Hiring, Retention and Performance Gaps No Longer Stunting Major Utility's New Business Unit

Client Profile

Our client is the largest electric utility in one of the ten most populated states in the U.S.

They have invested billions in smart grid technology and are the main power provider for a major American city.

The Challenge

Our client’s new business unit was shorthanded and struggling to process customer requests for new electricity service. Disorganization, delayed response times, and poor communication were straining their operation. Customers were left frustrated as they waited for power, sometimes without answers or a point of contact.

The client needed to recruit, onboard, and retain more qualified service requests analysts (SR Analysts). They also needed better procedures and training for how to handle service requests effectively and efficiently, without sacrificing high quality customer service.

They lacked the resources internally to achieve that lift on their own. Pay grade parameters also limited the competitive wages that our client, as a utility, could offer, making the lift heavier still. Augmenting their own staff with contingent workers had also been ineffective.

They just didn’t have the managerial bandwidth to develop and oversee this aspect of their organization.

Customer satisfaction, employee engagement, reliability ratings, and revenue were at stake unless the client found a solution.

The Actalent Approach

Our Managed Talent solution was designed to solve problems just like this. That’s because Managed Talent shifts the weight of certain managerial processes from the client’s shoulders to ours. How does it work? Actalent oversees the recruitment, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, training, engagement, and performance of a highly skilled, mission-focused consultant workforce. And every solution is scalable and customizable depending on each client’s specific needs.

Speed was crucial in this case. On average, it had been taking the client several months to fill roles. Our goal was to have all consultants hired and job proficient in a few weeks.

First, we met with the client to fully understand the scope of their needs. Together, we determined the number of SR Analysts required to meet objectives.

Then we collaborated with the client and our in-house subject matter experts to create the following:

• An ideal SR Analyst candidate profile, job description, and a competitive compensation package
• Defined standard operating procedures (SOP) for handling new service requests
• A robust, but expedient, SR Analyst training program

Next, Actalent recruited, interviewed, onboarded, trained, and deployed a customized consultant workforce.

Throughout the entire process, we established a culture of clear communication between Actalent, the client, and our consultants. We provided regular progress updates, benchmarks assessments, and performance analysis. The client was a very active partner in this collaboration. Our consultants were engaged, too. Both offered valuable feedback and insight at every stage of the project.

The Results

Actalent’s solution in an ongoing success. The client was most impressed with how quickly we hired and properly trained a high volume of top-graded consultants. Prior to Actalent, it had taken between three and four months for their SR Analysts to achieve job proficiency. With Actalent, they were proficient in closer to three weeks. That’s 75 to 80 percent faster.

The client was also impressed with the effectiveness and clarity of the new SOPs. Specifically, how easily deployable and consumable they were across multiple tiers and regions of their organization. This greatly reduced confusion and stress, which is boosting engagement, retention, performance, and the overall end-user customer experience.

Ultimately, Actalent’s Managed Talent solution solved a problem that was diverting valuable time and energy away from the client’s core business objectives. Now they can reserve and allocate their resources strategically and proactively, as opposed to reactively. And together we built a solution with lasting value and returns.