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Opportunity of Workforce
Aging
Bob Wayland, R. E.
Wayland and Associates
P1269
Crisis Creates
Opportunities
Eve Sprunt, Chevron
P1256
Training for the Sake of
Training?
Robert Bowling, Salt
River Project
P1247
Managers As Skilled
Coaches
David Saxby, Measure-X
P1233
Re-thinking Hiring
Strategies
Ken Silverstein, Energy
Central
P1224
Top Employees, Top
Candidates
Tim Brennan, The
Brennan Group
P1177
Work Force, Changing
Industry
Dave Little, Little &
Associates
P1158
Solve HR Challenges
Geoff Gilmore, Climax
Portable Machine Tools
P1121
Generational Differences
in Workplace
Robert Cenek, Cenek Co.
P1107
Energy Career
Opportunities
John Reed, Quinn Reed
Associates
P1109
July/August 2006
At Birmingham-based Alabama Power, Robert Holmes,
senior vice president of ethics and business practices who is also
on the board of AABE, acknowledged that Alabama Power in
its 100-year existence “did not have a history of diversity in its
workforce. As we became enlightened, we introduced a strategy
to recruit from a wider demographic.”
Yet Holmes, who has been with Alabama Power for 28 years,
also emphasized that “we recruit talent, not minorities. We’re
trying to form a marriage of diversity and skills.” He noted that
even the “people who hang wires and drive trucks” require a twoyear
associate degree to be considered for the position.
To overcome the glass ceiling, Pinnix-Ragland would like
to see utilities match minority employees with “mentors who
can help them understand the corporate culture and develop a
targeted career development plan.”
Hiring more minorities isn’t just the right thing to do; it will
help utilities improve their bottom line, Pinnix-Ragland said. A
diverse workforce brings more innovative thinking and strong
team results which yield greater profits.
Gary Stern, a staff writer for EnergyBiz, is the coauthor
of Minority Rules: Turn Your Ethnicitity into a
Competitive Edge, co-written with Kenneth Arroyo
Roldan, (Harper Collins, August 2006), a how-to business
guide to help minorities climb the corporate ladder.
HR MANAGERS ON EMPLOYEE SHORTAGES
BY MATTHEW FOSTER
half of the nation’s electrical line workers
will retire. That was the grim report on National Public Radio
this spring.
Three years ago, the Tennessee Valley Public Power
Association reported that 62 percent of rural electric cooperative
general managers were age 50 or older, as were 61 percent of line
superintendents and 43 percent of line foremen.
To further probe the looming problem, EnergyBiz in recent
weeks contacted human resources representatives of 15 companies
employing approximately 160,000. They all report that they anticipate
a serious shortage of workers in the next few years. Skilled
tradesmen — specifically line technicians, but also mechanics
— are where the shortages are expected to be most severe. A lack of
engineers is also an area of concern.
To keep these positions filled, the most common new recruiting
strategy being developed by human resources specialists is to
reach out to young workers.
“Staffing for utilities in general has become more challenging; we
are all competing for the same dwindling resources because less people
BY MARTIN ROSENBERG
There is Beth Perlman at Constellation
Energy.
Wendy Welsh is at LG&E Energy.
Patricia Lawicki works at PG&E.
And Rebecca Blalock is at Southern
Company.
All head up strategically important
information technology at their utilities.
In fact, chief information officers at
21 percent of the top 100 utilities are
female, according to new data assembled
by Accenture.
Kathryn Sanders, who heads up global
systems integration for utilities at
Accenture and is based in Atlanta, said
that she ordered up the study of CIO
ranks when she noticed that many of the
utility CIOs she encounters are female.
Like many, Sanders believed utilities are
male dominated. Furthermore, she said,
“we are constantly hearing that women
are falling behind in math and science.”
Despite those views, the new evidence
of the growing importance of women
in addressing utility technology needs
makes sense. “Women are very good at
putting technology needs into bigger
contexts,” Sanders said. Utilities will
increasingly pay attention to female job
applicants for management assignments
as they deal with attrition caused by an
aging workforce, Sanders predicted. Still,
women have not gained easy access to
the “C” suite of executive jobs.
Accenture also studied the ranks
of utility chief financial officers and
discovered just 3 percent are woman. “We
see women doing well at the controller
level but having difficulty making the final
jump to the CFO level,” Sanders said.
Susan Tomasky, CFO of American
Electric Power, is one of the few who
successfully made the leap. Tomasky
said that utility executive management
is traditionally recruited internally from
engineering and operations personnel,
where most are male. A decade ago,
women entering the professional ranks
gravitated to technology companies — and
that is probably why a healthy proportion
of the utility CIOs today are female, she
said. “The financing area is still hard for
women to crack,” she said. Tomasky, a
lawyer, has experience in regulatory and
corporate finance work. “There still is a
lot of breaking through to do,” she said. “I
expect incremental improvement.”

MEMO FROM HR
“Right now, we’re
making a large push to
market or brand ourselves
to the public.”
