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UTILITY WEEK | DECEMBER 2020 | 35 Operational Excellence with technology," says, Rachael Hollings, head of HR at Thames Water. Neil Morrison, group HR director at Sev- ern Trent, concurs, saying: "The skills we're looking for have evolved over time. We've seen an increasing focus on the customer. It's about helping people make the connec- tions between the work that they're doing and the service that customers get, rather than seeing it as a process in itself. "In many cases, we don't recruit on a skills base – it's really looking at the strengths and attributes that the people have. We'll teach a lot of the skills when people come in and join us. We're invest- ing £10 million in a state-of-the-art training academy in Coventry as part of our work to support this." The need for smart working So far, industry players have been moving at different speeds to harness digital advances. But those who have digital processes well embedded talk of the need to keep soware as easy to use as possible, and explain to the field teams why the collection of that data is important. Here, we explore companies' strategies, and what has changed as a result of Covid in more detail. Thames Water Embarking on a major overhaul of its opera- tions is Thames Water, whose tough final determination from Ofwat for PR19 included a leakage reduction target of 20 per cent in the five years to 2025. Rachael Hollings, head of HR, says: "We're setting off on a journey to review how the water network business is structured, and how workers can take ownership for geographical patches. It's early days, but it's all about improving customer outcomes." Hollings says that nearly 3,500 of the 6,000 people who work for the water com- pany are field based, operating and main- taining water and wastewater treatment facilities. "They could be on their own or dealing with customers, or working in the community operating the water network. So they would come into contact with people. Hollings says that nine to 12 months ago Thames gave cloud-based office soware technology to the field teams and it is now starting to refresh field devices. "Alongside this we are upgrading our operational and work management systems with a new cloud-based system, which is being trialled with the wastewater network teams. This links contact information from customers directly to field force activity. At the moment all of this information is on dif- continued overleaf ferent systems. The new approach will make a massive difference to the experience of cus- tomers and all our colleagues who deliver for our customers every day." The new soware allows field workers to receive work schedules in real time on their devices and training will be made available virtually in bite-sized videos. "At Thames we have workers at both ends of the spectrum – those with 50 years of service through to the newly qualified. How they have wanted to engage is quite different," says Hollings. She says that instead of coming into the depot for a briefing, they now communicate digitally. Thames has started holding union meetings using video conferencing soware. "That has worked well. And our managers meet for a virtual conference rather than face to face. We're finding the more people can do things virtually, the easier it is to get people together and the better the attendance." United Utilities United Utilities has been a pioneer of using innovation to improve performance across the business and was rewarded in the PR18 review as being one of just three water com- panies whose plans were fast-tracked by Ofwat. It has pledged to cut customer bills by £50 a year and is harnessing technol- ogy to deliver operational efficiencies and improved service. Of the 5,200 staff at United Utilities, 2,000 are out on the road or in treatment works. Teams are responsible for geographic areas and a local manager manages a team directly – reporting in to the heads of that region – and they have responsibility and resources to look aer customers in that area. "In one sense the area teams are the fac- tory production team, with all the respon- sibility to get water services to customers at the lowest price," says Simon Chadwick, digital services and central operations direc- tor at United Utilities. Again, field staff at United Utilities com- municate virtually using with collaboration workshops held remotely and digitally. In the past five years controllers and water networks teams have all been given their own smartphone, says Chadwick, from which they can access live customer infor- mation, so if they are dealing with a prob- lem, perhaps due to leaks or water pressure, they can view the history and also see if the customer is on the Priority Services Register. The soware solution used by United Util- ities allows ease of integration with bespoke apps that the water company has developed in-house to provide resource and proforma for inputting data. United Utilities has deployed 16 different apps which range from optimising processes for meter reading to checking environmen- tal permits. Some, like the health and safety solution for example, encourage field staff to note good H&S practices and areas of pos- sible concern. Data is fed into the central AI-based system which is able to look for trends. "If it spots common issues, it might then push out training content to the team," Chadwick explains. In parallel with digital technology being put in the hands of the workforce is a greater use of control and sensor technology at water and wastewater networks. An exam- ple would be systems that allow valves to be operated remotely to stop and start a treat- ment works. United Utilities is able to crunch data and issue alerts so that teams can be dispatched to fix it "before it arises". Western Power Distribution WPD's operations director Graham Halladay says that equipping remote workforces with "Last year we developed and rolled out a single scheduling tool for all field workers in the business." Graham Halladay, operations director, WPD "In one sense the area teams are the factory production team, with all the responsibility to get water services to customers at the lowest price, Simon Chadwick, digital services and central operations director, United Utilities