When an employee left a position at Conway Corp shortly after receiving utility-funded training, a colleague complained about the money and effort that he felt had been wasted on the worker.
Crystal Kemp, Conway Corp’s chief marketing officer, didn’t see it that way. She wears a lot of hats at the public power utility, which serves the town of Conway, Arkansas. She was happy the employee had been successful and had been exposed to the new information.
“Providing our employees opportunities to learn is part of our mission here — one of the ways we keep them engaged. I didn’t think we lost anything. We learned a lot from that person, and who knows how their growth inspired others? Education and training for our employees — and employee engagement generally — is a priority for very good reason.”
Kemp said Conway Corp has always valued its employees and has sought to keep them engaged, but like others in public power — and employers in every sector — the utility today finds it is often both a bigger challenge and more critical.
A recent Gallup survey found that employee engagement has dropped to the lowest level in more than a decade, with only 33% of workers saying late last year that they were highly engaged in their job. That number declined to 30% early this year, a drop that meant almost 5 million fewer workers were enthused about their job or dedicated to their workplace.
Engagement relates to whether employees care about their work and about how the company performs and whether they are committed to their employer for more than their paycheck. Engaged employees believe their work makes a difference and helps the company.
“Employee engagement has been an issue for decades. We are hearing more about it because of the pandemic and new terminology about it,” said Cyndi Wentland, the founder of Intentional Leaders, a leadership consulting firm and a presenter for a preconference session on leadership at the 2024 Business and Financial Conference. “I think the discontent existed even before the pandemic, particularly among younger generations in the workforce who seek more purposeful work.”
She believes the societal trend toward more meaningful work and searching for connections was accelerated by isolation and fear during the pandemic and the diminishing of connections as employers moved toward more remote work.
Kemp said the effort to provide opportunities for advancement with training and education that she promotes at Conway Corp is just one of several ways the public power utility is trying to address employee engagement, which she said is one of Conway Corp’s key strategic initiatives.
Better Outcomes
The Gallup survey showed that employees reported “less role clarity, lower satisfaction with their organizations, and less connection to their companies’ mission or purpose” and that they were “less likely to feel someone at work cares about them.”
In a separate report studying 183,000 organizations, Gallup also found engagement is connected to critical outcomes including productivity, employee retention, customer service, safety incidents, quality of work, and profitability. “Across companies, business/work units scoring in the top half on employee engagement more than double their odds of success compared with those in the bottom half,” that report found.
Missy Henriksen, executive director of the Center for Energy Workforce Development, said companies that have engaged employees perform better financially and have better safety records and higher levels of productivity and employee well-being. They also have lower absenteeism levels and turnover rates.
“For all of these reasons and others, including the tight labor market, engagement is a high priority for energy employers,” she said.
Reinventing the Utility Employee Experience, a report by CEWD in collaboration with Accenture, concluded that the energy sector workforce is “in the early stages of what we believe will be a deep and lasting transformation.”
The report noted how public perception of utilities is changing, affecting recruitment and retention of employees. It suggests changes in the industry should make work in the energy sector attractive, yet more than three-quarters of the 3,200 senior executives interviewed for the report said they have difficulty hiring new employees.
“The reason? Negative perceptions of the utilities industry, which include a lack of room for career growth, a slow-moving industry culture, and a view of the industry as unexciting,” the report noted. “While several factors are at play, one issue we have seen is a continued lack of critical focus on the part of utility companies to unlock the potential of their workforce.”
Jon-Rey Aguigui, personnel services administrator for the Guam Power Authority, which serves nearly 53,000 customers on the island and has more than 400 employees, said an aging workforce makes engagement even more important.
“In recent years, GPA has intensified efforts to reconnect our organizational progress with our employees. Given the importance of every role, we aim to showcase how each position contributes to the authority’s mission,” he said. “With about 30% of GPA’s workforce eligible for retirement, my office is focusing on employee engagement to boost retention rates, improve customer service, enhance company culture and cohesion, and foster innovation and creativity.”
Kemp believes that engagement is important for all those reasons but also because the nature of the work by public power utilities may cause engagement to be overlooked.
“We have to be very intentional. There are issues that are unique to us and some other organizations that have critical functions, such as the police or workers in health care,” she said. “It is so important for us to be focused on the task that needs to be completed [that] we can lose sight of the people doing the work.”
