. what attracted you to consulting engineering and the electric utility industry?
Baby boomers are retiring, unemployment is low, skilled craft workers are in short supply, and human resource in the workforce are a growing issue for power industry management.
"Demography is destiny." That useful phrase, often attributed to 19th century French social scientist (and father of "positivism") Auguste Comte, offers an of import lesson for the electric power manufacture today.
For a powerful case, expect at the massive, troubled Vogtle nuclear construction projection in Georgia. Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power, majority owner of the projection, reported to the Georgia Public Service Commission in late April that construction contractor Bechtel is facing a serious problem attracting skilled labor to the site, where some five,000 workers are building the 2-unit of measurement, 2,234-MW nuclear plant expansion.
Georgia Power told the land regulators that labor shortages, particularly in skilled craft workers, could filibuster the already badly behind schedule projection beyond the electric current projections of 2021 and 2022 (Figure 1). Shortages of workers also touch the structure costs, every bit the existing labor force must often work overtime, earning pay premiums. The report says unanticipated labor costs were "sending its budget 20 per centum above what was initially set."
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| ane. Staffing woes. Skilled arts and crafts labor, such every bit electricians, pipefitters, and ironworkers, are in high need. Georgia Ability recently informed the Georgia Public Service Commission that labor shortages could delay completion of the Vogtle nuclear expansion. Source: U.South. Army Corps of Engineers/Jon Fleshman |
A Georgia Power spokesman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the utility company is "actively working with the building trades to attract and hire the craft labor needed for the projection," including a recent Bechtel-hosted task off-white for skilled craftsmen.
U.S. Population and Economics
The Vogtle project is a microcosm of larger trends in U.S. labor demographics and manufacture economics found throughout the ability industry. The Population Education website highlights some of the demographic issues in the U.Due south. today. The fertility rate in 2016 was 1.9 children per woman, below replacement level fertility of 2.1. The birth rate remains college than the national decease rate, so the population is growing, but very slowly. That's combined with the crumbling of the infant boom generation (those built-in between 1946 and 1964), which reduces the workforce past retirements and death.
Immigration has become more than important in America's population. Population Education notes, "Clearing accounted for 45% of population growth in 2016, and in several states (Maryland, Massachusetts, and Rhode Isle) fabricated the deviation between a shrinking population and a growing ane. In 34 states, international arrivals outpaced domestic arrivals (people moving between states)." U.Due south. immigration policy will contribute to how this trend moves, every bit the Trump assistants wants to ho-hum immigration. The Washington Post recently editorialized, "America needs more workers. Trump's war on immigration won't help."
Economics besides makes a major contribution to workforce bug. The U.S. economic system is growing steadily, if not spectacularly, averaging around 2% annually for the past several years, while U.S. unemployment has been reduced from a high of about 10% in 2009 to 3.ix% in Apr, the lowest in 17 years, according to the U.Due south. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The result is increased competition for labor, particularly skilled labor.
The increased competition among employers comes as the electricity business organization is experiencing low growth and brackish revenues and profits. Competitive power markets, which cover nigh one-half of U.S. utility customers, require bidders into wholesale markets to keep costs as low as possible.
Looking at utility employment over a decade agone, Brad Kitterman and Jack Dugan, then with the information technology consulting house Logica, which has since get role of CGI, wrote, "At nearly utilities, little or no opportunity for significant revenue growth has existed for some time while increasing personnel related expenses have continued to squeeze profit margins. To achieve the annual earnings improvement targets of x–15% their stakeholders have expected, utilities take had no alternative but to reduce ongoing operational expenses dramatically, and often that has meant cutting staff." Little has inverse (see sidebar "A Statistical Snapshot of the Electrical Power Workforce").
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that more than 1.9 million people are employed in jobs related to electric power generation and fuels, while 2.two million people are working in industries directly or partly related to energy efficiency. Job growth in renewable free energy is especially potent.
From 2010 to 2015, the solar industry created 115,000 new jobs. In 2016, approximately 374,000 individuals worked, in whole or in function, for solar firms, with more than 260,000 of those employees spending well-nigh of their time on solar. At that place were an additional 102,000 workers employed at wind farms across the nation. The solar workforce increased by 25% in 2016 (Figure ii), while wind employment increased by 32%.
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| 2. Solar industry jobs explode. According to the Department of Energy, solar firms employed, in whole or in role, about 374,000 people in 2016, a 25% increase from 2015. Source: U.S. Section of Labor |
Evolving Challenges
In reporting on Vogtle'southward labor shortages, the Journal-Constitution interviewed the managing director of the Augusta, Georgia, function of the International Alliance of Electrical Workers. He told the newspaper that the dearth of skilled labor is a statewide problem, "which he attributes in part to an abundance of ongoing construction projects across the land. He said hiring for Vogtle is specially hard as other companies are providing ameliorate pay and incentives, luring some skilled workers abroad from the establish."
