Gainesville Regional Utilities Utility Academy

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Gainesville Regional UtilitiesUtility Academy

• Seven Years - Eight Classes
• Still Evolving!

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Who is GRU?

• 1860 Gainesville is incorporated
• 1891 offer of Free Water to lure business
• 1912 Didnt pay the Electric Bill
• Over 115 years later
• 92,000 Electric Customers _at_600MW 130 Sq. Mi.
• 65,000 Water Customers _at_54MGD
• Wastewater Collection Reclamation
• 45,000 Gas Customers
• Business Residential Internet Services
• Alachua County Trunking Radio System

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Problems We Face

• Aging Workforce
• Retirements Looming
• Recruitment Issues
• Diversity Issues
• Expanding Services
• Aging Infrastructure
• X-Box Generation

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Solution Development Cycle
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SYMPTOMS

• Pre-employment assessment failures
• Deficiencies
• New, inexperienced employees
• Hiring diverse individuals from our community
• Experienced employees
• Higher overall costs associated with advertising,
  hiring and training due to
• Turnover of probationary employees
• Experienced employees (advertising and recruiting)

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Find em Train em(Develop Solution)

• Local Recruitment
• Aptitude Testing
• Background Checks
• Interviews
• Focused Development
• Applied Mathematics
• Practical Utility Skills Abilities

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Utility Academy

• Field-instructor led classes
• Knowledge evaluations
• Performance evaluations
• Constant feedback
• Familiarization with GRU
• Voluntary Up or Out environment similar to
  secondary education institutions

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Utility Academy Points

• We are seeking Professionals desiring a career
  not people who Want a Job
• Establish and Work to STANDARDS
• Performance
• Conduct
• Personal
• We dont work for GRU, we ARE GRU

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The PROCESS Local Recruitment (Implement
Solutions)

• Advertisement
• Flyers
• Newspaper Ads
• Word of Mouth
• Information Sessions
• GRU Administration Building
• Local Churches
• (GATHER AND ANALYZE THE RESULTS)

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The PROCESSAptitude Testing

• Designed by a contracted Industrial Psychologist
• Not a knowledge examination
• Reading and comprehending instructions
• Map Reading
• Match materials to a materials requirement list
• Mathematics
• (GATHER AND ANALYZE THE RESULTS)

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The PROCESSInterviews

• Specific questions designed by our contracted
  Industrial Psychologist
• Objective / identical questions asked of ALL
  applicants
• Answers are graded against a suggested answer
  sheet with scoring above / below the normal
  responses
• (GATHER AND ANALYZE THE RESULTS)

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The PROCESSBackground Checks

• Local and state police checks
• Compare results against the Information
  Willingness forms collected at the IW sessions
• (GATHER AND ANALYZE THE RESULTS)

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How Did We Do in 2007?(Evaluate)
170 Information Session Attendance
135 Interest Willingness Forms Submitted
70 Aptitude Tests Administered
13 Passed with Cut-Score of 80 90.3 Attrition of those interested
33 Passed with Cut-Score 70 75.5 Attrition of those interested
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How Did We Do in 2007?

• Interviews
• 32 of the 33 eligible candidates were interviewed
  and passed
• 30 passed background checks
• 30 applicants eligible to begin the Utility
  Academy
• 78 attrition rate before Academy begins

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Safeguards

• Interest Willingness Forms
• City Policy 18 Nepotism rule
• Residential Boundary policy
• Medical Release
• Hold-Harmless agreement

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Figgurin(Southern Mathematics)

• 10-week mathematics course
• Independent of the Practical phase of the
  Academy
• Twice weekly / 2 hours 40 hours of mathematics
  (does not include 3 tutoring sessions)
• BASIC math to establish a foundation and build
  toward introduction to Algebra (to be able to
  solve a2 b2 c2

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Who Showed Up?

