How to Hire a Building Maintenance Technician

Why hire a building maintenance technician?

Hiring a building maintenance technician can be extremely beneficial for your business. Having dedicated personnel on-site to address maintenance concerns for tenants promotes a positive customer experience. Additionally, a building maintenance technician will monitor the safety systems in your building so you can be sure your tenants are protected in emergencies.

Contributions of a great building maintenance technician:

• Management and resolution of maintenance concerns
• Organized inventory of repair materials
• Properly working safety systems

Deciding between a full-time vs freelance building maintenance technician

Depending on the size of the building your business is operating out of, it may be unnecessary to hire a full-time maintenance technician. For small buildings, there won’t be enough work to justify a full-timer. Hiring freelancers to take care of work when it comes up can save the company money overall. Companies that work out of large buildings can also hire freelance building maintenance technicians if they’re in the middle of replacing their last one and need work done.

Typically, however, companies in larger buildings would want to have a full-time technician on staff to save money and have maintenance work done in a timely manner. 

What are the types of building maintenance technicians?

Building maintenance technicians can work in a variety of buildings. The type of building they work in may change their responsibilities and daily work. These jobs include:

• Building superintendent: A building superintendent is often skilled in a variety of maintenance areas, including HVAC, plumbing, carpentry and electrical work. Superintendents work in residential buildings and respond directly to residents’ concerns. 
• Apartment maintenance technician: Apartment maintenance technicians are responsible for installing, maintaining and repairing various appliances in apartments. This may include refrigerators, microwaves, air conditioners and heating systems. These techs can also handle drywall repairs and groundskeeping.
• Facilities manager: Facilities managers are responsible for maintaining commercial facilities. Their duties include inspecting buildings for cleanliness and damage, scheduling custodians and maintenance workers and placing work orders. 
• Property caretaker: Property caretakers often look after buildings in exchange for a living space. Their daily tasks can include cleaning, emptying trash and determining if specific parts of the building need maintenance. 

Where to find building maintenance technicians

To find the right building maintenance technician for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

• Post help wanted signs. Hanging up notices around the community can let people know the position is available and attract quality candidates. 
• Hire from within. Ask your current staff to determine if any employees are looking to make a lateral move to the maintenance department. Conduct interviews with interested individuals to see if they possess the required skills and qualifications.
• Network. By building relationships with similar businesses in the area, you may be able to find candidates who are interested in your open building maintenance technician position. Set up meetings with these individuals to determine if they’re a good fit. 
• Post your job online. Try posting your building maintenance technician job on Indeed to find and attract quality building maintenance technician candidates.

What are the types of building maintenance technicians?

Building maintenance technicians can work in a variety of buildings. The type of building they work in may change their responsibilities and daily work. These jobs include:

• Building superintendent: A building superintendent is often skilled in a variety of maintenance areas, including HVAC, plumbing, carpentry and electrical work. Superintendents work in residential buildings and respond directly to residents’ concerns. 
• Apartment maintenance technician: Apartment maintenance technicians are responsible for installing, maintaining and repairing various appliances in apartments. This may include refrigerators, microwaves, air conditioners and heating systems. These techs can also handle drywall repairs and groundskeeping.
• Facilities manager: Facilities managers are responsible for maintaining commercial facilities. Their duties include inspecting buildings for cleanliness and damage, scheduling custodians and maintenance workers and placing work orders. 
• Property caretaker: Property caretakers often look after buildings in exchange for a living space. Their daily tasks can include cleaning, emptying trash and determining if specific parts of the building need maintenance. 

Writing a building maintenance technician job description

A thoughtful description is important to finding qualified building maintenance technician candidates. A building maintenance technician job description includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position.

When writing your building maintenance technician job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on building maintenance technician jobs, according to Indeed data:

• Maintenance
• Maintenance technician
• Building maintenance
• Maintenance person
• Maintenance supervisor
• Building engineer
• Facilities maintenance
• Maintenance mechanic
• Facilities manager
• Facilities

Interviewing building maintenance technician candidates

Strong candidates for building maintenance technician positions will be confident answering questions regarding:

• Their understanding of safety regulations
• How they prioritize tasks
• Prior relevant experience

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of building maintenance technician interview questions for examples (with sample answers).