The Water Workforce Crisis DVD

For the next 20 years, the retirement of the baby boomers–North America’s largest and most experienced worker segment–will drain water utilities of senior-level employees in every area of operations and management. Utilities will lose at a record rate their most knowledgeable, veteran executives, managers, supervisors, engineers, operators, technicians, accountants, IT specialists, and HR administrators.

The Water Workforce Crisis can help water utility managers who want to do something now. The video frames the issues that water utilities and local governments are talking about, including:

Retention

•  Incentives and options to keep employees who are nearing retirement
  
• Succession planning
  
• Recording institutional knowledge of older workers so it is not lost

Risk

• Geographic population shifts
  
• Jobs at highest risk in water utilities
  
• Challenge of filling openings with qualified people

Recruitment

• Demographics and psychographics of boomers, gen-Xers and gen-Yers
  
• Attracting and recruiting high school and college grads, and ex-military
  
• Understanding how skills and expectations of young people have changed over time
  
• Mentoring, training, internship, and employee development on the job
  
• Diversity

Industry collaboration

• Working with community colleges to develop new, relevant courses
  
• Collaborative funding for training
  
• Motivating students to enter engineering and other technical areas that are critical to the water profession
  
• Job sharing among local and regional utilities