Recruiting and retaining a water workforce for the needs of the 21st Century takes work. Here are some steps that could help.

1. Building a 21st Century Water Workforce
Brian Gongol
DJ Gongol & Associates, Inc.
November 8, 2019
Nebraska Water Environment Association Fall Conference
Kearney, Nebraska

2. 1. Opportunities for growth and development

3. If you're standing still, you're falling behind

4. 2% improvement doubles quality in 35 years

5. 5% improvement doubles in 14 years

6. Continuous improvement really adds up
"Every significant advance
I or my company has ever made
has been evolutionary
rather than revolutionary:
small earned steps
-- not big lucky hits."
- Michael Bloomberg

7. Don't become Fred the Baker

8. Do you schedule development time weekly?

9. Do you have the tools for development?
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Books
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Laptop
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Kindle
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WiFi
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Cutaways

10. Fluidity between public and private sectors

11. 2. Social status

12. Public water: Essential and irreplaceable

13. You're as critical as the Weather Service

14. Public water utility is generally a monopoly

15. Other monopolies: Power company

16. Other monopolies: Police

17. Other monopolies: Fire department

18. Public water is the front line in public health

19. Public-health protection commands respect

20. Is it really OK to be invisible?

21. Are "turd herder" jokes really OK?

22. Status is earned: Insert yourself in conversation

23. When water is in the news, share it

24. Specificity can make a job sound better

25. Titles matter
Specialist
Director
Team Leader
Program Manager

26. Look to parallel titles in the military

27. 3. Pride in branding

28. Branding has made taxi driving...cool?

29. The public is being conditioned to suspicion

30. Anything/anybody public-facing needs identity

31. Labeled vehicles

32. Embroidered shirts and uniforms
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Conveys
exclusivity
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Says "We value
your efforts"
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Signals
membership and
belonging

33. Nothing wrong with personalized choices
Most places charge a
one-time digitization fee
for embroidery, after which
each additional piece
is quite reasonable

34. Removable nametags vs embroidery

35. Participation in parades

36. Signs on property

37. If churches can have message signs, you can

38. Construction signage (Take credit!)

39. Are you the nicest monopoly in town?
"In the regulated
utility field [...]
Berkshire hopes to
be the 'buyer of
choice' of
regulators."
Warren Buffett
FY2008 Letter to
Shareholders

40. 4. Start young

41. Labor force demographics

42. US population pyramid

43. Nebraska population pyramid

44. Iowa population pyramid

45. Sample urban population pyramid (Lincoln)

46. Sample urban population pyramid (Iowa City)

47. Sample rural population pyramid (Grant Co.)

48. Sample rural population pyramid (Ringgold Co.)

49. Consider unemployment rates

50. Do you remember Y2K?

51. Your next hire may have been born after Y2K

52. What did you want to be when you grew up?

53. Do young people tour your plant?
So what if
it's not the
Vatican?

54. Do young people interact with you?

55. Do you wear your mission "on your sleeve"?

56. Which career is this for you? (Often it's #2/#3)

57. 5. Competitive working conditions

58. Is it clean?

59. Is it safe?

60. Is it sheltered?

61. Do you have the right tools?

62. Do the owners take pride in their assets?

63. Public facilities reflect community values

64. If it looks like an afterthought, it probably is
Pretty courthouse, right?

65. Afterthoughts stick out

66. 6. You don't marry a spouse, you marry a family

67. Everyone wants to please their parents

68. What would a new hire tell Mom and Dad?

69. Would you bring kids to the workplace?

70. Would a spouse like to visit the workplace?

71. If it's not good enough to show a spouse,
is it really good enough?

72. Get community leaders inside the plant

73. Entice them with lunch if you have to

74. 7. Good uptime beats bad downtime

75. 25% of your hours are spent at work

76. Does it look like something's getting done?

77. Can you automate mindless parts of the job?

78. Can you outsource low-value parts of the job?

79. Are you maximizing time on fulfilling work?

80. Does every day include problem-solving?

81. 8. Your competitive advantage as an employer

82. Probably isn't pay

83. Benefits aren't the only thing

84. Stability

85. Pride in community service

86. Status is an untapped human resource in water

87. It's not good enough to be invisible
Out of sight
is out of mind

88. Banish generic trucks & generic logos

89. Create an identity

90. Put the mission front and center
"Come fly the friendly skies"
"We bring good things to life"
"Better living through chemistry"

91. A slogans is free -- you just have to mean it
Delivering fire safety and
protecting public health
24/7/365

92. $6 a bottle and it doesn't even fight fire

93. 9. Safety first

94. Trained in first response

95. Advertise first aid skills

96. Put an AED on every truck

97. Are you a designated child "safe space"?

98. A safety mindset always starts at the top

99. Don't waste mental energy on stupid dangers

100. Railings and life preservers

101. Belt guards and lockouts

102. Toxic gas detection

103. Explosive hazards are no joke

104. Corrosion is ever-present

105. Would your 22-year-old kid be safe on the job?

106. 10. Don't be afraid to let go

107. Be a launching pad to great future jobs
Even if you're
not the
perfect
destination,
you can make
good use of
great talent
on the way up

108. People play D1 football to get to the pros

109. High-performance workers vs. managers
"[W]hen a company rewards
the role of manager more
than the act of creating value,
employees strive to become
managers (and increase the
number of people they manage),
even when leading people
isn't their strength."
- Charles Koch

110. Distinguish between seniority and expertise

111. Summary
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Not everyone wants into this industry
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Those who do deserve status
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Don't hesitate to make your workforce better
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Make sure the community knows why you matter
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Never pass up an opportunity to influence the young

112. Questions?
Thank you for your time and
attention!
This presentation is available
online at
gongol.net/presentations
Brian Gongol
DJ Gongol & Associates
515-223-4144
www.gongol.net
info@gongol.net
@djgongol on Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, and
LinkedIn

113. Credits
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All photographs are original work of Brian Gongol
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US population pyramid is public-domain work from the Census Bureau:
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https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2016/06/americas-age-
profile-told-through-population-pyramids.html
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Population pyramids for City of Lincoln and Grant County taken from CensusScope.org
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Used per published terms at http://www.censusscope.org/usepolicy.html
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Population pyramids for Johnson County and Ringgold County taken from
IowaDataCenter.org (a state government work product)
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http://www.iowadatacenter.org/county-quick-facts/county-quick
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Unemployment rate data and chart from the Federal Reserve bank of St. Louis:
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https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE
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Photo of Bill Clinton from Library of Congress (public domain work):
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http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/95509403/
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Copyright reserved; use by others of any images is forbidden without written permission