What Is an On-Site Mission?
An on-site mission is a defined piece of work on a specific machine, carried out at your site by a field service technician you hire directly. It has a scope, a date window, a price agreed in advance, and a written record at the end.
The defining feature is that the machine is the centre of everything. You select it when you post, and that selection quietly does most of the work: it sets the brand, industry and equipment type used to rank technicians, it gives applicants the context they need to quote accurately, and it keeps the resulting report attached to an asset rather than floating loose.
On-site
A defined job on one machine, at your site. Quoted, scheduled, reported.
Remote
The same brief, but solved over a connection. No travel, faster start.
Shift cover
A rota position rather than a repair. No single machine, no report.
When On-Site Is the Right Choice
Choosing the wrong mission type is the most common reason a brief attracts poor applications. The three types are not interchangeable, and the decision is usually straightforward once you know what you are actually buying.
Physical intervention needed
Parts, tools, hands on the machine
Fault not yet identified
Symptoms known, cause unclear
Commissioning or installation
New equipment, defined deliverable
An empty rota position
Presence needed, work unpredictable
Posting an On-Site Mission, Step by Step
The form is built around the machine and works in a fixed order. Each step narrows who sees the mission and how accurately they can price it.
Step 1: Select the machine and add photos
Pick the machine from your profile and the brand, industry and equipment type are detected automatically. At least one photo is required, and captions matter more than most people expect: a clear shot of the fault code or the failed component tends to produce noticeably better applications than a general view of the machine.
Step 2: Set the required skills
Add the skills the work actually needs. Suggestions are drawn from your previous missions, so repeat work gets quicker to post over time. Be honest about scope here: over-tagging narrows the pool without improving the match, and under-tagging brings in applicants who cannot do the job.
Step 3: Write the description
A draft can be generated from your title, machine details, skills, schedule and photo captions, then refined before posting. Because it reads the captions, a well-labelled photo produces a noticeably better first draft. Always review and edit it: the description is the single thing every applicant reads.
Step 4: Days needed and machine availability
Enter how many workdays the mission needs, then the window in which the machine can actually be released. These are two different things, and separating them is deliberate: a two day job inside a five day window is far easier to staff than a two day job that must happen on specific dates.
Step 5: List the parts
Name any parts the technician is expected to bring. Listing an exact part number removes the most common cause of a wasted visit, which is a technician arriving prepared for a different revision of the same component. If you are supplying the parts yourself, say so in the description.
Step 6: Arrival instructions and budget
Arrival instructions are visible only to the technician you assign, so gate codes, parking, directions and who to ask for on arrival can be recorded safely rather than emailed the night before. The total budget sets expectations for applicants, with the currency taken from your company profile.
Step 7: Perks and site requirements
Perks such as transport, hotel or a canteen make a mission more attractive, particularly where travel is involved. Site requirements such as hard hat, hi vis, ESD protection or lock-out certification come from your company profile and apply to every mission, so a technician knows before applying whether they can meet them.
Step 8: Publish
Post to all matching technicians, or keep the mission invite only when you would rather approach specific people, which is common for confidential work. You can also require liability insurance, and flag the mission as urgent to attract faster responses.
Why the Machine Drives Everything
On an on-site mission the equipment you select carries real weight in how technicians are ranked. Skills matter most, but the machine brand, equipment type and industry all contribute, because somebody who has worked on that exact extruder or that exact press brings knowledge that does not transfer from a generic equivalent.
This is the main practical difference from shift cover, where brand is not scored at all and location dominates instead. For a one-off repair it is usually worth waiting a day for somebody who knows the machine. For a rota position it is not, because they have to be there every morning.
The takeaway is to keep your machine list accurate and complete. Every machine you add widens the range of missions you can post quickly and improves the quality of the technicians who surface.
Quotes, the 6% Platform Fee and Payment
Unlike shift cover, on-site missions are quoted by the technician. Applicants send a quotation with their message, either an hourly rate against your estimated hours or a single fixed price covering labour, travel and materials for the whole mission. You compare quotes alongside profiles, ratings and completed missions before deciding.
When you approve a quote, the platform adds a flat 6% platform fee, made up of 3% payment processing and 3% platform. That fee is paid by the company on top of the quoted amount, which means the technician receives 100% of what they quoted. Payment is taken up front and held, then released to the technician when the mission completes.
The comparison with the traditional route is stark. Recruitment and contractor agencies typically add a margin on every hour worked, with figures commonly reported in the industrial staffing market falling somewhere in the 25% to 50% range, though this varies by country and contract. A flat 6% does not scale with the length of the engagement, and the exact arithmetic is shown on screen before you commit to anything.
Hourly or fixed price?
As a general guide, hourly suits work where the scope is genuinely uncertain, such as fault finding, because you pay for the hours actually approved. A fixed price suits well-defined work such as a planned replacement or a commissioning task, because it moves the risk of overrun to the technician. Neither is universally cheaper, and the right choice usually depends on how confidently the job can be scoped before anybody arrives.
Timesheets, Extra Costs and the Mission Report
During the mission the technician logs hours as they work, and can attach photos to those entries. You review and approve each timesheet, or enable automatic approval if you would rather not check daily. Approved hours are what feed the final settlement.
Costs that were not foreseeable at quoting, such as a part bought locally to keep the job moving, are raised as extra costs and need your approval before they are added. Nothing is charged silently.
At the end, on-site missions produce a mission report: a structured written record of what was found, what was done, and what remains outstanding, with photos and the daily logs attached. That report is often the most valuable part of the engagement, because it becomes the maintenance history for that asset long after the technician has left.
Writing a Brief That Gets Good Quotes
A technician quoting an on-site mission is trying to estimate two things: how long the work will take, and what could go wrong. Vague briefs get padded quotes, because the padding is the only defence against an unknown. Briefs that tend to produce sharper pricing include:
- The exact model and revision of the equipment, not just the brand
- Fault codes and error messages, quoted verbatim
- What has already been tried, and what it ruled out
- Whether documentation, drawings or software backups are available
- Whether the machine will be isolated and ready when they arrive
- Who supplies parts, and whether they are already on site
- Access constraints such as permits, inductions or restricted hours
If the fault is not yet understood, consider posting a short remote mission first. Diagnosing over a connection is usually cheaper than diagnosing in person, and it turns a vague on-site brief into a specific one.
Disclaimer: This guide is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute professional, legal, or financial advice. All rates, timelines, and market data referenced are indicative estimates based on general market observations and may not reflect current conditions. Actual costs, qualifications, and regulatory requirements vary by country, industry, and project. Always verify information with relevant local regulations, obtain professional advice where appropriate, and request multiple quotes before committing to any engagement. FindFST accepts no liability for decisions made based on the content of this guide.
Post Your On-Site Mission
Describe the machine and the fault, and put it in front of verified industrial technicians who have worked on that equipment before. Compare quotes, then book.
Hire industrial field service technicians directly for on-site work. No agencies, just a flat 6% platform fee, and the technician keeps 100% of their rate.