A five-step plan to help {smooth} transitions within the hydropower workforce – Uplaza

A brand new useful resource is equipping hydropower organizations with instruments that may facilitate seamless succession planning and promote sturdy data sharing practices.

The excellent news: Hydropower’s reliability means it performs—and can proceed to play—an necessary function within the electrical grid, supporting variable renewable vitality sources like photo voltaic and wind. And present and new hydropower initiatives are anticipated to play a pivotal function as we transition to 100% clear vitality within the electrical energy sector. That would imply substantial development within the hydropower workforce.

The unhealthy information: The hydropower business’s workforce is experiencing main transitions, because it’s seeing an rising variety of employees retire. The business now faces the troublesome challenges of not solely making certain that it may possibly recruit sufficient employees to fill all the required roles, but additionally minimizing organizational data loss from employee departure.

This organizational data loss can have main implications, resembling misplaced productiveness as new employees come up to the mark on organizational practices or elevated strain on present staff, which might trigger dissatisfaction and doubtlessly result in further employee turnover.

A brand new useful resource developed by the Nationwide Renewable Power Laboratory (NREL) may also help hydropower organizations put together for employee turnover and scale back data loss to make sure hydropower continues to play a significant function in a clear vitality future.

The Information Sharing and Succession Planning Toolkit outlines a five-step course of that can be utilized by any hydropower group, regardless of the place they’re of their workforce transition, to ascertain a system and tradition for data sharing.

“When we began this project, we realized that there are very minimal resources specific to hydropower regarding succession planning and knowledge sharing,” stated Adam Kanter, workforce improvement researcher at NREL and the lead writer on the toolkit. “But we can see that hydropower is one of the industries that needs this kind of help the most.”

To construct the toolkit, Kanter spent months gathering experience from different workforce improvement sources, then solicited suggestions from members of hydropower associations and organizations.

“We had a good mix of perspectives—some technical hydropower people, but also human resources workers who already had some experience with knowledge sharing and succession planning,” Kanter stated. “Their input really strengthened the toolkit.”

use the toolkit

The toolkit encompasses two necessary ideas vital for profitable workforce transitions: data sharing, or the method of capturing abilities and knowledge and making that data obtainable to all staff; and succession planning, which helps leaders establish essential positions inside organizations and put together staff to fill these vacancies as incumbents retire or transfer on.

These ideas are embedded within the toolkit’s step-by-step strategy, which first shepherds organizations by means of assessing, documenting, capturing, and sharing present data. The device then guides them in making vital modifications and drafting a plan to revisit every matter usually.

Every of the 5 steps embody downloadable instruments, templates, and checklists that simplify the method of evaluating organizational data sharing practices. Examples of accomplished worksheets are additionally included in every step, so the group can see the sorts of info they need to be gathering.

However the great thing about the toolkit is its flexibility, stated Kanter.

“People can use it chronologically, from Step 1 to Step 5, or they can skip directly to building a job profile,” Kanter stated. “One of the major considerations when we were creating this was making sure it’s useful to people regardless of where they might be in this process. If they’ve already assessed their organization, and just want to make sure they’re doing it right, they can use this to validate their ideas.”

The toolkit was made publicly obtainable in April 2024, and it has already been shared with many hydropower business companions, from which Kanter is constant to hunt suggestions. “One of the big benefits of having the toolkit online is that we can continue to update it to fill gaps and respond to industry input,” Kanter stated.

Hydropower business companions may also be capable to arrange one-on-one classes with Kanter to request help, get questions answered, or present suggestions.

“This toolkit comes at a time when hydropower organizations need help to ensure they have a qualified, knowledgeable workforce ready to help hydropower take its place in the clean energy transition,” Kanter stated.