not a subscriber yet? Click here to apply for a complimentary industry practitioner email and get this resource sent to you instantly

(Please note that by applying for your subscription via this link you accept the terms and conditions here and a plain english version is available from our main subscriptions page here) 

Here in the first article of this series we look at the question of the ageing workforce and the entry of millennials into the field service workforce...

Much has been written about an ageing workforce crisis but how much of the worry is based on hyperbole? And what of the Millennial generation entering the workforce - is our industry ready to embrace them?

Our industry is rapidly evolving. Technology is continuously pushing the boundaries of field service efficiency whilst simultaneously customer expectations are becoming ever more demanding.

Companies like Uber and Amazon have disrupted the very concepts of what good service looks like, shifting the goal posts and creating a race across almost every industry vertical for companies to embrace service excellence.Companies like Uber and Amazon have disrupted the very concepts of what good service looks like, shifting the goal posts and creating a race across almost every industry vertical for companies to embrace service excellence.

At the same time digital transformation is the other major trend sweeping across our sector – one direct side effect of which is that increasingly the Field Service Engineer (FSE) is often the only face to face human interaction between a company and their customers.

So what does this mean for the FSE of tomorrow?

How is their role evolving? What are the skills that will be vital to their role and how do these differ from those that we have previously sought in our FSEs?

To try to find the answers to these questions Field Service News has undertaken a new research project in partnership with ServiceMax by GE Digital.

Across the last few months we’ve reached out to our readers across the globe to gain their insight in order to build a picture of what the FSE of 2022 (incredibly only five years away!) will look like and what role does the growing  importance of technology in field service delivery play in shaping the way we approach acquiring, training, and developing talent within the field service sector?

Across the next few months we will be publishing a series of articles based on the findings of this research and in this first article in the series we ask is the ageing workforce crisis actually really happening or is it all hyperbole? And what about the Millennial workforce entering the field service sector - are we ready to embrace and empower them?

About the research:

The research has been conduct via an online survey across the last two months and our respondents have come from all over the globe including; the UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, USA, Canada, Brazil and beyond.

There was also an equally wide split of industries represented with respondents coming from numerous sectors including; Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, Utilities, Telcos, Print/Copy, Med Tech and many others.

Finally, there was also a balanced representation of companies of all sizes with some companies having less than 10 field service engineers right through to companies with more than 800 engineers.

In total there were 126 respondents which is a large enough sample to provide a reasonable snap-shot of the thinking and the trends amongst field service management professionals.

So what were the findings? Let’s take a look.

The threat of an ageing workforce:

One of the biggest drivers for the rapid evolution of the role of the field service engineer is the fact that the core demographic of those working in field service roles is going through seismic change as we see an ageing Baby Boomer workforce reach retirement age being replaced by a new generation of workers, the Millennials.

Perhaps never before has there been such a significant difference between the generation leaving the workforce and those that are just beginning their working lives. From the way knowledge is gained and shared through to the key motivational drivers, ‘Boomers and Millennials are often chalk and cheese. One of the key challenges for field service companies of all shapes and sizes is how they adjust to this shift in thinking within their workforce and for many time is not on their side as they endeavour to make this adjustment.

There has been much talk of an ageing workforce crisis as the existing Boomer workforce reaches retirement age - perhaps magnified amongst field service organisations by the simple fact that field work can often be relatively physically demanding compared to more sedentary office based roles.

With this in mind our opening question in the survey was focussed on assessing just how real this ageing workforce crisis is amongst field service organisations. We asked our respondents ‘For your organisation how big a threat to your field service delivery do you think this issue will be across the next 5 years?’

The responses revealed that whilst perhaps there may be some hyperbole around the urgency of the issue - it still remains very much a concern for a huge percentage of companies.The responses revealed that whilst perhaps there may be some hyperbole around the urgency of the issue - it still remains very much a concern for a huge percentage of companies.

