Tualatin Valley Water District Workforce Planning Project

This presentation has three parts: Background of the project Project methods and outcomes What this means to the future of TVWD

Tualatin Valley Water District 57,000 Service Connections 754 Miles of Pipe/24 Reservoirs 11,264 CWS Customers 45 sq. mi. 110 employees

Our Mission Drives Our Performance Mission Statement To provide our community quality water and customer service

TVWD has historically been progressive Our culture is the root of our success – Our culture starts with our Board of Commissioners. Our General Manager is and have been in the past visionaries.

Strong Elected Official and Top Management Support During the goal planning process, General Manager proposed the District undertake a workforce planning study. Board agreed and it became a task for the following year.

Board Goals & TVWD Demographics Drove Workforce Planning Project 36% of our workforce is 50 or older. Average age of our employees is 44. Board Goal is to have employees trained and qualified to compete for job openings. Average tenure of employees is 10 years.

Traditionalists (pre 1946) 75M Baby Boomers ( ) 80M Gen X ( ) 46M Gen Y and Millenials ( ) 76M The Shrinking Workforce

We have positioned the District to meet the mission of Customer Service and retain employees Hire the right people Compensate well Foster accountability Show employees we care about them Implement work force planning project

Beginning the Workforce Planning Project TVWD Management Team served as internal task force and met regularly with consultant setting workforce rules. Management Team and came up with a communication plan for all employees. Employees need to feel safe participating in the project. Employees need to feel safe if they do not participate in the project.

Message to Employees The future of the District holds an aging and shrinking workforce. Most of the Management Team will be retired when most of this comes about. We could say: “not my job, I won’t be here anyway”. The prudent thing to do is to prepare our District for the future and with this Workforce Planning Project we are able to provide continuity of leadership for their future. We presented the entire Workforce Planning Project to all employees and made it available to everyone.

Workforce Planning Project Objectives Standardize tools and methods we use to evaluate candidates for workforce development. Understand future staffing expectations and develop a plan to meet them. Develop and implement processes to capture institutional knowledge.

Beginning the Process Determined who is eligible to retire now and who is eligible in the next five years. Produced work catalogs of each job description. These catalogs identified how difficult and how critical the work is. Identified what jobs have critical knowledge that needs to be captured. Identified what is documented and where this information resides.

Tier 1 25% or more of work is both high risk and high difficulty (regardless of retirement eligibility), or Position is eligible for retirement within one year and 25% or more of work is either high risk or high difficulty Tier 2 25% or more of work is both high risk or high difficulty (regardless of retirement eligibility) Position is eligible for retirement within five years and 25% or more of work is either high risk or high difficulty Tier 3 All other positions Prioritizing the Workforce

11 At Risk Positions Identified as Tier I Senior Engineer Engineering Manager Distribution Crew Supervisor Locate Crew Lead Field Customer Service Supervisor Maintenance Crew Supervisor Valve Crew Supervisor Building and Grounds Maintenance Supervisor Senior Accounting Assistant IT Manager

Self Nomination We asked employees to self nominate if they were interested in the project. We had 100 employees and 30 signed up to participate. Nomination and acceptance did not mean that an employee was the heir apparent to the job.

Employee Participation in the Project Talent Profile (strengthsfinder) Questionnaire on the culture of the District Leadership Aptitude Inventory (self, co-worker and supervisor) Candidate Interest Interview

Process to Identify Workforce Development Participants Identified the talent, skills, knowledge that defined the job. Identified the participants talents. Matched the talents with the TVWD leadership jobs. Designed the individual development plan for the selected individuals.

Project Phases Each participant was assigned to a phase of the project based on their match and job interest. Factors that are not considered: age, gender or their proximity to retirement. Phase I is considered the fast track for training and mentoring. If there are budget restraints or the manager can only allow one person to cross train, etc. phase I candidates will take precedence. A candidate will only be ruled out if they do not have satisfactory performance in their current job.

Self-Nominate StrengthsFinder Leadership Assessment Interest Interview Identify Workforce Development Candidates Create Individual Development Plans Ongoing Process by TVWD Staff

TVWD Expected Outcomes 1.Raise awareness of the need for job preparedness. 2.Employees take the initiative themselves to prepare for advancement. 3.Employees are engaged in targeted training of their own initiative. 4.Employees know the training required for a position. 5.Employees know we care about them as well as the District’s future. 6.All institutional knowledge is documented. 7.There are clear back ups for key roles providing depth and flexibility to cover the work. 8.We possess a “deep” candidate pool for job openings.

Workforce Planning Outcomes Institutional knowledge is captured. Plan is in place to develop and retain employees. Maintain continuity of leadership. Successfully maintain a viable organization.

Thank You Any Questions? Debbie Erickson Human Resources Manager Tualatin Valley Water District (503)