• 29 Candidates showed up the first night of class
  of the 30 eligible
• 3 stopped attending class
• 1 failed the course to the point of failing
  overall (70)
• 3 failed the final examination to the point of
  failing overall (70)
• 22 Candidates eligible for the practical phase
• 27 Attrition Rate from the mathematics course
  84 Attrition from those interested

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Lets get to WORK

• Practical Phase of the class 7 weeks of
  mandatory class with 1 Bonus Week

Safety Lower Back Injury Prevention Hand Tools
Their Uses Power Tools Their Uses Job Site
Protection
Personal Protective Equipment Valve
Construction Trenching / Excavating Wire Use
Handling Pipe Material Handling Confined Space
Instrumentation Measurement
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The Rubber Meets the Road

• Trainees were exposed to physically demanding
  tasks
• Digging evaluations
• Use of tools in simulated field construction
  scenarios
• Exposure to working at elevation and in simulated
  confined space environments
• Seven weeks of exposure to Safety / Training and
  Crew personnel including past academy graduates

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Job Requirements Matrix
Division Performance Evaluations Mathematics Confined Space Working at Elevations Digging Exercise
Electric TD X 70 X X X
Water Distribution X 70 X X
Wastewater Collection X 70 X X
Gas Operations X 70 X
Power Plant X 70 Grade X Grade
Water Treatment Plant X 80 X Grade
Wastewater Reclamation Facility X 80 X Grade
Line Technicians X 70 X X
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Statistics

• Two individuals could not get medical
  authorization to participate in the practical
  phase
• One person demonstrated a bad attitude toward
  safety and supervision and was excused
• One person excused himself from the program
  because GRU didnt seem like a good fit

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Statistics

• Attrition from those that completed the Interest
  Willingness forms 87
• Attrition from those that were eligible to begin
  the Academy 77

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One MORE Opportunity

• Academy Graduates were not getting to the
  interviews
• Academy Graduates were not getting the entry
  level craft skill positions!!
• Investigation revealed
• They werent making it past the HR Screeners
  because the applications were not filled out
  completely / correctly
• They were performing miserably during the
  interviews

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Corrective Action

• 1 evening session of How to fill out an
  application
• 1 evening session of How to Interview
• How to sell yourself during the interview
• 30 Second Tell me about yourself
• 1 evening session of actual interviewing
• Interviewers conduct an interview and then
  critique it with the trainee

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Is Our Academy Working?(Identify the Problem
Again)

• Pre-employment Assessment Failures
• Addressed for entry-level craft skill positions
• Deficit in new, inexperienced employees
• We run a surplus of academy graduates each year
  placing 80 of our graduates

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Is Our Academy Working?

• Deficit in hiring diversity from local area
• The Academy has not solved the diversity problem
  but we are working with local school boards,
  educational facilities, youth groups and church
  groups to better define what we are dealing with
• Deficit in experienced employees
• An opportunity to supply personnel for new hires
  to replace our rapidly aging workforce

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Is Our Academy Working?

• Higher overall costs to advertise / hire / train
  due to probationary employee turnover
• Academy trainees not only stay with GRU but most
  of them surpass expectations
• Higher overall costs to advertise / recruit /
  train experienced employees
• As our reliance on finding experienced
  employees decreases, so does our costs associated
  with recruiting / employing them

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Additional Benefits

• Intangibles such as Buy-In from the managers
  and crews because they have a vested interest in
  the Academy
• Getting a much better entry-level craft skill
  employee a PROFFESSIONAL
• Retention in the seven years of the academy, we
  have terminated one employee and another employee
  returned to his prior position.
• Weve lost others to area competitors (Telephone
  / CATV / Competing utilities)

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Where to now?

• Refine the Academy process
• Address Progression Through Training Program
  Opportunities
• GRUSelect
• A series of aptitude examinations to better
  determine a new employees suitability for
  specific types of work for our Progression-
  Through-Training Programs
• Win-win situation -This premise is based on The
  Best Employee for the Job concept that should
  make a better fit for the employee and the utility

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Questions?
Geoff Warnock Gainesville Regional
Utilities warnockge_at_gru.com [phone]