Using IT. Part 3: Optimize the use of available staffing

摘要

Utilities face numerous challenges as Baby Boomers reach retirement age. This article is part three of a four-part series that began in the August issue and that will run bimonthly. Parts 1 and 2 of this series described ways water and wastewater utilities are using information technology (IT) to make significant upgrades to their candidate development, outreach, and knowledge preparedness programs.rnAnother part of the equation is the work itself-how jobs are designed and how the work is done. Workforce development efforts that address only employees and the candidate pool sometimes seem predicated on the assumption that work processes are static; proceeding on automatic pilot, we try to find and/or build employees who can perform work just as it was done in the past. In reality, work processes and the employee credentials, skills, and assignments associated with optimum performance can and should change. A time of significant staff turnover is, despite its downsides, a window of opportunity for reconsidering and potentially reconfiguring what you do and how you do it-particularly when the skills of incoming employees are compatible with IT tools that can facilitate such change.