Whilst only 8% of organisations stated that for them an ageing workforce represented a severe threat i.e. that it is a major issue they are facing that could put their field service operations at risk, 40% of companies taking part in the research stated that the threat was significant for them and that unless addressed quickly they are likely to face major disruption to their field service delivery within the next five years.

In addition to this a further 34% of the respondents stated that they believed the challenge of an ageing FSE population was moderate that they acknowledged it as possible issue that they need to be aware of, although they didn’t anticipate it having a major impact on field service operations.

At the other end of the spectrum just under a fifth of respondents (18%) stated that the impact for them would be limited and that whilst there may be some workforce attrition due to FSEs reaching retirement age, it is unlikely to have any significant impact on their field service operations.

So, it would indeed appear that in the main the issue of an ageing workforce is at the very least a consideration for more than four out of five field service companies.

Changes in training methodologies:

This puts many field service organisations in a challenging position.

The need to recruit younger talent for FSE roles is clearly pressing, but given the aforementioned differences between ‘Boomers and Millennials are the existing on-boarding and training methods suited to this incoming generation?

Our next question was therefore focussed on understanding if field service companies did in fact feel the need to change their training methodologies and whether they were actively doing so. We asked our respondents; ‘Have you adapted your training and development strategies to reflect this?’

Only 10% of companies had stated that they had already redeveloped their training strategies to be more geared to the incoming Millennial workforce. Here the research revealed that whilst there was a clear understanding that changes to the traditional means of training FSEs does indeed need updating, it seems that there is something of a general inertia amongst field service companies to currently tackle such change.

In fact, only 10% of companies had stated that they had already redeveloped their training strategies to be more geared to the incoming Millennial workforce. However, just over half (52%) of companies taking part in the research are currently in the process addressing the issue in their organisation.

Further to this just over a quarter (26%) stated that they had yet to start making changes to their FSE training to reflect the shift from ‘Boomers to Millennials but accept that they need to do so and is something they are currently considering.

Meanwhile, 12% of companies do not believe they need to make any changes to their FSE training at all.

Want to know more? There is also a detailed white paper outlining the wider findings of this report which is available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

Not a subscriber yet? Click here to apply for a complimentary industry practitioner email and get this resource sent to you instantly

(Please note that by applying for your subscription via this link you accept the terms and conditions here and a plain english version is available from our main subscriptions page here) 

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Why is it that, in a time of unprecedented innovation in phone technology, all field service mobile apps are the same? Ian Mapp, Director at Wyser Stewart throws down the gauntlet to app developers...

Not precisely the same, of course. But, essentially they all try to solve the challenges faced by mobile engineers/technicians in the same way. If you look at the websites of companies that supply such applications – and there are plenty to choose from, too many to list here – you will find the descriptions almost interchangeable.

They all claim to increase productivity by replacing the reliance on paper-based forms, reliably integrating with office-based systems, eliminating errors and speeding up processes; improving cashflow by removing delays in producing the final invoice and reducing customer disputes. Sure, there are differences in details and variations in the technology platforms that are supported, but they are almost identical in capabilities. Plus, delivering indistinguishable experiences for the user.

 

It seems that the biggest innovation right now is who supplies the device – the company or the worker! To BYOD, or not to BYOD. It’s 2014. Is that best we can do? Really?

Smartphones are becoming ubiquitous, with market penetration in the UK this year estimated somewhere between 70-80%. And each of them has amazing computing capability, and a bunch of ‘smart’ features that make them very powerful devices. The biggest challenge when rolling out mobile applications is often user resistance to changing their working practices, but we don’t exploit those capabilities or make it very attractive when all we offer our engineers is a replacement for filling out forms.

“Okay, if you’re so clever, what do you suggest?” I hear you ask. And it’s a fair question.

The design for today’s apps mostly started out as automated equivalents of paper systems, as has been mentioned. And that is true of most administrative software products. Take a manual procedure, tweak it a bit and write the resulting re-engineered process into code. Bingo! A faster version of what worked before, more reliable, more consistent and leading to more work being done.

