How to bridge the age gap between older and younger workers in the utility industry.
The utility industry will face its most severe workforce problem since World War II in the next five to 10 years-a massive loss of plant- and job-specific knowledge through the retirement of a large portion of today's utility workforce. This magnitude of attrition has been masked somewhat by slow and steady, economically driven staffing cutbacks, but it will accelerate as we move into the second half of this decade. At the same time, the pool of technical and engineering talent available to fill critical jobs is insufficient to fill the job openings at this time.
These facts already might affect safety, reliability, and profitability throughout the industry, in any of the following ways:
- Increases in the duration of planned and forced outages, as the new hires gradually build expertise and efficiency in their jobs;
- Increased frequencies of forced outages and accidents caused by human error as highly experienced operators retire; and
- Falling productivity in areas of maintenance or operations that require physical strength, agility, and durability.1
The problem is particularly acute in areas such as transmission and distribution, nuclear generation, and radiation health physics, where highly specialized knowledge is required.
A sensible response to this problem is to develop a formal knowledge-retention program. These programs attempt to collect and document, in some accessible form, the knowledge base of today's workforce. There is a danger, however, inherent in developing knowledge retention programs: that not enough attention will be paid to the needs of the eventual recipient of that information. This is not a small oversight, because the experience and learning needs of the new generations in the workforce differ drastically from those of the generation at its core today. Failure to recognize these differences can cripple a knowledge retention program by causing incomplete knowledge transfer from the current workforce. Such a problem may not be recognized for years, and by that time, the retired utility worker will be more interested in checking the fairway conditions than in checking valves.
What's With These Kids Nowadays?
Numerous articles and publications in human resources, advertising, and pop culture research journals say three generations comprise the vast majority of today' workforce. The names of and exact dates of delineation between the generations differ from source to source, but they generally fall out in the following way:
Born between WWII and the early 1960s: Baby Boomers;
Born between the early 1960s and the late 1970s: GenXers (a.k.a. Baby Busters);
Born in and after the late 1970s: Bridgers (a.k.a. Gen-Y, Millennials, Generation Next).In her book , Susan El-Shamy points out that the Baby Boomers are accustomed to a learning environment with the following five characteristics:2
- An even, leisurely pace;
- A style that relies prominently on "telling" and on text-based materials (think of all the three-ring binders of training presentations you have on your desk and in your basement);
- A need to cover topics broadly and in full;
- Linear course flow, outline, and design (think bullets, bullets, and more bullets); and
- A serious, classroom approach, with a few fun activities thrown in.
In reaction to this approach, GenXers and especially Bridgers "may pull out a GameBoy to get them through the lecture," El-Shamy wryly states. The younger generations have been shaped by the fast-paced, digitally oriented, video-centric world in which they grew up. And they have adapted to a style of learning that fits that lifestyle. But it's much different than the learning experiences they're getting in the workplace, because the trainers or mentors are generally Baby Boomers.
The learning needs of GenXers and Bridgers are, not surprisingly, closer to a video game than a classroom. El-Shamy recommends that the learning environment for younger workers have the following characteristics in order to be effective:3
- A more rapid pace;
- A style that relies prominently on interactivity and a hands-on approach;
- A need to make the content delivered relevant to them and their situations;
- Options, variety, and even unpredictability; and
- Game-like approaches to training.
To the extent that some basic training material can be developed with interactive content and game playing, there's value in doing that. However, the reality is that utility staff, especially at the craft level, will continue for the foreseeable future to get most of their training on the job from experienced, older workers. Nevertheless, understanding the nature of these newer generations of workers, and potential conflicts they might have with older workers today, must be an integral part of the development of effective strategies for both retaining the critical knowledge held in the minds of today's workforce and transferring it effectively to tomorrow's.
Younger Generation's View
Paul Steinberger, the training and compliance project manager at American Transmission Co. LLC (ATC), is well versed in the differences in learning between the two groups. As a high school teacher in the 1970s, he taught the tail end of the Baby Boomers as they entered young adulthood. Now, after three decades in designing, developing, executing, and administering training programs for utilities, he finds himself educating the young adults of the Bridgers generation. The differences he sees are as stark as the contrast between playing Twister in the garage and playing on an XBox or Playstation.
Steinberger believes that the assessments of today's learners made by El-Shamy and others are accurate. "They are more visual. There's no question about it," he stated. "They're more inclined to like to see knowledge transferred to them in an activity-based form." He notes that today's learners, for better or worse, "don't like reading, and … don't like being told."
"What I get from the young students is, 'I would do a lot better if I had more flash'-things that move on a screen, things you have to interact with. They like to have information delivered in something that's entertaining," Steinberger says. But in the real world of today's utility company, knowledge transfer is conducted in the same way it has been for years. In Steinberger's words, "The new person is told, 'Go sit with Joe today,' and Joe will tell that person everything he knows about the job." This process then repeats a number of times. Steinberger notes, "A frequent complaint by the young people is,'You know, I get mixed messages from these people. One guy tells me, "This is the way we do it," another guy tells me, "No, this is the way we do it," so … which way do I do it?' And in the end, they may develop their own in-between way of doing that task. So if you don't put some effort into managing the transfer of information, you just end up creating more bad information about how to do the work."
