DEC has worked to become a leader in providing cost-effective electrical contract maintenance services to our Commercial and Industrial clients. Our experience with contract maintenance has given us the expertise to help reduce your annual cost without sacrificing safety or quality.Now is the time to institute an outside maintenance contract. Be proactive and avoid the shortage of skilled workers we will experience in the near future. If structured to your facility and your specific needs, Maintenance Contracts can be a huge benefit to your company. Many of today’s maintenance personnel have to be “jack-of-all-trades”. These employees have some knowledge relating to many different fields, unfortunately, in depth knowledge in any one field is lacking. With a Maintenance Contract you get professional trained individuals working in their chosen field. Each year Managers set down and try to systematically decide operating budgets for their respective departments. This is a painstaking task that usually takes valuable time. When the budgets are reviewed by upper management, the managers, more times than not, find the submitted budget squeezed by other company needs. In addition to managers having to deal with budget deficits and shortfalls, employee loyalty seems to be at an all time low. There are many reasons for the loyalty issue (on both sides), too many to be discussed in this article, probably excellent fodder for an upcoming article. Bottom line is, upper management is constantly striving to reduce labor costs and increase the bottom line. On the other side of the coin, employees are constantly leaving for “greener pastures” which leads to additional stress on the budget due to increased costs for training, efficiency problems and just plain ramping up for the job at hand. Is there an alternative solution available that will help deter the problems I have outlined above? There is and it’s something most managers are familiar with—Subcontracting. It’s no secret that the workforce will see a void of experienced skilled workers over the next ten years. This will be created by the retirement of the baby-boomers. Some Human Resource Directors surveyed said they view this as a potential problem; some viewed it as more than just a problem. Subcontracting may be a logical step to avoid some of the holes that may develop in your organization. Let me introduce you to something called a Maintenance Contract. I believe they are a viable option to hiring and training new maintenance personnel. Your company can expect to save on training costs, tool costs, health & welfare costs, 401K reimbursements, possible workers compensation claims, sick & vacation leave and retirement benefits. Not to mention what may be saved on payroll because you will pay only for work that is needed, not to keep someone on staff to be used when needed. The transition to subcontracted help can be accomplished slowly through the process of employee attrition, retirements etc. If you decide to explore the option of Maintenance Contracts there are three things to consider, (1) Pay Structure, (2) Services and (3) Overall Benefits. First, consider the pay structure.Maintenance Contracts pay structure can be set up three ways. One way is for the customer to buy a block of work for a predetermined amount of money. The customer can draw against the prepaid block until it is depleted. In the case of prepayment, discounts are sometimes possible. At depletion, additional blocks of time can be purchased. The second option would allow the customer to issue a purchase order for lets say $5,000.00 to the subcontractor. No money would change hands until the work is performed. Once the purchase order is exhausted, a new one can be issued. The final option really depends on the customers needs, but does offer a lot of flexibility, if the need really does exist. This option uses the subcontractor’s manpower on a daily basis. Payments are made monthly. The second item of consideration would be services provided under the maintenance contract. Primary Services that should be included are: