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

57,000Service

Connections 754 Miles of Pipe/24

Reservoirs

11,264CWS

Customers45 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 2006-07 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.

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5

10

15

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2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

TVWD Employee Turnover

New Hires

Retirements

Quit

TVWD's Aging Workforce

Eligible to retire now 11%

Age 50 or older 25%

Under age 50 64%

Eligible to retire now Age 50 or older Under age 50

• Traditionalists (pre 1946) 75M

• Baby Boomers (1946-64) 80M

• Gen X (1964-81)46M

• Gen Y and Millenials (1982-00)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 125% 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 225% 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 3All other positions

Prioritizing the Workforce

11 At Risk Positions Identified asTier 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• 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

LeadershipAssessment

Interest Interview

Identify Workforce

Development Candidates

Create IndividualDevelopment 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 EricksonHuman Resources Manager

Tualatin Valley Water District(503) 538-8517

debbie@tvwd.org