Nature & Nurture Influencing operator retention.

Working Environment Nature – Influences which are generally beyond the influence of individual managers and operations staff Nurture – Areas that management, and in some cases even individual operators can control.

Where do operators come from? At JLab operators primarily come from 2 groups. –University, primarily from physics departments –Military, primarily the Naval Nuclear Power Program Additionally –Other DOE facilities –Commercial/technical organizations

JLAB Staffing JLab Original Staffing –PhD – Crew Chiefs –Operator – Technicians –Commissioning –Worked rotating shift Present Staffing –Crew Chief & 2 Operators –Duties include: Accelerator operations, System Safety Operator, Assigned Radiation Monitors. –Fixed Rotation

Shift Work Nature or Nurture? 24/7 running a aspect of accelerator operations. So Nature. Turning shift work from Nature to Nuture –Pattern initially used at JLab: Three shifts Days – 08:00-16:00 Swings – 16: Owls – –Works work a different shift each week with a varying number of day off in between shifts.

Long rotation shifts Six shift teams Operators assigned to specific day, swing, owl shift for entire accelerator run (Shutdown to shutdown). Work seven days on shift first week, three days outside control room next week. (Activities which occur during off week will be covered later.)

Effect on Operator Retention Initial end of commissioning period. Subsequent period retention ~2-3 years. Retention continues to increase as operator turnover has decreased.

Effect on Operator Retention In the period of operations lost 9 individuals. This represented fully one-third of the operations staff. In the period typical retention was ~ 3 years. More than half of the operations staff left operations in this period.

Effect on Operator Retention In 2000 Operations group moved from rotating shifts to long rotation shift schedule. Retention numbers have continued to increase. Majority of individuals leaving operations have moved to other positions at JLab vs. leaving lab.

Filling Fixed Shifts Owl Shift ( ) not as difficult to fill as might be expected. Operators consistently able to get first choice of shift. Money factors contributes to achieving balanced rotation. –Operators receive percent bonus for working Swing( ) and Owl ( ) shifts. –Crew Chiefs must work a certain number of back shifts a year to retain shift differential. Number of times staff has been asked to work third choice can be counted on one hand for period since 2000.

Off shift time With six shifts rotation supports a schedule of 7 days in the Machine Control Center on shift and 3 days working outside the MCC in each two week period. Operations meetings held on Wednesday. All off shift personnel must work Wednesday. Other days in off shift week may be flexed.

Where do Operators Go? To other positions in the Lab. Operations is a conduit to recruit and evaluate individuals for placement in other positions in the facility. Nowhere. They stay in Operations. Core of operation experts. Dual Track. What happens if they don't leave? –Senior Crew Chief. –Tasking.

Tasking. Hire individuals who possess a range of skills useful outside operations. Exposes operator's perspective to other groups. Exposes operators to other areas at a deeper level. Allows completion of tasks which would otherwise be under resourced. Allows better utilization of operation's staff during downs. Pathway out of operations for those who wish it.

Formal Training/Formal Procedures Important nurturing influence. Pushed by high turnover during 1990s Formal procedures is the linch-pin upon which a formal training program is built. Formal procedures provides a better work environment by requiring a lower level of theoretical knowledge to perform tasks. This reduces stress and results in better machine reproducibility Formal training prepares operators for operation and for advancement.

Educational benefit Another specific advantage to the long rotation schedule is the opportunity that it gives to individual who wish to pursue continuing education. Standard rotating shift work made taking advantage of Lab tuition assistance and job relate training program almost impossible for operations staff. Long rotation shift makes it quite easy for operators to engage in continuing education.

Conclusion All of these benefits have in some way flowed from the willingness of the JLab Operations Management to look beyond the standard shift rotation cycle. They are also based on a premise that it is productive to utilize operators outside the operations “ghetto”. The laboratory has benefited by hiring individuals with a higher threshold of experience and education and utilizing these individual's non-operational skills in other tasking.