Growing and protecting our workforce
Successfully operating an electricity network company requires a workforce with a diverse range of skills. Marlborough Lines employs 121 full-time staff members and within our management group we cover office administration, personnel management, legal, accountancy, economics and engineering. We buy in specialist services from time to time in all these areas, however the Company cannot function on a day-to-day basis without ongoing competency in relation to all these disciplines.
In recent years there has been a well documented shortage within the electricity industry of electrical engineers and accountants. On the engineering side, the shortage has extended to electricians, electronics technicians and line mechanics. A network business needs a competent core of such trades in order to complete its basic functions.
Marlborough Lines has worked hard in recent years to ensure we have sufficient qualified accounting and engineering staff. We currently have three staff who are completing further accountancy studies with assistance from the Company and our ongoing programme of supporting electrical engineering students through tertiary study will see a further engineering graduate join the staff later in the 2010 year.
Immediately prior to the current economic recession we were competing with other electricity networks in New Zealand - and indeed electricity supply companies globally - for a dwindling supply of appropriately qualified technical staff. For this reason the Company embarked on a ‘grow your own' policy and this has culminated in the current position; a very stable workforce and good coverage in key technical areas.
As well as having administrative staff completing additional accounting qualifications, as part of our annual review process we have put the challenge out to other clerical employees to consider additional areas of training. These areas include shorthand, spreadsheet skills and database management.
On the technical side, the Company currently supports four line mechanic trainees, three electrical apprentices and one arborist trainee. Our arborists division manages tree trimming and vegetation work and now numbers 10 staff in total.
Nelson Electricity (in which we hold investments) employs four management staff who oversee the contracting out of all maintenance and capital works for their network. Our OtagoNet Joint Venture is managed by PowerNet, based in Invercargill; however all maintenance and capital work is undertaken by the Balclutha based Otago Power Services, in which Marlborough Lines has a 51 percent holding. Otago Power Services has 80 staff and operates as an independent ‘clone' using many of the staff policies, systems and procedures that have been developed within Marlborough Lines. All companies within the Group are committed to the principles of equal employment opportunities and in particular, upholding the Human Rights Act 1993.
Looking forward to the next few years, the same pressures are likely to remain in relation to the demand for qualified staff. Electricity infrastructure owners in many parts of the world are facing large scale system renewals and nowhere is this more apparent than in Australia - our immediate neighbour. Our training policies in relation to apprenticeships and our level of support for tertiary education will need to continue into the foreseeable future as we are committed to ensuring an appropriately qualified, happy and sustainable workforce.
OUR TEAM COMMITMENT
We will:
- Act with honesty and integrity
- Enjoy our work
- Encourage feedback and ideas from all staff
- Seek positive outcomes, not excuses
- Be supportive of each other and strive to improve work relationships
- Be aware of the need for quality in everything we do
- Work at making everyone feel part of the team
- Explain our objectives and desired outcomes
Is this a happy workforce?
Administering employment for 121 employees generates a certain amount of statistical information about hours worked, sick leave, annual leave and general productivity. This year we have extracted comparative statistics for the ten year period ending March 2009. From this we see that productive hours worked have increased from 114,596 in 2000 to 202,436 in 2009, an increase of 76.6%.
During this period, normal working hours as a percentage of total hours have varied between 83.14% and 85.40%. This is a variation of 2.26% and with the introduction of mandatory annual leave of four weeks per annum we could expect some variation in this number going forward.
Over the ten year period, sick leave varies within a range of 2.18% to 3.22%; a variation of only 1.04%. Looking at the percentages for various types of leave, the most striking aspect is consistency (this is displayed in the table below). Setting aside the significant increase in hours worked and in staff numbers, the consistency of the statistics - particularly in relation to sick leave and accident leave - suggests a very stable workforce. These statistics will provide us with a benchmark with which to analyse our employment statistics in the future.
The employee length of service pie chart illustrates our training intake of recent years and our desire to sustain the Company's workforce with new trainees. The second highest proportionate category is staff with more than 26 years of service and in fact we have a some staff who have completed in excess of 40 years service. Staff turnover remains extremely low apart from retirements and new training intakes.
