Industrial Talk is speaking with Chris Pepin, Founder and Adrian Messer, VP with Progressive Reliability about "maintenance debt and finding the right M&R talent". Get the answers to your "Reliability Hiring" questions along with Team Progressive Reliability unique insight on the “How” on this Industrial Talk interview!

Finally, get your exclusive free access to the Industrial Academy and a series on “Why You Need To Podcast” for Greater Success in 2023. All links designed for keeping you current in this rapidly changing Industrial Market. Learn! Grow! Enjoy!

CHRIS PEPIN'S CONTACT INFORMATION:

Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-pepin/

Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/proreli/

Company Website: https://www.proreli.com/

ADRIAN MESSER'S CONTACT INFORMATION:

Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianmesser/

PODCAST VIDEO:

https://youtu.be/fGsFmd3lSmE

THE STRATEGIC REASON "WHY YOU NEED TO PODCAST":

OTHER GREAT INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES:

NEOM: https://www.neom.com/en-us

AI Dash: https://www.aidash.com/

Hitachi Vantara: https://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/home.html

Industrial Marketing Solutions:  https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-marketing/

Industrial Academy: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-academy/

Industrial Dojo: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial_dojo/

We the 15: https://www.wethe15.org/

YOUR INDUSTRIAL DIGITAL TOOLBOX:

LifterLMS: Get One Month Free for $1 – https://lifterlms.com/

Active Campaign: Active Campaign Link

Social Jukebox: https://www.socialjukebox.com/

Industrial Academy (One Month Free Access And One Free License For Future Industrial Leader):

Business Beatitude the Book

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

people, reliability, adrian, chris, world, company, asset, conversation, industrial, dedicated, person, progressive, professionals, reactive, maintenance, focused, culture, work, scott, pro

00:04

Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's go.

00:22

Alright, once again, thank you very much for joining industrial talk, a platform that is dedicated to you industrial professionals all around the world, because you are bold, you are brave, you dare greatly. You solve problems, you collaborate, and you're making the world a better place. That's why we celebrate you on industrial talk, because you're worth it. And in the hot seat, we have pro rely. And we have two gents. Chris Pippin, as well as Adrian Messer, both are with this wonderful company. And you know, we're going to be talking about, yeah, there is a debt, there is a resource debt when it comes to finding the right reliability professionals to keep your project up and running. So let's get cracking. I enjoyed this. Because the reality is right, let's just let's just lay it on out there, you need to keep that asset, you need to keep that business run, and you need to be able to maintain that asset effectively, so that you can get the most out of it right. And given the changes that are taking place within industry, it is becoming more and more imperative to be able to do that. And do it effectively and finding the right people because it's always a people equation, always a people equation that is necessary to make sure that this asset, your asset, and you you know, you've got that business that is resilient Berlei right there. And we're going to have all the contact information for those two gents, as well as of the organization out on industrial talk.com. Now, we are, as I mentioned, we're creating this platform, this platform is really dedicated to education and and the more and more we work and connect with individuals and connect with businesses, it becomes more and more apparent that education is really necessary, because it's happening, and it's happening so fast. But I think one of the most important component outside of education, which you need to continue to just do is the ability to collaborate is the ability to be able to work with individuals that definitely want you to succeed, they're looking for help. Because every every conference, every organization that I've been to, there's this speed and and the way the speed is happening is that the only way you're going to keep up is with the ability to be able to collaborate, that's that's me. And finally, that innovation component. So you have that education, because it's happening fast, you have that collaboration component that is happening, because it is. And then third, you need to innovate because it never stops changing. And if you're an industry, that is a must, absolutely a must. And pro rely and others within the reliability space, are all dedicated to that all dedicated to this, this, need to educate, collaborate, and of course, innovate in everything that they do. Industrial talk is definitely the place to be able to do that. And, and and if you want to get a hold of me, yeah, just reach out, go out to industrial talk.com Reach out, say, Scott, I want to talk to you. And we need to tell your story, we need to be able to amplify that story. Because you are the heroes in this, this, whatever this industry world is, you're the heroes, you're making lives better, you just are not just here, but around the world. Thank you very much. All right. So I was broadcasting from smrp, the Society of maintenance and reliability professionals and of course, I know Adrian from that wonderful organization. And and what they're dedicated on is definitely the profession of asset management, asset reliability, maintenance, and the tools associated with being able to do that effectively. And to gain the insights necessary to be able to affect the maintenance in a way that keeps that asset are up and running. So SMRP If you're in a maintenance, if you're a reliability professional that is an organization that you must connect with smrp.org Anyway, a part of that is there is this ever focus on keeping those assets up and running as I continue to say, but the reality is, is that there's this resource debt, where do you find the right people? How do you retain the right people? What are we and Proreli has a wonderful model to be able to identify and procure those, those valuable and I mean valuable members of your team to be able to help you succeed and and there's no other way of getting around it. You need to be in the reliability game. And you need to have those the members to be able to do that. So Proreli that's P R O, R E, L i.com. Go out there. All right, let's get cracking with the conversation. Because it's, it's a, it's a good one. So here's Chris. And here's Adrian. Hey, welcome to industrial talk. Thank you, we have Adrian. And we have Chris. And we're going to talk a little bit about something a little bit more advanced in the world of reliability in the world of finding skilled professionals really focused in on your, your benefit, and this is the team, this team does it right then and there. Before we get into that conversation. Let's do a little background check. That sounds sort of overwhelming. But let's do a little background into Chris, give us a little 411 on who you are, Chris.

