Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | OCTOBER 2022 | 37 workers by 2030 due to a mix of planned retirements and lack of provision for upskill- ing and reskilling existing staff. PwC's paper added that by 2030, more than a quarter of a million skilled workers from the fossil fuel sectors will likely depart as the net-zero transition continues, while 400,000 jobs will be needed in low-carbon energy sectors including nuclear, renewables and hydrogen. This poses a huge recruitment, skills and communications challenge for firms such as UKPN to entice a new wave of workers. "When you think about the energy tran- sition, EV [electric vehicle] rollout and low- carbon initiatives, I think we have a great opportunity – it's an exciting time to get into our sector and we're trying to leverage that," Sturge says. "There are some really fun, exciting challenges in energy. "But it's really competitive because a lot of companies are very advanced in the way that they recruit and attract – they'll use social media because they understand the changing market that they're trying to appeal to. It's a journey for us." Finding 'cold spots' This challenge demands that UKPN engages with tech and trends that have become part and parcel of the Millennial or Gen Z expe- rience – "we're thinking about launching a TikTok", Sturge says – as well as mak- ing headway in reaching underrepresented groups, or "cold spots". According to UKPN, Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis created an ever-widening gap between haves and have nots. Consequently, the firm partnered with social consultancy This Is Purpose and committed to the Level- ling Up Goals agenda in April 2021 to engage underrepresented groups. These goals have also been adopted by the likes of Amazon, Pennon Group, the BBC, Cisco, NHS Trusts and 15 UK universities, among others. Together, UKPN and This Is Purpose set out to plug opportunity gaps identified by assessing 600 cold spot locations established in the latter's action plan. UKPN assessed where opportunities were lacking through a community gap analy- sis of its distribution area. This drew upon social mobility and life outcome statistics from the Social Mobility Index and Depart- ment for Education, as well as data on the impact of Covid-19 from the Office for Budget Responsibility. In UKPN's area of operation, seven such spots – Ipswich, South West Norfolk, Hast- ings and Rye, North East Cambridgeshire and Suffolk Coastal, East and West Ham – were highlighted and have been targeted. "When we knew the areas, we made connections with the local council by offer- ing them activities and placements," Sturge says. "There are also local charities where we can offer fuel advice and financial support around home installation, for example. It's a long process, but it's about building net- works and driving change." Increasing applicant diversity Similarly, United Utilities – which delivers 1.8 billion litres of water to more than three million homes and businesses across the North West every day – has seen the utility sector's lack of diversity reflected in some of its resourcing activities, including its annual apprenticeships. Every year, the business takes on around 50 apprentices with typi- cally high proportions of male participants. In recognition of the importance of a workforce that represents the diverse com- munities it serves, United Utilities partnered with a specialist diversity recruitment com- pany at the start of 2020, and liaised with job centres across its region, to increase the diversity of applicants. It created a two-week training programme focused on developing relevant skills and knowledge to more than 50 potential appli- cants from a diverse range of backgrounds. Adapted for virtual delivery due to the pan- demic – with bespoke elements featuring a range of speakers, challenges, e-learning and videos – the course concluded with six separate qualifications. As a consequence, United Utilities saw an increase in three-year apprenticeships filled by women, applicants from ethnic minori- ties, and candidates with disabilities or learning difficulties. Its success encouraged the firm to run a further programme in 2021, and it continues to use lessons learnt to shape its approach to apprentice intakes and influence recruitment on a vacancy-by-vacancy basis. In 2019, prior to the programme, 17% of apprentices were female compared with nearly 31% in 2021. United Utilities has also seen females apply and progress in typi- cally male-dominated field roles – for exam- ple, the company has recruited its first ever female HGV driver apprentice. Similarly, 12% of apprentices from ethnic minority groups increased to 19% in 2021 fol- lowing the programme launch, with 22% of apprentices disclosing a disability or learn- ing difficulty. Mission possible For UKPN, its recruitment success is also rooted in steps taken during the pandemic via its "Mission Possible" staff engagement work. The initiative – which saw increased emphasis on flexible working, in the region of 300 video addresses from UKPN's chief executive, and the company avoid furlough- ing staff or making redundancies – deliv- ered record results on network performance with customer service, increased employee engagement by 7%, and saw UKPN named employer of the year at the 2021 Utility Week Awards. "We treated Covid, like a storm or a sys- tem emergency," Sturge says. "We under- stood pretty quickly that high levels of employee engagement were going to be the only thing that would help us maintain performance." Stuart Stone, editor, Utility Week Innovate United Utilities is having some success with attracting women and ethnic minority recruits

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