Qualified People—It is a Safety and Skill Set Thing

In 2011, Company A decided to re-engineer the entire maintenance system from a knowledge-based system to a skill-based system that would allow an individual to continuously improve, become highly trained, and qualified for the job, and advance in pay. This new system was applied to all electrical and mechanical maintenance positions. In addition, all of the operating jobs were also re-engineered to be skills based along the same lines as the maintenance jobs. All of these qualifications were documented and stored in the individuals training records in the Human Resource Department. The end result was a clear definition of being qualified for all jobs that resulted in an incremental increase in safety. Then, in October of 2014, Company A was acquired by Company B. This happened right in the middle of Company A making a transition from the old structure to the new structure. The concepts that were implemented in the new structure for Company A were then mapped over to the existing structure that was present in Company B. This then demonstrated that the concepts presented in this paper can be applied to any company structure. This paper reflects the strategy and structure behind these changes in Company A and the application to Company B. So it is actually a tale of two companies. This paper is adapted from a paper originally presented at the IEEE Electrical Safety Workshop in January, 2015, in Louisville, KY, USA.