PERCEPTION
As baby boomers retire, utilities will lose the skilled-craft labor, the critical knowledge, and the bench strength needed to maintain today’s utility standards.
REALITY
Our nation’s electric and natural gas utilities employ more than 500,000 people, half of whom are skilled-craft laborers. Because of the ages of these employees, projections show that 40 percent or more could retire over the next five years. We’ve seen this coming for quite some time in our own company, and we’ve been preparing. We partner with colleges to recruit and train new employees, and we’ve developed knowledge-transfer programs in anticipation of retirements and skilled-labor shortages. Southern Company’s efforts are designed to help ensure that the necessary skilled labor is in place to meet existing and future energy demand in the growing Southeast.
MAINTAINING A STRONG WORK FORCE
Each year, Southern Company employs several hundred cooperative-education students whose studies are in fields that are essential to our operations. Many of these students work for the company permanently after they complete their degrees. To increase awareness of the potential future shortfall of skilled-craft labor, we offer education and leadership forums for students and educators in our region. We also partner with high schools and technical schools to generate a pool of entry-level power generation and power delivery workers and to develop higher standards of education in an effort to increase the passing rate of individuals taking industry pre-employment tests.
AND BENCH STRENGTH
Sustaining business excellence requires that we identify and develop employees to move into leadership roles as leaders retire. Succession planning, both short-term and long-term, is part of our annual business planning process.