We claim 14 female employees out of a total staff of 121. This statistic is not as high as we would like, however nationally the number of females in the technical workforce remains low.
leave statistics - percentages of total hours
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal Working Hours | 84.78% | 84.42% | 85.10% | 84.41% | 85.22% | 85.08% | 85.80% | 85.40% | 83.14% | 84.86% |
| Annual Leave | 6.81% | 6.52% | 6.57% | 6.37% | 5.90% | 5.73% | 5.28% | 6.21% | 6.63% | 7.00% |
| Sick Leave | 3.21% | 2.44% | 2.41% | 2.87% | 2.18% | 2.95% | 3.22% | 2.80% | 2.90% | 2.97% |
| ACC | 0.61% | 0.96% | 0.52% | 1.16% | 1.46% | 0.91% | 1.22% | 0.40% | 1.13% | 0.73% |
| Long Service Leave | 0.04% | 0.00% | 0.10% | 0.02% | 0.05% | 0.02% | 0.02% | 0.02% | 0.03% | 0.02% |
| Public Holidays | 3.46% | 4.23% | 4.21% | 4.11% | 4.17% | 4.22% | 3.54% | 4.16% | 4.99% | 3.40% |
| Special Leave | 0.11% | 0.12% | 0.13% | 0.06% | 0.16% | 0.11% | 0.08% | 0.28% | 0.25% | 0.09% |
| Bereavement Leave | 0.08% | 0.20% | 0.13% | 0.07% | 0.08% | 0.09% | 0.17% | 0.15% | 0.20% | 0.16% |
| Leave Without Pay | 0.34% | 0.57% | 0.32% | 0.52% | 0.46% | 0.51% | 0.31% | 0.25% | 0.41% | 0.62% |
| Other | 0.55% | 0.54% | 0.51% | 0.40% | 0.32% | 0.37% | 0.36% | 0.33% | 0.33% | 0.15% |
| Total Hours | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
Participation in National Training
The Company continues to support training at a national level with continuing sponsorship of the Centre of Electrical Power Engineering Excellence at Canterbury University and additionally, through the provision of qualified assessors (and training staff) for ESITO (Electricity Supply Industry Training Organisation) and the complementary ETITO (Electro Technology Industry Training Organisation).
We have retained our approved training organisation status in relation to providing qualifying experience for New Zealand's major accountancy qualifications and we provide a qualifying programme for professional engineers.
Is Everybody Safe?
In previous annual reports we have emphasised that safety for our staff and the community is a paramount objective when dealing with something as potentially dangerous as electricity.
The adoption of the ISO OHSAS 18001:1999 Health and Safety Standard is, we believe, a good place to start. The programme ensures that the Company looks at all workplace safety procedures on a regular basis (these are subject also to external audit) and ensures that all staff are aware of the safety procedures in place, the need for continuous improvement and the need for rigorous investigation of accidents to ensure future safety.
A further part of the safety equation is the maintenance of tertiary status with the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). While this provides a welcome reduction in accident premiums, the primary objective of the accreditation is to ensure that we remain at the cutting edge in terms of our safety systems. There is, of course, an associated overhead cost and we have noted that there are at least 39 work related activities that require the detailing of competence of electrical staff, and 17 of those activities require annual or biannual review with refresher training and testing, in addition to the safety training required to maintain technical practising licenses.
The Company's safety responsibility extends beyond our staff resource. We provide information to the community and newsletters to all our customers highlighting potential dangers around electricity supply, trees and vegetation and live lines. Similarly, we regularly communicate with contracting firms about the subject of safe working practices and minimum distances around live lines.
Recent Safety Initiatives
This year in a new initiative, the Company will be fitting a number of vehicles with GPS equipment - which adds a further safety dimension, particularly for being able to locate staff who are called out at night and required to travel long distances or travel off-road in isolated areas to rectify faults.
A further safety issue is the need to maintain a strictly drug free workplace. A policy has been agreed with all staff that provides for drug testing in the workplace and the subsequent provision of counselling and rehabilitation options should these be required.
The Company has introduced free annual health checks. The object is to provide a benchmark for staff so that individual health problems - that could be developing slowly - can be recognised, treated or monitored.
