Workshop A - Session 2

Title: Employability and Competitiveness - Learning Organisations Chair: Sarah Perman, Trades Union Congress, UK Torben Hjuler, SK Power, Denmark

I am Torben Hjuler. I am engaged in training and development activities at SK Power Station, Division West, which has a total of 700 employees. We have 7 production units with a total capacity of 1,900 MW. The units are placed at 2 power stations, which are situated 70 km apart.

I shall take as my starting point a brief introduction to the last 6 years in the field of human resource development and conclude my presentation by telling you about our latest initiative: the conversion of a part of our organisation into a profit centre.

We have initiated a large-scale programme in the field of human resource development in order to prepare our staff and organisation for the new reality. In the free energy market of tomorrow, we shall need employees who are willing to let go of the traditional, static job demarcations in favour of new comprehensive work functions in keeping with market requirements.

One of the immediate consequences of the new competitive situation will be that we cannot predict - unlike the present situation - when and how much our power stations are to produce. Experience from other sectors that have moved from a monopoly situation to a competitive environment, shows that the companies most capable of preparing themselves and their staff will steer most successfully through the changes.

Learning Organisation

Our development programme is based on the principles of the Learning Organisation, meaning an organisation which constantly and deliberately enhances its capacities of learning and competence development at individual, group and organisational levels. In other words: a Learning Organisation is an organisation which develops its capacities continuously in order to create its own future.

In this context, learning is to be understood as the processes leading to the individual employee's acquisition of new knowledge, abilities, attitudes and behaviour. Through a goal-oriented process, the employees are given the opportunities to share knowledge and experience, to co-operate in order to draw conclusions and improve procedures and processes.

In our interpretation of the learning organisation, the emphasis must be on shared vision, dialogue, teamwork, flexibility and coaching. Our development programme seeks to reach into all corners of our organisation. Every employee must participate in a common training programme, which takes him or her through a series of topics, ranging from service and communication, job planning, safety and work environment to market appreciation and team building. Our highest aspiration is that the development programme shall be able to change people's attitudes and overcome the prevalent - and natural - scepticism towards change.

Training for the Individual

The reason for this is that a successful transition into a market-oriented environment presupposes that the employees understand the underlying causes of the new market conditions. They must understand why the predictable and undramatic business environment characteristic of Danish power companies will soon be a thing of the past. Only through this appreciation, shall we be able to have flexible employees who do not oppose changes. Responsibility and delegation are other key words in the human resource development programme. Changes in our sector must be accompanied by a new perception of management philosophies and methods. An organisation founded on hierarchical principles is unfit to cope with rapid changes. It is unable to react with sufficient speed. This is why our development programme also addresses the issue of employees working in autonomous teams in which each individual employee is allocated more authority and responsibility.

Re-organisation

The new reality of tomorrow imposes demands on us and we do not yet know the nature and scope of these demands. We believe, however, that if we put emphasis on the development of our employees through the basic principles of the learning organisation, we are on the right track. On the other hand, it is also necessary to focus on the way we have built our organisation. We cannot function with an organisation whose founding principle has its roots in the days of monopoly. The liberalisation of the electricity market calls for organisations that are flexible and able to come out with a positive balance. In order to have a clear picture of responsibilities, competences and economy, our division was split into two, Production and Maintenance. In addition, SK Power had in the autumn of 1995 been through a series of negotiations on staff reductions. One of the results was the Maintenance Department became an independent, financially self-supporting profit centre.

Involvement

As we consider ourselves a learning organisation, it was natural for us to include as many employees as possible in the attempt to convert the Maintenance Department into a self-supporting profit centre. The analysis was carried out in collaboration with PA Consulting Group, which was hired as advisor and contributor of experience and know-how for the construction of the new profit centre. More than 100 employees were involved in the process.

The work was organised in 6 project groups:

• 1. Establishment of a profit centre model
• 2. Revision of the organisational structure
• 3. Planning and co-ordination
• 4. Management information
• 5. Staff development
• 6. Project management.

Concerning point 6, project management, throughout the development phase, which lasted 6 months, meetings were held on a continuous basis with an assisting group that was made responsible for following the project carefully in order to ensure:

• that information from the steering group of the project was communicated to the rest of the organisation and that potential questions from employees were answered
• that proposals and ideas formulated by employees in the organisation were treated in the project groups.

We decided that the propagation of information was of crucial importance to the success of the project in order that the employees were able to understand the decisions made in the course of the project. This is why all aspects of the development were laid forward as reports open to everyone throughout the whole process.

Development of leaders and managers

My presentation will from now on focus on the activities and results of the project group on staff development. The activities of this group were subdivided into 4 main sections:

• Status as regards culture and attitudes
• Future competence requirements
• Development needs for employees, managers, leaders
• Implementation.

The purpose of the analysis was to find out how much culture, behaviour and attitudes of the present structure differed from the corresponding qualifications required of a self-supporting company. The result of this analysis made an essential input to the process of revealing development needs and establishing competence development, which were to take place in the Maintenance Department. Through a long series of interviews and subsequent assessments of the many statements, the following evaluation of our managers and leaders emerged. Their strong points are: Knowledge of production plants and technical skills. Their weak points are: management skills, business orientation and readiness for change.

We were also able to list a number of competence and development needs for other employees. Generally speaking, the strong points are: ability to manage jobs, professional skills. The weak points are: professional versatility, co-operation and communication, profitability/efficiency.

Conclusion

On the whole, the greatest development needs are found in the group of leaders and managers. This is largely due to the fact that this group is to function as communicators and cultural mediators of the new principles, procedures and values that are needed to convert Maintenance into a profit centre.

Epilogue - New roles for managers:

We have organised courses, from time to time, with a view to developing a shared frame of reference. We shall also do so in connection with the implementation of new attitudes in the Maintenance Department. Managers and leaders who have been trained as internal trainers will develop these courses. As already mentioned, middle management is an exposed group in the process of change, as their customary functions, to some extent, become redundant when responsibilities are delegated to the individual employee.

On the other hand, the group is also the one best prepared to communicate the message down through the entire organisation. The trainers or 'coaches', as we call them, are important elements of the learning organisation. Because they know the employees and the organisation the message is mediated with more credibility and a larger impact. These are our reasons for deciding to train our own instructors. Let me finish my presentation by using a metaphor. The top managers sow the seed - the middle managers fertilise the ground, making it a fertile enviroment - in which the employees grow - and as a result the organisation bears the fruits.

Back

Home

Next