We recognize that attracting and retaining talented, motivated employees is critical to our success. With a highly skilled, dedicated craft and technical workforce demonstrating a voluntary turnover rate of less than 2 percent, and an overall company voluntary turnover rate of less than 3 percent, it is clear that we are an employer of choice in the communities we serve.
An eye to the future
Our workforce strategy recognizes the significant value of leveraging high schools, community colleges and four-year institutions in building our pipeline of future technicians, operators, professionals and leaders.
Progress Energy created the Power Careers Program in 2002 to attract the most promising high school and community college talent. It provides students an introduction to the business of power plant operations, supports students’ completion of targeted two-year associate degrees with scholarships, and, in many cases, provides a career opportunity with our company. The program now extends to all fossil fuel plants and nuclear plants in the Carolinas.
Achieving excellence in project management is a critical success factor for the future of the company. In May 2008, we established the Progress Energy Project Management Center of Excellence (PMCoE) to improve our project management approach so that it is more efficient, flexible and cost effective, while reducing risk, complexity and redundancy. The PMCoE will:
Standardize processes, tools and templates;
Establish a project management career path;
Provide common training and qualification programs; and
Adopt best practices from both internal and industry groups.
As a result of identified needs due to an aging nuclear workforce, we are partnering with the Nuclear Energy Institute and community colleges in our service territory to pilot common nuclear operations and maintenance curricula to prepare the next generation of nuclear plant personnel.
Wellness and health care
Healthy Progress
In 2007, we launched a new employee wellness program: Healthy Progress. The mission is to improve the overall quality of life and enhance the safety and productivity of our employees by providing wellness resources. Through this incentive-based program, all active, full-time employees have access to health assessments, coaching and educational materials designed to help them achieve healthier lifestyles.
More than 60 percent of our workforce opted to participate in the program in 2008. This support for employees’ commitment to live a healthier lifestyle will help in controlling health care costs for our company.
Health care expenses
Health care expenses continue to be a major concern for companies and individuals across the country, and we remain committed to paying the major share of health plan costs – more than 70 percent overall – which is competitive with other companies in our industry and local areas. This philosophy is one way to ensure we continue to attract the best and the brightest employees to complement our workforce.
Diversity and inclusion
Embracing diversity is a clear expectation for all leaders and employees. To meet our objective of making Progress Energy a great place to work while maintaining high standards for everyone, we must have an inclusive environment. Our success depends on attracting and retaining a talented workforce that reflects the communities we serve. Furthermore, our employees must have fair policies, processes and opportunities to advance their careers. To meet these objectives, each business unit has its own diversity council, which is overseen by the Corporate Diversity Council, led by Chairman, President and CEO Bill Johnson. We review our progress quarterly in the four focus areas of workforce, workplace, community/customers and suppliers.
Our company is committed to building skills in the workplace to manage and leverage a diverse workforce. This commitment begins with leadership workshops that develop the knowledge and skills that managers need in order to create an inclusive workplace. All new employees attend the required full-day diversity training within their first six months of work. We offer Race Awareness workshops to all employees and have a team of employees across the company, known as Diversity Champions, who are certified to conduct workshops on a range of topics: the business case for diversity, exploring differences, subtle behaviors and generational differences, among others. These types of offerings allow us to create a culture of respect and inclusion.
To support business and employee needs, we currently have four employee network groups: African Americans in Progress, Latin American Employee Alliance for Diversity, Women’s Insight Network and the New Employee Opportunities Network. These groups are self-managed and focus on employee professional development and networking, community outreach, cultural awareness and diversity recruiting and retention. All employees are welcome to join any network group.
