Building Energy Workforce of the Future

Throughout my career, I've tried to share my passion for energy issues with family and friends, not always successfully! When I was seven months pregnant, as a mid-career energy lawyer, I tried a month-long natural gas pipeline rate case. This was back when it was all the rage to play classical music, preferably Mozart, to your child in utero. Instead, my child got a full month of cross-examination about rates of return and minimum bills.

Once she emerged, my daughter heard lots more about rate cases and navigating FERC practice and procedures. So, you might have thought my daughter was poised for a career in energy. But the moment of truth came when her middle school had Career Day. I offered to go and talk about my job. Annie refused because my job was "too boring." That was soul-crushing, but I survived.

Today, Annie has a successful career in broadcast journalism - with a STEM connection. She co-hosts and co-produces the brand-new podcast "Undiscovered" for NPR's Science Friday, telling the stories of the "left turns and false starts that make science happen." And I am still trying to convince younger people how cool an energy career can be!

In fact, the energy industry has much to do to attract young people to our rapidly changing workforce. The good news, says the Center for Energy Workforce Development, is that the number of eighteen to thirty-two year olds in the energy workforce is trending upward. Targeted career awareness and recruitment efforts are attracting the next generation to energy careers.

However, as the center points out in its 2016 State of the Energy Workforce report, our industry is not just dealing with an aging workforce. Age is just one factor. Other trends like infrastructure modernization, regulatory policy changes, cleaner energy mix, new build, and cyber and physical security threats are shaping our workforce needs.

In many organizations, retired employees are not just being replaced one-for-one. "In fact, their jobs may be retired with them while the work is completely reengineered," says the center. These changes are redefining our approach to workforce planning and development.

Attracting the Workforce We Need to Power Our Future

Public power utilities are focusing on four key areas - engaging students, understanding millennials, investing in succession planning, and nurturing diversity. And the American Public Power Association, along with other energy organizations, is partnering with the Center for Energy Workforce Development to transfer best practices and lessons learned to our members.

Engaging students: From middle school to community colleges, public power utilities are often in local schools to talk to students about careers in energy, get them to think about smart energy use, and invite them to experience what it's like to work at a utility.

Our association's research and development program, Demonstration of Energy and Efficiency Developments, offers student scholarships and funds member utilities to hire interns to work on special projects. Often, these interns go on to have long-term careers in public power or other energy sectors.

When Girish Balachandran was studying at UCLA in 1989, he didn't have the money for next semester's tuition. He saw a flyer posted in the engineering department for just such a scholarship. The project dealt with load control and energy efficiency concepts.

It was perfect timing and his application was accepted. Today, Balachandran is the general manager of Riverside Public Utilities in Riverside, California, and serves on the Association's board. The scholarship introduced him to a successful career.

"In a five- to six-year period, I was given an opportunity to be an analyst and work on contract negotiations with many utilities and then be involved in regulatory proceedings that were happening statewide," he said. "Many of my friends who finished graduate school and went on to do MBAs - the stuff I was doing at work was what they were learning about in business school. Contract negotiation, regulatory proceedings. At a muni, you get to deal with all these things. So it was very satisfying to work in public power."

The Center for Energy Workforce Development has a National Energy Education Network. It comprises more than a hundred fifty universities, community colleges, technical schools, high schools and career centers that train students for technical careers in energy. Educators there must foster partnerships with the Center industry members, provide education required by the industry member and report results through agreed upon metrics.

As Ann Randazzo, executive director of the Center points out, "If we know the population is struggling to get a certificate or degree that our industry requires, it's automatically 'our' problem. We need to take a strategic and coordinated approach as an industry to change the outcome. Fortunately, we see many examples across the country where the center's members are doing just that."

Understanding millennials: It's been said many times already, but we can't say it too often. Millennials - generations Y and Z - entering the workforce are very different from Baby Boomers and Generation X. These new entrants are sophisticated, tech-savvy, flexible and eager to explore. And this "selfie" generation will constitute more than fifty percent of the energy workforce by 2020.

Public power utilities are working to evaluate and revise long-standing employment practices to keep up with the cultural norms and needs of the changing workforce. For example, Easton Utilities in Maryland allows telework for jobs that don't need face time, offers flexible work weeks for those whose work can only be done in person, conducts onsite fitness training programs and even has a garden that employees can work in.

Many millennials are passionate about social causes and hence ideally suited to work in not-for-profit, community-owned utilities. Public power is leveraging this passion by engaging younger employees in its public service mission and empowering them to find new ways to give back to the community in which they grew up.

Every sector of the energy industry needs to understand millennials and find out what it can offer to suit their wide spectrum of interests and skills. We also must recognize that this generation is seeking new experiences and opportunities rather than permanence.

Millennials are not likely to stay in the same jobs for ten or even five years. So we need to prepare to get the best out of them while we have them - and hope they like us so much they decide to stay!

Investing in succession planning:While welook at the incoming workforce, we cannot forget the seasoned workers in energy who still have a lot to give before they retire. While new technologies and new players are rapidly entering the energy space, the fundamental values that enable the delivery of safe, reliable, and affordable electricity for all are unchanging and must be passed on from one generation to another.

At Nashville Electric Service in Tennessee, addressing the gap in knowledge transfer has been a priority for over a decade now. All managers and supervisors go through systematic training so they can move up exposed to the same knowledge.

President and CEO Decosta Jenkins introduced the focus on succession planning. He says, "The best way to do that is to put in place programs which are documented and structured. And then those procedures are more easily passed along - as opposed to knowledge transfer from one generation to another by word of mouth or on the job training. And now we see increased efficiency, higher levels of safety and higher levels of employee satisfaction. People seem to like to know what's expected of them."

Santee Cooper, a large public power utility in South Carolina, has an impressive program called STEP - Shaping Tomorrow's Energy Professionals - that is designed to develop leadership qualities, transfer company and industry knowledge and help to groom replacements from within the company for employees who are likely to soon retire.

Much time and thought has been put into this curriculum and choice of employee participants from various parts of the company. I can say from personal experience, having presented twice to these groups, that there is a spirit of camaraderie among the participants. Given Santee Cooper's size, these folks might not have gotten to know each other very well but for this program.

Nurturing diversity: Diversity in the workforce is not easy to define. As Lisa Lewis, vice president of people and culture at CPS Energy in San Antonio says, "Being diverse means our workforce reflects the community in which we live and serve, through age, gender, ethnicity, race, education, etc. And it means valuing those differences when it comes to solving problems and getting work done."

A workforce that reflects the diversity of the community ensures that the utility is more in tune with customer needs and preferences.

Many companies also create employee resource groups, which bring together staff with similar backgrounds. "If you create a resource group for military veterans, for example, there's automatically a place where they feel comfortable asking questions or asking for help," says the Center's Ann Randazzo. "Having an organization you can go to where you feel welcome makes a huge difference."

The Omaha Public Power District has five employee resource groups - the Society of Engineers, Young Professionals Group, African American Network, Women's Network and Veterans Group - which help cultivate ideas from all types of employees. 

Diversity of thoughts and ideas helps them drive good decision-making and better customer service.

Courtney Polk, chair of the Young Professionals Group, says, "We put together a team to create an innovation initiative, so employees have a voice in new ideas the district goes after. It's been exciting that we've gone from being just a social group to also figuring out how we can be a seat at the table and have a voice."

We in the energy industry need to have a strong voice when tomorrow's workforce makes career choices. We need to show our stuff, and get them energized about the vitally important work we do. Because without electricity, the quality of life for all of us, including the future workers we want to attract, would be radically different - and certainly worse.