Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

Change
Employees have to be certified in water and
wastewater and training to renew or expand
certification
All employees are certified water operators
and attend a minimum of annual training
Employees gaining certification and crosstraining
Being certified they all need continuing
education credits. We encourage training
Generally as licenses are upgraded
Yearly budget covers cost of training and
education
More and better training tools needed for
staff.
City administration does not provide level of
support for employee development, “On the
job training” is the norm- so it is difficult for
employees to keep up with changes.
City and utility do not allow sufficient
training money in the operating budget.
Constant training
Our dept is constantly monitoring regulatory
and /or legislative requirements and
provides training in advance of effective
dates. We also monitor new technology and
provide timely training in new technology/
systems/ processes as required in a timely
manner.
In house training is helping educate the
employees
As changes are made training sessions are
implemented
There is not enough time to pause and train
the organization on all the changes that are
needed.
Primary concern is how quickly we can train
new operators on all the procedures they
need to know and use.
Management’s responsibility—has not
provided any fundamental supervisory
training in over 12 years, for example.
Lack of training opportunities in area.
There is currently so much turnover in
employees due to draw from the public
sector that we cannot adequately train.
There are pockets of resistance to change
but overall most employees are committed
to “keeping up” especially when they
understand the need and are involved in new
solutions.
Filter plant personnel abreast of
developments other departments less so.
Time
I would say \’yes and no.’\ In certain
pockets of the department a tremendous
amount of learning is taking place. In other
places, change is adapted to more slowly. In
general, I would say that there is not enough
true \’learning’\ taking place. We are very
focused on outcomes and decisions and do a
good job; but we could spend more time on
reflection and inquiry as well.
Attempting to change mindset of employees
based on ~25 yrs of dictatorship.
Many stuck with 80’s policies/ procedures
Hard to implement things like asset
management or empower folks; hard to
change existing, comfortable behaviors.
But still change resistant.
Change comes very slowly. Too much legal
involvement.
Pace is too rapid.
Rapid changes in system capacity as well as
regulations make keeping up a challenge.
Too much too quick
Rapid workforce changes and restructuring
difficult to keep up with.
Only one person retiring in next 10 years, so
everyone is young and very willing to learn
new info
However, potential changes forthcoming
that could put us behind the curve
Change, regulatory, and workload
Process takes approximately 3 years from
concept, approval to implementation.
Employees are integral to process.
In general, yes. But this is a challenge due
to time and money constraints.
Team work
Because of our small size and our lack of
specialization and the close collaborative
way in which we make decisions, it’s almost
inappropriate to apply these group
techniques. Not impossible, but almost
joke: we teach each other stuff. We work
together if it takes more than one person.
We have required educational credits. We
ask each other questions. We bring up
whatever’s on our minds. It works well- but
the simple addition of more personnel would
make the system stop working. So- all in all,
we know little about solving the challenges
you mention, because their largely absent.
In certain areas where team based/skill
based compensation is utilized.
A-12
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