Building a Strong Employee Learning Development and Management Program

The pending retirement wave, increased automation, resource availability, and more demanding, envi-ronmentally-focused stakeholders are all changing the way utilities operate and sustain their businesses. In Florida, Orange County Utilities (OCU) faced these concerns head on by creating an employee devel-opment program called Skilled Workforce Achievement Program (SWAP). It promotes a skilled, engaged, and motivated-to-learn workforce, built on a comprehensive Learning Management System (LMS). SWAP defines and documents how employees can acquire technical and leadership skills relevant to duties of established positions and advance throughout the utility with those acquired skills. To best track, train, and report the elements of SWAP, the need for a comprehensive employee learning man-agement system was identified. An LMS would make visible and easily accessible to all employees the necessary courses and credentials identified in the learning paths. Before SWAP and the introduction of the LMS, the upkeep of training, certification achievement, and license renewal all took place in disparate formats. Throughout OCU’s 900 employee organization, SWAP’s momentum developed, eventually providing the impetus for unified coding, categorization, and tracking throughout the entire system. What took once took place on spreadsheets and databases, papers and memory, now is accounted for and available within the LMS in the clearly outlined learning paths. Each learning path from entry-level trainees up to advanced positions reflects distinct types of knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to fulfill OCU’s mission and divisional goals. The courses, licenses, and practices needed at each level throughout an employee’s career are tracked in the LMS, which is now the primary system that is used for tracking and managing OCU’s learning and training. The end result is an opportunity for willing and talented employees to lead OCU to success through meaningful career development.