WIND TECHNICIAN RETENTION

Using people analytics for wind technician inclusivity and retention

PURPOSE
Designing sustainable hiring practices is never easy. As providers of Wind Field Services, ALLTITE was suffering from high-rate technician attrition by early 2021. ALLTITE recognized without considerable attention, it is a problem that would compound as the US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that Wind Turbine Technicians are going to be the fastest growing job over the next ten years, growing at a rate of 44%. It becomes necessary to recet hiring practices and crafted a recruitment framework to target existing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

GOALS
With inclusivity and ALLTITE’s core values in mind, the goal was to speed up the recruitment process, improve the quality of hires, stop hiring from the “gut” and reduce attrition from almost 30%-40% for Tech Level I/Entry Level.

METHODOLOGY
ALLTITE used data sources including the Scaling Up© business program’s ABC Player Analysis, the DISC Profile as well as ALLTITE’s internal eNPS survey to create a recruitment framework. A “Talent Scorecard” was then developed measuring Productivity and a Core Values Matrix in order to mine historical data.

WHAT IS THE DISC
DISC assessments are behavioral self-assessment tools based on the 1928 DISC emotional and behavioral theory of psychologist William Moulton Marston. The tools are designed to give insight into communication and job inclination but are by no means indicative of productivity.

ABC PLAYER ANALYSIS
All employees at ALLTITE are ranked with the ABC Player analysis on the spectrum of Y-axis as a fit with company core values, X-axis as indicators of productivity and technical proficiency.

CORE VALUES
In 2021, ALLTITE remapped their Core Values to better represent the organization's highest priorities. For ALLTITE this includes: Why Not? (Open to change), One Team (Safety-oriented, Interdependent team), Unfailing Integrity (Principled with work and team), Sweat the Small Stuff (Detail oriented) and Warrior Culture (Self-empowered, entrepreneurial.)

RESULTS
Mapped 200 ALLTITE technicians over time between 3 data sources and plotted them on an XY Axis, discovering surprising traits about a successful technician. Armed with an internal “Talent Scorecard,” ALLTITE has continued to use these data points when hiring entry level techs; looking past their skill level/background, which has led to higher levels of inclusivity. Through this it was discovered that not only does a team member need to have a technical aptitude, but they also need to have extraverted tendencies when working in this “extreme team” environment. ALLTITE saw that hiring team members with an “I” or influencer metric in their DISC were indicators of a happier tech, leading to a drop to 12% in attrition. By focusing on the data instead of background, our diversity hires have increased 27% and we are getting better techs from day one.