But, what if we started from a clean sheet and made smartphone capabilities intrinsic to the design of a new model for mobile workers? What might that look like? Now, I am by no means a software developer so some of this may not be practical, but I am an enthusiastic smartphone user and this does not seem at all far-fetched. Here are some ideas for a (better) day in the life for an engineer, using M/App (our imaginary mobile app - sorry, couldn’t resist it!)

 

It’s 07:45, and Sam’s phone chimes. Sam has been checking the news headlines and is already logged into the phone – possibly using a fingerprint for security validation. M/App knows, from a calendar entry, that Sam is scheduled for a shift starting at 08:00 and offers a simple prompt, “Ready to start your shift Sam?” with Yes/No/Snooze options for a response. No logging in to an application, no menu choices to be made, just a single button press (or voice input).

The software interrogates Sam’s scheduled jobs and checks for any delays on the journey to the first one. There are none, and at 08:02 M/App gently reminds Sam that he needs to start his daily vehicle check, in order to set off in time for his first appointment. The checklist is on-screen as soon as the phone detects movement outside to the van. The vehicle check requires input from Sam, but once that is finished, the app is expecting that travel will begin to the site and will not require any further response if it detects movement at speed – indicating driving – on a reasonable route to the first destination.

The phone detects that Sam is out of the vehicle, and based on GPS signals, prompts for confirmation that Sam has arrived on-site. He may only have parked nearby and needs some time before he truly arrives, or he may have unrelated tasks to perform – like returning a call to a manager – and so a positive acknowledgement is required.

Depending on the quality of the data about the machine to be serviced, it may be possible to use the latest in-building positioning technologies to determine when Sam is ready to begin work. Irrespective of that detail, M/App will always default to a prompt about the next expected step in the process.

 

For example, asking “Are you ready to start work on the xyz machine?” with Yes/No/Snooze options is simpler than asking for a ‘Start Time’ to be input in HH:MM format. And streamlining the data input demands will also encourage Sam to record what he is doing in real-time, further improving the flow of data back to the office and the decisions to be made about new priority jobs, and dynamically rescheduling for overruns and delays.

The workflow will progress through the necessary actions to complete the job, using any sensors or features of the device than can provide knowledge that enable the app to intelligently determine what is happening and what should happen next – clock, camera, touch screen, accelerometers, GPS and Wi-Fi for positioning, other installed apps or OS facilities.

I am not suggesting that everything will flow simply from step to step without variation – that would not be realistic – but in many industries and job types there is a definite pattern to the individual activities and M/App suggests the ‘line of least resistance’ for the engineer to follow. That’s what we call best-practice, isn’t it?

M/App is always active in the background, trying to ensure that the schedule can be met. For example, Sam starts a task with a ‘standard’ time of 60 minutes. After 30 minutes, the app checks for travel delays and detects a problem, with a hold-up of 20 minutes and a late arrival predicted. The app prompts Sam for an estimated completion time, he confirms 30 minutes, and informs the central system of the upcoming problem. That allows the scheduling system to determine the best course of action. A decision is made and the change to his schedule is communicated to Sam’s device while he continues to work, meaning that he can immediately move on to the right next job – avoiding the traffic hold-up. That improves the productivity of his shift, and means more satisfied customers at the end of the day.

The application is “nudging” Sam to carry out the tasks and jobs in the order that the centralised scheduling system has determined to be optimal, by requiring the lowest level of effort to follow that plan. However, Sam may be able to override that, and carry out work in a different sequence – one of his own choosing. But, it will mean more inputs, choices and manual navigation by him to achieve those overrides.

[quote]How can we use the power of a smartphone to unobtrusively assist our engineers in their daily work, enabling them to focus on delivering service to our customers?’

The underlying design principle of M/App is not ‘how can we get our engineers to fill out the head-office mandated forms better?’, but ‘how can we use the power of a smartphone to unobtrusively assist our engineers in their daily work, enabling them to focus on delivering service to our customers?’. It’s a simple change in approach, but that switch somehow changes everything.

 

So, come on application developers, the market is ripe for some innovation. Over to you.