Building a workforce for today’s utility landscape.
Victor Synylo and Philip McLemore are directors in PwC’s utilities human capital practice.
Like many other long-established industries, the utilities sector is facing an aging workforce and an upcoming employee exodus as its core workers in both management and the physical work force approach retirement age. This is causing an unprecedented focus on the industry’s HR function, which must now compete for a pool of young, technology-savvy employees, many of whom are attracted to what they perceive as more lucrative and cutting-edge industries, such as high-tech and defense.
Utilities are already struggling with integrating and managing a multi-generational workforce with very different professional expectations. As the utility workforce transitions from being dominated by more mature traditional and baby boomer workers to the so-called generation X and generation Y age brackets, the industry must change or replace practices and support structures that were designed to manage and address the needs of those earlier generations.
Many utilities are already addressing this challenge, but many have just started, or have yet to start, understanding how they will be impacted by this challenge and how they will address it.