Steinberger also has observed the younger generation's need for speed firsthand. "When you have an older individual working with a younger one, you do notice there's a frustration on the part of the young person-'C'mon, get it moving, get through what you want to say, just tell me what I need to know, I don't want to hear any of the old stories,'" he says.
The flip side of this is that the younger workers generally have high self-confidence and may, given the opportunity, want to take charge as soon as possible. Since it is inevitable that some workers will drop out of the workforce with little advance notice, whether for reasons of health, injury, or spur-of-the-moment decision-making, there may be a strong temptation to accept the younger workers' initiative in some cases. The unique nature of the GenXers and Bridgers is a mixed blessing in this situation. "The new people tend to like that. They're very willing to say, 'Give me the duty, give me the duty.' But sometimes in talking with them you recognize that they're a little overconfident."
ATC's Approach
Part of ATC's approach to this problem is to give their experienced workers specific guidelines for training younger individuals. These operations guideline documents (OGDs) are used by management to, as Steinberger puts it, "corral the transfer of information to relevant, specific topics." Each one features specific bullet points (and remember how Baby Boomers love those) about job particulars as an outline for discussion with the new worker. The bullet point format really does work well as a guide for the older worker who is accustomed to the structure of traditional training, according to Steinberger. For the younger worker, it "limits the rambling stories" some of the more effusive workers may bring to their knowledge transfer, which keeps the pace at a satisfactory level for the younger worker while maintaining a consistent description of the work to be done.
"By making certain that guideline document is an accurate document, you get some confidence that each young person is being told basically the same thing." Job knowledge, says Steinberger, can be "filled with a lot of misnomers and folklore, and tainted by bitter experiences. It's not necessarily right, and sometimes it's flat-out wrong. If you're going to try to transfer that knowledge to new people, it's best to have some sort of a guiding document that says, when you tell the new person about how you do your work and what you do, these are the things you need to cover. Otherwise, you just never know what they're talking about. You're just kind of assuming it's the right things."
Another key to success, Steinberger believes, is being very selective about who is allowed to transfer key information, and with whom they are chosen to work. The knowledge retention program "needs to be able to identify the best resources for the process, those key individuals that will be good at delivering information," Steinberger emphasizes. "If a new worker is coming on board, there should be a plan: I'm going to put the new individual with this person, and this is the information I expect to be transferred, then I'll put him with this person next. If you don't have some sort of a plan for this-if you just expect it to happen-you won't get anywhere near the full value of it."
As part of this matching process, Steinberger sees value in trying to bridge the generation gap by finding some common ground between "teacher and student." He gives the example of a local high school graduate, a good student with some mechanical talent, who wants to develop a career without the need to pursue a degree first. In his or her early days in the workforce, the new employee would be teamed up with a craft worker with a similar career interests and background (e.g., they both grew up in or live in the same area). Despite the age difference, the common background helps foster a sense of empathy in the learning process, since the two are, in Steinberger's words, "cut from the same cloth." What's less likely to happen is that a degreed engineer from another part of the country would be put in a position where he or she is expected to extract critical knowledge from that same veteran craft worker, because tensions can arise if the older worker senses the younger has any feelings of superiority or privilege. "It can sometimes be a delicate situation in terms of acceptance," Steinberger states.
A selective approach to selecting "teachers" and their best-matched "students," combined with a guide for the transfer of knowledge like ATC's OGDs, maximizes the transfer of good information while minimizing the transfer of irrelevant information, "urban legends," or inaccurate instructions.
Real Life
We're unlikely to see knowledge retention for utilities boiled down anytime soon into a video game with joystick-controlled, wrench-wielding characters battling the evils of leaky pump seals and blown transformers, so game-like training is perhaps a concession the GenXers and Bridgers will have to make for the time being. Once the knowledge manager acknowledges the special needs of the new generation of workers and integrates those considerations into knowledge retention planning, the other needs easily can be met in a traditional work environment. The need for delivery of relevant content can be met by helping older workers streamline their knowledge elicitation and by selecting the best men and women for the job of mentoring the new workers. The need for an interactive and hands-on approach can be met by giving the new workforce tasks and responsibilities in line with the time frame they believe is appropriate (with proper supervision at the start, in case they prove to be a little too self-assured). Both of these in turn satisfy the newer generations' need for a more rapid pace in the learning environment.
And as for variety and unpredictability-well, could these young men and women have chosen a better place and time to begin their careers than in the utility industry at the start of the 21st century?
Endnotes
- As a transmission company executive succinctly points out, "Most 47-year-old lineman simply can't perform the same work as easily as a 27-year-old one." Also, when older workers get hurt, their work time lost in recovery is much greater; between ages 19 to 29, the average days lost is 10.4, but the average days lost for those 50 to 59 is 47.5. Minter, Stephen G., "Ergonomic Challenge: The Aging Work Force," , September 2002.
- El-Shamy, Susan, Pfeiffer and Co., 2004, p. 15.
- , pp. 14-15.
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Born between WWII and the early 1960s: Baby Boomers;
Born between the early 1960s and the late 1970s: GenXers (a.k.a. Baby Busters);
Born in and after the late 1970s: Bridgers (a.k.a. Gen-Y, Millennials, Generation Next).