In its Quarterly Energy Review released in January, the U.S. Section of Free energy said, "The evolving demands on the electricity industry are causing a number of workforce challenges for the electricity industry, which include large shifts in skills needed and in geographic location of jobs, a skills gap for deploying and operating newer technologies, changes occurring during a period when the industry is facing high levels of retirements, and challenges recruiting and retaining a workforce that reflects the gender and racial variety of the Nation [see sidebar "The Whistleblower Challenge"]. At the aforementioned time, the evolution of the manufacture is too creating a number of new workforce opportunities, including jobs in renewable energy, natural gas, and data and communications technology (ICT)."
The review emphasized the changing nature of electric industry jobs. "The electricity manufacture offers diverse jobs, which require a variety of skills. … Traditional jobs, such equally lineman, volition keep to be needed, but the increase of renewable energy, as well as an increased ICT component to the electricity industry, will change the skillset required for many jobs in the electricity system of the 21st century."
Andrew Bennett of Schneider Electrical three years agone noted, "More than half of the current utility workforce volition be eligible to retire in the adjacent half-dozen–viii years," leaving a gap in legacy knowledge. At the same time, "the number of graduating engineers entering the utility workforce is on the decline and recruiting new workers with the right skills for the job is becoming more than hard each twelvemonth."
DOE added, "The electricity industry will need a cross-disciplinary power grid workforce that can comprehend, design, and manage cyber-physical systems; the industry will increasingly crave a workforce adept in risk assessment, behavioral scientific discipline and familiarity with cyber hygiene." The Quarterly Free energy Review also flagged a current trouble that flows from industry practices some 30 years ago. "A dip in the number of electricity industry workforce grooming programs in the 1980s contributed to a currently low number of workers in the electrical utilities able to move into middle and upper management positions—creating a workforce gap every bit the large number of baby boomers retire."
Multifariousness is also a problem, according to DOE. "Electricity and related industries employ fewer women and minorities than the national boilerplate, but have a higher proportion of veterans. Only v per centum of the boards of utilities in the United States in 2015 include women, and approximately xiii per centum of board members amidst the pinnacle 10 publicly owned utilities were African American or Latino. Underrepresentation in or lack of access to science, engineering science, engineering, and mathematics educational opportunities and programs contribute to the underrepresentation of minorities and women inside the electricity manufacture."
Citing Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, DOE reported that electric power generation provided 192,000 jobs in 2015, with an boilerplate annual income of $116,000. Electric manual and distribution provided 290,000 jobs with an boilerplate almanac income of $99,000.
Alluring Talent
Electrical companies are well aware of the human resources challenges facing them, but none has yet offered solutions that have attracted widespread adoption. Increased pay is ane obvious arroyo, but the weakened land of utility earnings can be an obstacle. Task fairs are an like shooting fish in a barrel approach, simply without incentives for workers to switch jobs, they aren't probable to yield major results.
Other industries have begun offer signing bonuses for skilled trades. The Wall Street Journal reported that two major U.S. rail carriers, BNSF Railway and Matrimony Pacific, are offering up to $25,000 signing bonuses for trades such equally electrician, plumber, and pipefitter (Figure 3). That's on top of jobs that average $40,000 in pay for the first twelvemonth and $threescore,000 for the side by side.
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| iii. Sign me up. Skilled trade workers, including electricians, boilermakers, and pipefitters, are being offered signing bonuses by BNSF Railways, a rare windfall for blueish-collar recruits. Source: U.South. Air Force/Kelly White |
A spokeswoman for BNSF (owned by Berkshire Hathaway, which also owns the electric utility MidAmerican Free energy) told the newspaper, "We are constantly evaluating the marketplace and will utilize this approach when it makes sense to recruit talented individuals for difficult to make full positions or locations."
Global energy giant Siemens has long had a delivery to apprenticeships, growing out of its experience in Germany where apprenticeships are a widespread and popular part of industrial human resources programs. A U.S. Section of Labor (DOL) publication quotes David Etzweiler, CEO of the Siemens Foundation, "We're passionate nigh scaling this 'earn and learn' model in the U.S. Siemens knows first-hand how valuable apprenticeships are to growing the workforce needed to be successful." The publication identifies American Electric Power, Not bad River Free energy, Idaho Power, and MidAmerican Energy as among the leaders in electric utility apprenticeship programs, which the federal section encourages. DOL identifies powerhouse electrician, line maintenance, instrumentation technician, and substation operator as among the skills companies are targeting with apprenticeship programs.