CLARISSE GRAY // PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC
July/August 2006
are moving into these types of jobs,” said Jeanne Myers
at Alliant Energy, in Madison, Wis. “We need to start
building programs in high schools to channel people into
trade or technical schools.”
New recruiting tactics broadly fall into three categories:
establishing the utility presence, partnering, and pool
targeting, which is the identification and targeting of an
applicant pool.
Some companies indicated that they are concerned
the public does not see them as employers.
“When looking for new hires, we have realized that
most of the public is not familiar with the careers we
offer,” said Ralph Cruz of Colorado Springs Utilities. “We
need to exercise more detail in getting more exposure to
the public. We have to make our efforts known to the
community on a personal basis by letting people know we
offer good careers with good benefits.”
“For niche positions, it’s
hard to find people with
those skills. This will drive
compensation rates higher.”
SHARI SMITH // PROGRESS ENERGY SERVICE
Many companies said they have focused on
increasing their presence on the campuses of universities,
community colleges, trade schools and high
schools. Others said that that they have established
name-brand initiatives to market themselves.
Young workers are best reached on the Internet,
many utilities believe. Four out of five utilities go
online to recruit new workers.
But Walker Witt at South Dakota’s Black Hills
Electric Cooperative, said that he does not use online
resources. Witt said he is still able to use word-ofmouth
and newspapers to recruit new hires. “People
from right-of-way crews, which are basically laborers,
get selected as linemen,” said Witt. Witt and others
increasingly recruit internally to fill jobs that require
skilled technicians.
New efforts at outreach are also being tried. “We
have identified recruiting needs by taking an intense
look at what staffing we expect to meet in the next five
years,” said Debbi Shimanis of Exelon, in Chicago. “We
have begun to establish feeder pools by reaching out to
community-based organizations, community colleges
and diversity networking groups to see if they can help
us to meet our staffing needs.”
Companies have partnered with community colleges
to develop two-year technical degree programs and
internship cooperatives and have encouraged future
workforce planning development at the high school
level. Creativity is required.
“We anticipate a shortage in experience,” said
Miriam Corbin of the Board of Lights and Water of
the City of Marietta, Ga. “It’s going to be a difficult
time. We’ll have to be creative in how we utilize that
manpower that will be walking out the door. I hope our
experienced personnel are able to help us transition.
We’ll need to be flexible with how we use retirees for
part time and consulting.”
Utilities are setting up new systems for evaluating
applicants. Others are striving to increase diversity in their
workforce. Some are turning to professional recruiters.
Some believe such efforts should have been launched
years ago.
“As an industry as a whole,
we have waited too long to
deal with this problem.”
ROB DOHERTY // TXU ENERGY

MEMO FROM HR
“Staffing for utilities in general
has become more challenging.
We are all competing for the
same dwindling resources
because less people are moving
into these types of jobs. We need
to start building programs in
high schools to channel people
into trade or technical schools.”
JEANNE MYERS // ALLIANT ENERGY
July/August 2006
(continued from page 21) a relatively small labor pool, and an
educational foundation in jeopardy. Developmental time
for a technical workforce takes years. Ensuring the availability
of a skilled workforce will be critical for a secure and
reliable power system in the future. The industry’s future
depends on its ability to anticipate what lies ahead and
develop necessary skilled resources.
Wanda Reder is the incoming president-elect of the
IEEE Power Engineering Society and vice president
of S&C Electric’s power systems services division.
“Our industry has not
done a good job portraying
an open-door
policy to the public.
We are our own worst
enemy because we are
looking for candidates
who are too perfect.”
RALPH CRUZ
COLORADO SPRINGS UTILITIES
REPORT FROM A MARYLAND HIGH SCHOOL
BY CLARK W. HAND
a high school
with a wide range of resources and a student population
covering just about every segment a high school could have.
Not only does the school serve a mixed-community area
in Silver Spring, Md., but it also is home to Montgomery
County’s two “magnet” programs, one a nationally recognized
math, science and technology program that draws the
county’s brightest students. Our resources to teach these
magnet students are commensurate with their needs and
capabilities.
I’ve recently become aware of a looming and massive
set of changes in our energy industry. Not only is our
professional population aging, so are other resources,
such as fossil fuels. According to experts, many utility
jobs are going unclaimed or are very difficult to fill,
as few youth have exposure to the industry. This
shortage covers the global renewable energy field and
electric utilities. This is a dangerous situation, given
our increasing use of energy to run our economy and
our lives.
This school year, we are going through a transition
from more of a traditional “shop” course to a much more
sophisticated engineering or technology course. We are
starting with a focus on preparing students for entry-level
jobs appropriate for youth who have not yet achieved
a college degree. As I’ve worked on my curriculum
transition, I’ve begun to encourage students to work on
projects in two areas. The first is to work on a project of
“We’ll have to be creative
in how we utilize that manpower
that will be walking
out the door. We’ll need to
be flexible with how we use
retirees for part time and
consulting. We anticipate
a shortage in experience.”
MIRIAM CORBIN
MARIETTA BOARD OF LIGHTS & WATER