2008 Corporate Responsibility Report

How we are creating a smarter foundation for a sustainable future

Workforce Development and Learning

Driving high performance in a complex organization such as PG&E requires a skilled and qualified workforce that is fully engaged in serving the customer. Our goal is to have the right people with the right skills in the right places at the right time, supported by operational processes, human resources practices and a value set that, together, enable employees to do their jobs effectively.

Managing Our Talent, Today and in the Future

In the next five years, 42 percent of PG&E’s workforce will be eligible to retire, presenting a major challenge for the company. Adding to the complexity, many jobs at PG&E require years of training. Additionally, PG&E continues to require a greater level of technical skill as we upgrade the tools, processes and systems needed to operate and maintain our vast infrastructure.

To address this challenge and guide our strategy, PG&E is taking a detailed, analytical approach to determine where the most significant labor gaps will occur and develop strategic staffing plans accordingly.

There is no single source for recruiting the mix of talent we need. Because we are striving for a workforce that reflects the communities we serve, we are constantly looking at innovative strategies. Groundbreaking programs such as PowerPathway™, combined with enhanced outreach activities with professional and community organizations, community colleges and universities, are just some of the tools we are using to develop a robust, diverse pipeline of new talent.

We are also committed to growing from within and developing our existing employees. We have a renewed focus on providing employees with clear career paths to grow professionally and gain better visibility into job opportunities at PG&E. For example, last year, we launched Talent Connect, which introduced new tools and systems to make it easier for employees to find and express interest in new positions within the company.

Learning and Development Opportunities

Last year, we reached a key milestone by establishing the PG&E Academy, a centralized learning organization committed to enhancing the skills and qualifications of our employees.

There were several important highlights for the Academy in 2008:

  • We established the Livermore Learning and Qualification Center, an 11-acre, state-of-the-art training complex designed to provide hands-on, interactive learning experiences for transmission and distribution employees on hundreds of real-life scenarios. In 2009, we will expand the facility to include three 10-foot towers and an underground electric vault for electric transmission training. Over time, PG&E hopes to share this unique learning experience with utility companies from across the country.

    • A key part of our strategy moving forward is doing even more to engage our employees so that we deliver for our customers.
    Photo: Lewis Stewart

  • We created and utilized an Instructor Excellence Program to certify our technical instructors, each of whom helped deliver nearly 34,700 hours of the technical training that serves as the foundational framework for our field employees. To ensure that our curriculum is well aligned to support the most critical business needs, we also updated and enhanced 70 courses.
  • We continued our focus on helping the company’s managers enhance their leadership skills and put PG&E's core values into action. This included providing extensive training to help new supervisors grow professionally and drive operational excellence with their teams.
  • We remained focused on leveraging new technologies to better deliver training to a broader employee population. This included piloting a new learning management system that, once fully launched in 2009, will enrich the learning experience for our diverse employees through a simplified, more accessible approach.
  • We also remained committed to supporting the efforts to align our actions, behaviors and decisions, throughout the company, with our values through integration into processes, communications, training and workshops.