Quarterbacks Retire, Playbooks Don’t: Saving Utility Know-How
When people talk about utilities’ biggest challenges, they usually point to technology: generation, grid reliability, modernization, clean energy.
But in nearly every conversation I’ve had with utility leaders lately, the issue they’re most concerned about isn’t technical at all.
It’s people.
Put simply, the needs of the future energy workforce are shifting. And that challenge is amplified by the fact that we’re facing a wave of retirements across the energy workforce. We’re in serious need of new talent at the exact same time some of our best and brightest are exiting stage right.
What does this mean? And how might we be able to leverage each other to avoid workforce chaos? Let’s think about it.
First: This is about more than just filling headcount quotas. It’s about the tall order of backfilling experience and ability. You can’t replace a veteran quarterback with a rookie and expect the same performance overnight.
For a while, the concern was mostly “will we have enough people to do the work,” giving way to efforts like those from the Center for Energy Workforce Development and its regular Energy Workforce Reports. But these days, the raw numbers gap has largely been filled—butts have been put in seats. And Millennials represent the largest category of utility industry employment by generation these days.
What we’re still facing, though? A gap in expertise.
As seasoned industry veterans retire, what happens to the perspectives that can only be informed by those decades of experience? We’re not really losing productivity (thank you, AI), at least not yet. But what we are losing that AI tools can’t replace is ready-to-call-upon institutional knowledge.
These career professionals have thorough memories of decisions their companies made—both good and bad—and how those decisions were received, the results that ensued, and the additional adjustments or backpedaling that may have ultimately resulted. Their decades of experience truly give them a sixth sense about their organizations and stakeholders.
So what do we do about this?