5.5. ERMUSR 11-13-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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/j Elk River Municipal Utilities 13069 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 430 Elk River, MN 55330-0430 November 5, 2008 To: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Jerry Takle John Dietz Jerry Gumphrey From: Troy Adams Subject: Staff Restructuring Phone: 763.441.2020 Fax: 763.441.8099 In October, the Utility Commission directed staff to revisit the staff restructuring that had been implemented the previous month. The staff restructuring involved re-allocating the job duties then held by lead lineman Mike Thiry and then moving Mike into the lead lineman position that became vacant after the recent line superintendent retirement. To revisit the staff restructuring, it was important to identify the problems prior to and after the restructuring. Once the problems were identified, a solution could be implemented that would benefit both the company and the employees directly involved. To achieve this, management met with Mike Thiry and then later met with all parties involved. (Refer to the attached written account of events.) One of the original reasons for the restructuring was the sudden increase in workload for the linemen. After the restructuring, a number of issues were discovered; the obvious being the other parties involved could not take on the additional workload without compromising something else. Another issue discovered was the lack of backup or redundancy in job duty training. Also, there were safety concerns about performing some of the Transformer PCB work without a second employee present. Through the previous process of restructuring, there have been procedural inefficiencies that will also be addressed. The solution that addressed all the issues was to move Mike Thiry back into his previous position with some changes. The biggest change would be that Mike's primary responsibility would be as a floater. Through morning linemen tailgate meetings, Mike can be directed to assist a crew or work on a specific project. The second change is to have job duty backup. The meter shop will backup and assist Mike as needed with all the working of the transformer PCB testing and documentation. Steve Ziemer will serve as backup to Mike for the building safety inspections and tool repair. This re-restructuring of job duties was implemented by management immediately following the second staff meeting.