by Dan Saul

ver the past 28 years, I have worked with a host of maintenance staff here at LaSalle Group.

Many are still with us and over the years I found that I have learned volumes from them. They have taught me creative ways to handle special problems and about tools I did not even know existed! Very often, employees have found our most reliable vendors. Plus, they are eager to share information with their peers and help them put it to use. Here are a few examples:

A few years back, I set about developing a maintenance quiz to measure strengths and weaknesses in maintenance applicants. I thought whom better than our existing maintenance personnel to help develop a list of pertinent questions. From their experience, they know the basic skills required to be a successful maintenance technician in property management. With their help, I had all the questions for my quiz completed in no time.

Annually, we conduct two days of seminars for all of our maintenance technicians and property managers. The objective is to present topics that
will challenge and teach the employees to excel in their jobs. Included are “open forum” times in which problems, solutions and tips are explained and shared. Each staffer has a problem-solving attitude and is more than willing to share ideas and experiences.

Sometimes unique circumstances compel us to finish an immense amount of maintenance in a very short time. After putting out a call for volunteers, help arrived from sites over four hours away. One would think supervising a large crew like that would be difficult. Yet when you work with employees who are talented and know what our corporate standard is, supervising becomes a matter of handing out work orders and pointing the crew to the proper building. They know what has to be done and they do it well. Their knowledge, willingness to help and experience are important resources—not only for our clients—but for all of us in the LaSalle Group family.