A wrinkle on utility apprenticeship programs is the Northwest Lineman College, an accredited four-year private-sector schoolhouse to train lineworkers. Started in 1993, the higher'southward chief campus is in Idaho, with other locations in California, Texas, and Florida. Information technology describes itself every bit "a four-year educational curriculum providing the related educational activity component of apprenticeship for lineworkers. It is a fully accredited program offered to electrical utility and construction companies for their apprentice lineworker employees.
"Northwest Lineman College provides all related instruction, manages preparation calendars and records, and sends notification of all required training for apprentices. Upon successful completion, enrollees will earn Northwest Lineman College Certificate of Completion and Department of Labor Journeyman Certification if the participating utility or structure company'south program is registered with the Part of Apprenticeship or like land agency."
Understanding and dealing with employees who feel they or the public have been subject to discrimination, specially when they believe company management has been roofing up personal or public health and rubber issues, has long been a challenge to the ability industry. Tough federal laws and a tight labor market together make dealing with whistleblowers even more hard.
Today's labor market, as older workers move out and younger staff take their place, could brand whistleblowing more common, Sherry Travers (Figure 4), an practiced in labor and employment law at the Dallas house of Littler Mendelson, told Ability. "Somebody in their 40 to 60s may exist reluctant to enhance issues considering [they] believe they might have bug finding another job. People coming into the work strength don't have that perspective."
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| iv. Human resource policy expert. Sherry Travers has extensive feel litigating and consulting on behalf of management regarding a variety of labor and employment topics including whistleblowing and retaliation. Courtesy: Littler Mendelson |
At that place is a tendency for management to want to retaliate when an employee raises wellness, safety, or bigotry bug, according to Travers. That'due south the worst possible reaction, as numerous laws at the federal and state level are designed to protect confronting retaliation. Those laws are designed to encourage people to come forward. Also, the rise of social media and access to news media has given aggrieved or injured workers powerful tools to make their instance.
The Department of Energy'due south (DOE's) Office of Inspector Full general offers online whistleblower information and a "whistleblower protection ombudsman." The office says, "Whistleblowers play a critical role in keeping our regime honest, efficient and accountable. In recognition of this, federal laws outline the duty of federal employees to disclose wrongdoing, and they are to do so in an environment complimentary from the threat of retaliation." DOE contractor employees are too protected confronting retaliation.
DOE says the whistleblower ombudsman's part "is to brainwash DOE employees, contractors and grantees almost prohibitions on retaliation for protected disclosures and their rights and remedies if they have been retaliated against for making protected disclosures. The law does non permit the whistleblower protection ombudsman to act as a legal representative, agent, or advocate for DOE employees, contractors and grantees."
2 industries in Travers' practice, health care and financial services, have made cracking strides in developing structures and policies to manage whistleblowing and eschew whatsoever form of retaliation. Not so much in energy, said Travers. "Energy industries have basically been in the shadows of health care and financial services."
There is a trend among some managers to turn a blind eye to workday problems. Co-ordinate to Travers, when it comes to energy workplaces, "workers tend to be out in the field and more remote from top level management. There are likewise transient workers. It's much easier for things to go undetected or unaddressed."
When it comes to responding correctly to whistleblowers, including issues of internal reporting and redress of legitimate claims, "the free energy industry is way backside," said Travers. Many are yet in the bad erstwhile days of the "hotline," where employees can call in their grievances. "Those are a black pigsty, where a worker calls in and nothing gets washed."
Instead, companies need to plan programs to respond to whistleblowers that include training managers, providing clear communication, ensuring transparency of the process, and responding apace. "If a complaint is filed," said Travers, "something must be done about information technology. Chop-chop."
Irresolute Business organization Practices
While almost of what utilities are looking at to come across their workforce bug—pay, task fairs, bonuses, preparation, and apprenticeships—are adequately conventional, consultants Kitterman and Dugan suggested a more radical arroyo in 2006. "Utilities now have the unique possibility of making business improvements that can reduce futurity costs," they said.
The crux of their approach was a "digital arrangement," where "the high functioning utility will institutionalize (capture existing employee knowledge about) its primal procedures and business processes, and exploit documented best practices before employees fly out the door. The loftier performance utility volition succeed by challenging accepted ideas of business as usual and finding new ways to perform and improve on its core business despite staffing challenges. … An integrated universal communications platform must be viewed equally the side by side engineering science that will afford utilities further opportunities to lessen their dependence on headcount."
Since then, many utilities have moved in that direction, although none appear to have accomplished full interconnectivity of operations. Last year CGI consultants interviewed 116 utility clients. They said, "The client insights indicate that executives are accelerating digital to enable deep transformation and lead in operational excellence." Of those interviewed, 88% said a meridian goal in their organization was "becoming digital organizations for client and operational excellence." ■
— Kennedy Maize is a long-time energy announcer and frequent correspondent to POWER.
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Source: https://www.powermag.com/trends-and-obstacles-in-the-power-industry-workforce/
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