05:52

My name is Chris Pepin. I'm the founder and managing partner here at Progressive reliability. Been in the talent acquisition world for over a decade, and really, really passionate about the services that we've created here.

06:06

Well, that was pretty cool. That was quick and simple. But you can make it faster there. Right? Yeah, you can trust me. Don't give us a little background, Adrian.

06:14

Yeah, sure. Adrian Messer here with progressive reliability, serving as Vice President of executive services. Been in the maintenance reliability space for nearly 20 years. Fairly new here to progressive reliability as of April of this year, really enjoyed it, though. Met a lot of people talk to a lot of people. And it's fun, being able to help them be a resource for people looking for a solution or looking to make a next kind of move in their career to a better job and a better better environment.

06:47

The URL is pro rely that's PR, o r e l i.com. So make a note of that listener find out more connect with these two, wonderful and just team and the team at pro life. Okay. Here's the deal. We've had a number of conversations revolving around reliability, there's a ton of conversations and the conversations sort of involved in, hey, how do I manage that asset? What do I do? What are the strategies? Why is it important? And all of that? But sadly, there's a there's a human component there, right? So take us through about progressive reliability. What happens? What what makes that process? sort of unique? Can you do that there, Chris?

07:39

Sure. I think one of the first thing said of the year, that makes us unique, because we have a very big not to do list. So there's a lot of companies that do a lot of things, they have a lot of services, and we stay incredibly simple and therefore incredibly focused and powerful. And that is we purely work with maintenance and reliability professionals and professional and executive roles, finding them the right job. So Reliability Engineers, planners, schedulers, folks, everybody else's assists with that vibration analysts. That's the core of the folks who work with under our tire jobs, and then all the other companies competencies that support that. So we can find contract Reliability Engineers for special projects, we can find a team if you need six or eight, specialized tradespeople or craftspeople to support an initiative, we can get them there on site within 30 to 60 days. So we really that's, that's just the simple one, two punch of what we do within reliability, finding professionals, making sure they're plugged in making sure they're as qualified as possible, and eliminating all the noise on everything else.

08:44

Adrian, how. So? What is the problem that exists out there today in the reliability world, about managing and finding? I mean, come on, you know, these reliability professionals, really skilled individuals that have dedicated a lot of time, energy and effort and education to do and to deliver their crafts real well? What is this? What's the challenge out there?

09:14

Though, the challenge I quickly quickly realized when I started in this that the challenge was, you have, say a company's internal HR internal recruiters who are non technical people. They are tasked with finding highly technical people. So the challenge is, in most cases, they don't know where to look, they don't know the right questions to ask and they don't know how to find technical people. So that is the biggest challenge. So for us, you know, we look to really try to streamline the hiring process. You know, where we're most successful is when we partner with a company's internal HR, where we've got good communication, we've got good feedback, we've got good clear job descriptions and Everybody's kind of on the same page. So that's really what we're about, we want to really try to improve the candidate experience on their end as far as you know, their interviewing their, their feedback that they're getting from these potential offers, and in turn improving a company's own internal hiring practices.

