Utility maintenance managers already have plenty of worries keeping their facilities running smoothly and customers happy. Now, another problem has popped up that requires a creative solution. The utility industry workforce is getting older and experienced frontline workers are retiring in ever-greater numbers. This means utilities will lose a lot of tribal knowledge these retiring workers have built over their careers. Once these experienced technicians and operators leave, that knowledge is gone… forever.
This whitepaper discusses a way utility can preserve that tribal knowledge before it’s lost and pass it along to new hires and less experienced frontline workers today. This digital solution permits remote guidance and mentoring, enabling experienced veterans to give instructions to younger colleagues as they conduct work order repairs, reducing reworks and preventing backlogs.
Key takeaways:
- The utility industry's maintenance workforce is aging
- As older workers retire, they take irreplaceable tribal knowledge with them
- Upskilling and training new hires is difficult due to time and budget restraints
- Skills gaps lead to more reworks and backlogs
- Digital work instructions allows a way to preserve tribal knowledge, cut reworks and decrease backlogs