At GPA, Aguigui said that the utility also has recognized how important engagement can be to maximize employee satisfaction and effectiveness and to possibly improve the prospects of attracting valuable new employees. The utility has undertaken several projects — including very visible recognition of employees on their anniversary, when they are hired, or when they advance. GPA also produces an informative company newsletter and motivational material and is working on new training academies and a certification incentive program.
What Works
“We are seeing a host of strategies to strengthen engagement through enhanced company culture programs, inclusion and equity initiatives, strengthening onboarding programs, ensuring work-life balance, and focusing on employee well-being,” said Henriksen.
Emily Sheldon, the talent and organization lead for utilities at Accenture, noted that the research concluded that energy utilities should undertake five practices to improve engagement and build their workforces, including offering opportunities for continuous learning, listening and allowing employees to express their needs, enabling flexible work arrangements, championing workforce well-being and equality, and setting and sharing metrics related to people.
Conway Corp recognizes the need for continuous learning in particular.
“It is something we do well that we believe is very important for electric utilities since things are changing so quickly,” Kemp said. “When you are investing that time and money into employees this way, they feel valued. That’s going to help them be more engaged.”
She noted that training for managers in the energy sector is important, too, since many have successfully advanced because they are “good at their job and not necessarily proven managers.” She enlists utility leaders in reading a book each month followed by a discussion of the topic, often about engagement strategies.
“Many employers are recognizing the importance of the role and voice of middle managers in driving the engagement proposition,” Henriksen said. She also pointed to employee resource groups, which she said are shown to heighten employee engagement. (The CEWD is hosting an Employee Resource Group Leadership Series in November 2024.)
Wentland agreed and said managers at utilities have “a new burden to enhance engagement along with their other tasks.”
“The need to facilitate rapid organizational changes, navigate market challenges and address a more disengaged workforce rests primarily on front-line and middle managers,” she said about utilities. “This impact has forced managers to shift their roles to include coaching, counseling, and advocating for mental and physical wellness. The importance of human connection has never been greater, and many managers, ill-equipped for this transition, are struggling.”
She said organizations need leadership development that “goes beyond typical management practices, focusing instead on fostering mindsets of collaboration, growth, and psychological safety.”
Refocus on Relationships
“Utilities also need to help managers reframe their perception of their role from task-oriented to relationship-oriented,” Wentland said. “The path to employee engagement, motivation, and energy lies in the direct relationship with the manager, which is the most crucial relationship within the organization. Managers need to be aware of this expectation.”
Kemp said Conway Corp builds relationships through traditional methods, such as utility-wide events (including a town hall twice a year with employe questions solicited in advance) and various recognitions, but also uses the Birkman method of assessing its staff. The method “measures personality characteristics that influence behaviors, motivations, and perceptions” and then offers insights on how those characteristics might interact in a team setting. The results for each employee are reviewed with them and considered as the utility undertakes team projects or looks for individual and group strengths and weaknesses.
The practice aligns with another of the CEWD recommendations: setting and sharing people metrics.
“It is very valuable information. You can see an employee’s characteristics and see how they fit with others on a map,” Kemp said. “One person, for instance, in the field might be a ‘doer’ and want to get things done, while someone in finance wants to study things more closely. Knowing these characteristics helps us use employees wisely and makes them feel more comfortable and capable in their positions.”
The utility also values an employee survey that’s conducted every six months. They found that conducting an annual survey didn’t allow enough time for them to respond to the employee concerns. The survey asks about topics such as whether employees feel they have appropriate resources, adequate pay and benefits, and opportunities for training. It also asks about qualities such as trust in leadership, safety, and work-life balance.
She stressed that such surveys must have two qualities: specificity and outcomes.
“We structure it to get specific answers and look for specific results. The leadership team members meet with their managers, who then communicate the results to their teams. But then it also is important that we note ‘Here are some things we have done,’ once we have acted on their concerns.”
The CEWD report also calls on managers to “listen to what people need” and said that while it would help most energy workers adapt to organizational changes, only 15% of responding utilities thought they were doing well at listening to their people. Sheldon said active listening is important, along with structures for two-way communications and paying closer attention to employee behavior, particularly in a utility environment.
“These forms of listening provide a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of employee sentiment than surveys alone,” she said. “This continuous exchange of information allows companies to identify and address issues more quickly, adapt to changes effectively, and foster a culture of open communication and trust. Moreover, employees who feel heard and valued are more likely to be engaged, motivated, and committed to their work, which can lead to better performance and lower turnover rates.”
