At KEYGroup we are proud to recognize local people or organizations that exemplify the attributes of Vibrant Entrepreneurial Organizations.

The “Steel Heart Award” for February 2007 goes to…

Westinghouse Electric for Capitalizing on Experienced Workers

There’s a big labor shortage looming in the nuclear industry and Westinghouse Electric, like other nuclear energy companies, faces the prospect of losing up to 40% of its workers over the next five years. With orders for new nuclear power plants rising both in America and abroad, Westinghouse has developed an innovative plan to confront the potential crisis. Their “Human Capital Plan’ examines future staffing needs and considers the retirement of key individuals in order to begin the process of transferring knowledge from veteran employees to younger workers.

The program gives experienced workers the flexibility to offload a portion of their workload to younger partners to begin the process of transferring skills and knowledge to the next generation. It also provides veteran employees with a more flexible schedule, allows them to reduce some of their workload and frees them to take on new challenges. The program is a novel approach to the traditional mentoring program; it addresses the learning needs of younger employees while anticipating the loss of older employees through retirement from the company.

Westinghouse’s “Human Capital Plan” confirms that a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Organization finds ways to elevate communication to an art form. Pairing senior, experienced workers with younger employees in a structured process ensures that critical skills and knowledge are passed along. After all, employee knowledge is one of the most important capital assets in any organization and Westinghouse’s award-winning program (recognized by the Nuclear Energy Institute) preserves the value of that knowledge for current and future employees.

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