How to Keep Employees Happy

Recent events created chaos for utility company executives. Increasingly, employees are looking to leave their present position. To keep good workers in the fold, energy companies need to be proactive, enhance their image, create a performance based culture, and embrace agility.

The pandemic shook up individuals, so they questioned their existing values, and created a workforce that is in tremendous flux. Dramatic lifestyle changes resulted in 85% of workers reporting that their well-being declined since the pandemic began, according to McKinsey.

As a result, employees experienced epiphanies and questioned their values, how they prioritized their time, and how work now fits into their lives. Consequently, 55% of employees have started or plan to look for a new job in the next 12 months, according to Bankrate’s jobseeker.

The Job Market is Tight

Therefore, attrition is on the rise, and demand for highly-skilled energy industry talent has been intensifying. Keeping someone costs less and is more effective than replacing them.

Companies can fight the current employment trend. During the last 24 months, utilities have been scrambling to meet the needs of a fast-changing workforce. Too often, they have been playing defense, reacting to the next obstacle. Now is the time for leaders to go on offense and build cultures that attract talent and even create an organizational competitive advantage.

Create an Attractive Corporate Culture

Healthy utilities excel in three areas, according to McKinsey. First, they will attract good people by creating a strong image. They need to become the place people want to work versus have to work. A big part of that mindset is building a culture of learning and adaptability, so people have the skills required to perform their jobs in this rapidly changing employment landscape.

Another step is allocating resources and people to the areas that matter most and developing a performance based organization. Here, the emphasis is on company achievements rather than department goals. Executives ask teams at the end of meetings what is the most important item they are working on and do they have the best person on it?

Ideally, the answer is yes, but sometimes, departmental boundaries keep individuals with skills from putting them to use for the organization. So, the energy provider has to move away from a traditional functional hierarchy to one with greater fluidity. They must organize their resources and create cross-functional teams oriented towards specific goals for set periods of times.

They also must embrace speed and innovation. Business transformation is the new reality. Utilities need to crack that code and sustain constant change within the organization.

Because of the pandemic, utilities find themselves in competition for workers. To attract and keep them and create an alluring culture, they need to improve their image, allocate resources effectively, and embrace agility. Only then might they be able to thrive during these challenging times.