From an aging work force to the difficulties of attracting new employees in a tight job market, the utility industry is facing plenty of challenges. When you are struggling to deal with the day-to-day challenges, plus any emergencies that come up, it’s hard to think about making improvements. It’s even more difficult when a company’s culture, as many are, is resistant to change. Digitization can help improve efficiency and help attract new talent.
If done correctly, the shift from manual to digital processes can help your business combat inefficiency in a variety of ways. This doesn’t mean just installing limited digital projects, siloed as their own initiatives, without making changes to anything else. Instead, the solution involves embracing the agile, ever-changing digital world we live in.
This process evolution will appeal to younger hires who don’t want to deal with inefficient legacy systems and help position your organization to be more competitive in the modern job market. ARCOS can help with a suite of resource management solutions to manage all your resources, often building upon your existing framework and integrating with your other digital systems.
Getting More Done with Less
In this job environment, finding enough new employees to fill the ranks is tough. What’s more, somewhere between a quarter and a third of the utility workforce is approaching retirement age and will soon be taking their experience and knowledge out the door with them. Companies are faced with trying to get more done than ever with fewer resources than they’re used to having. As a result, legacy processes need a refresh.
Digitization can improve your efficiency, allowing you to get more work done with a smaller staff. By using technology to map resources, you can direct the closest resources to both planned and unplanned work. This allows you to be agile and adjust staff while they are still in the field – no need to bring them back in or make a bunch of phone calls. This allows for jobs to be completed quicker will fewer miles driven. That in turn saves time and money.
Visibility In the Field
Speaking of being in the field, workers can make use of digital apps on mobile devices to keep the back office updated at all times. This allows greater visibility for management, meaning they can catch mistakes before they happen, and reroute crews as priorities change. This is beneficial in blue skies but even more so in grey where the situation on the ground can change quickly.
With this kind of transparency, gone are mistakes that may happen with miscommunications across departments. Employees won’t be assigned to duplicate jobs. Workloads can be rebalanced as needed. Contractors can be added right into your own system, alongside internal employees, so they can be managed in the same ways and with the same oversight.
Additionally, you can build the digital forms that field workers use, standardizing reports to get the same information, the same way, every time.
Easy Reporting
Lots of time is often spent digging through paper reports, rooting through file cabinets, and compiling relevant information. Digitizing can eliminate much of that time and effort by providing comprehensive data, configurable for a variety of situations. Much of the tracking in digital systems is done automatically, eliminating manual data entry and filing processes, and ensuring accuracy. Because the information is stored electronically in standardized formats, it can be pulled, sorted, and filtered quickly and easily in a variety of views.
You can use this data to quickly identify inefficiencies, areas for growth, and other patterns. All of this is done with a few clicks, rather than having to manually compile and examine reports. Changes can be made to the displayed information in a couple of keystrokes.
ARCOS’ utility resource management software operates this way. Our digital, cloud-based systems are accessible anywhere with a large range of configurable reporting. We can help you modernize your existing processes, getting more mileage and money out of your legacy systems. This adds efficiency and savings to your processes that are working, while attracting talent to help take you to the next level with new technology.
To discuss how you can move your existing workforce management process into the digital realm, reach out to us today.