10:21

That's a great point. Because, you know, if somebody said, Hey, Scott, I need a reliability engineer, right off the bat, if I'm an HR person, and I've got all these other things that I've got to sort of deal with, I wouldn't I wouldn't know. The questions I wouldn't it that would be a tough one. So is it safe to say that if I'm a company, and I recognize the need to manage my asset better, and and I don't have really the skill set? Can I go to progressive reliability and just say, Hey, guys, I have this, here's my asset, here's my business right here. Take me through that. And help me really try to identify and and find resources that make my business better. Is that Is that something that you have those conversations Chris,

11:16

do all the time, you know, we've got a 45 day process where we come in, we do, we set up the search, we get all the parameters, we have our internal process around it, and you should within within three weeks of the initiation and the search should have talked to five people through us. That's just that's how we do it. Because again, it's it's all we do. And that's our focus. Just first year doing this, I wouldn't say it's easy, or that we make it easy. You know, internally, it's still a difficult thing to do. However, it's what we do. It's what we do all day. So we find efficiencies, just by running through it over and over again. And we get the right people with the right culture match.

11:55

So you show it progressive reliability. You go on site, I'm company, I'm Alpha Company, and you come on side, you hear what I have to say. And then you have to do sort of an assessment is that is that what I'm hearing about just where we stand to sort of the as is assessment of my business from a reliability perspective, and then develop a plan of attack going forward? Is that what I hear Adrian,

12:19

pretty much, and it's no different. So it let's say you've got a piece of machinery, you've got a piece of equipment in your plant that keeps having failures over and over and over and over. And there comes a time when people say, Okay, we've got to do something. The same with some of these positions. So we have people contact us who have had these reliability focused positions open for several months to upwards of over a year. And they finally say, hey, we need some help, you know, we've got this position open, you know, we and they come to the trusted resource, they come to the people who they know that can deliver a solution to this problem that they're having over and over and over. So that's really the type of conversation that we have pretty often with with competencies.

13:06

So it can be both a macro assessment of the business and Okay, let's look at it from that perspective and come up with a really more comprehensive plan to the micro and say, Hey, your, your, your pump is having a, it's always going down. And for whatever reason it's going down and our our team of maintenance, people are just struggling with it. You can you can work with that one, right, Chris?

13:30

We can. So that's why we've got two different types of services, finding the full time person you need, or we need somebody in here for three, six months. And most importantly, the name of the game is knowledge transfer. So we don't want to put somebody in there to kind of create the codependent relationships that a lot of consulting companies do where you're always dependent on them to send somebody and send somebody, we want to get the right person out there. And we want to make sure that person's knowledge base transfers to your team so that we leave the company better than we found them.

13:57

Yeah, like that. That makes sense. That's the right way to do it. That is an out as I look at the form that you filled out, because Thank you very much for doing that. Because I like that. It makes me look over here at the other side. Chris, take us. Take us through the definition of what this this we see maintenance debt. define that for us. What does it mean? Yeah,

14:24

so this is what happens when facilities have incredibly understaffed for too long. A lot of times, especially in the reliability world, there's reactive and proactive facilities. And sometimes

14:38

I want to just lay it out there and I'm gonna pretty confident that's mostly reactive, FYI.

14:45

So when you're short staffed on reactive, that means that the brake fixes and the fixing it faster isn't even happening before you can get into your PMS and doing things to get ahead of things before they break. And overall, it just it caught causes a lot of chaos. And actually worse, it causes a lot of churn, people burn out, find another position, they go someplace else. So that constant reactivity, that constant actually being woken up in the middle of the night, to be brought back out to the plant to do a fix, that sort of thing wears people out in in, in the post 2020 work world, it's really chewing people up fast. So we want to help facilities, again, we can't work with everybody. So we're looking for the kinds of organizations and those kinds of cultures that want to get towards proactive, that want to take good care of their people that want to keep their people because, again, we want to leave our clients better than we found them. Importantly, take good care of our candidates, we kind of get people Yes, yeah. So that's, that's the piece where I wanted to flip it. Scott, you mentioned about the job...