How Small Utilities Can Do More Without Asking Employees to Do More

Here’s a familiar expectation in the utility industry: Do more with less.

Sounds great in a budget meeting. But usually, it means asking the same employees to take on more responsibilities, handle more customer requests, learn more systems, and somehow find more hours in the workday.

But how much more can utilities reasonably expect their employees to do?

The reality is that customer expectations are changing. Technology is evolving. Cybersecurity concerns are growing. Experienced utility professionals are retiring, often taking decades of institutional knowledge with them.

The answer can’t always be more employees, more software, or longer hours.

Sometimes the answer is identifying the work that doesn’t need to be so difficult in the first place.

Utilities have an opportunity to thoughtfully reconsider how work is organized, how information is shared, how technology is used, and where additional expertise could make a difference.

Where’s the time going?

Before introducing new technology, restructuring responsibilities, or hiring additional employees, utilities need to take a closer look at how work actually gets done.

Not how it’s supposed to get done. How it happens on an ordinary Tuesday.

Utilities need to ask:

• Where do employees spend the most time?
• Which tasks require information from multiple sources?
• What questions do customers ask repeatedly?
• Which processes depend on one particular employee knowing exactly what to do?

Some of the most valuable insights are likely to come from the people doing the work every day.

So, a useful starting point may be posing this question to your staff: “What’s one part of your job that takes more time than it should?”

The answers might reveal opportunities to simplify procedures, eliminate duplicate work, improve access to information, or make better use of tools you already have on hand.

Make information easier to find and use

At many small utilities, operational knowledge lives in two places: in the utility’s systems and in the heads of its most experienced employees.

Relying too heavily on either can create challenges.

What happens when a longtime employee takes a vacation, retires, or unexpectedly leaves the organization? Will other employees struggle to fill the gaps left behind by their exit?

Improving efficiency isn’t just about completing today’s tasks more quickly. It’s also about making the utility less dependent on any single person.

Documenting procedures, cross-training employees, and establishing consistent workflows can help preserve institutional knowledge.

Technology can also make everyday information easier to access. For example, United Systems & Software’s Utility Process Management (UPM) brings billing/CIS, mobile work orders, customer communication, payment processing, and metering data together, making it easier for employees to access the information they need.

Instead of searching through separate systems or tracking down the one employee who knows where to find something, staff can access relevant information more easily.

Help your customers help themselves

Not every customer interaction requires an employee’s direct involvement:

• What’s my balance?
• When’s my bill due?
• Has my payment been received?
• Can I view my previous bills?

These are important but relatively simple questions that can consume a significant amount of staff time.

An online customer portal can give customers access to their account information and billing history without calling or visiting the utility office. In United Systems’ case, our Customer Web Portal does all of that, along with offering payment options and instant notifications.

On average, our customers report a 25% drop in phone calls and a 50% drop in mail and walk-in payments.

That doesn’t mean eliminating personal customer service. It can actually help preserve it, reducing routine administrative work and freeing up staff time for those customers who need more personal attention.

When employees spend less time handling routine calls and walk-ins or processing mail, they have more time to assist customers with complicated billing questions, payment concerns, or situations requiring individual attention.

Get more from the technology you already have

Sometimes new technology isn’t the answer (that’s nice to hear when the budget’s tight!).

It’s very possible to make meaningful improvements by making better use of existing systems.

• Are employees familiar with all the features available in their billing software?
• Are there reporting tools that could simplify recurring tasks?
• Could existing workflows be adjusted to minimize duplicate steps?

These questions are worth exploring before adding another platform or process to the mix.

Training also plays an important role. When software providers offer additional training, educational resources, or opportunities to learn from other utilities, those resources can help employees work more efficiently.

At United Systems, we believe helping utilities get more from their technology shouldn’t end when implementation is complete. That’s why we offer ongoing learning opportunities, including customer training webinars and hands-on education at our annual User Conference.

Because sometimes the most useful software feature is the one your employees didn’t know they already had.

Doing more shouldn’t mean carrying more

Small utilities have always relied on resourcefulness.

Your employees are accustomed to adapting, solving problems, and finding ways to serve their communities with limited resources.

But resourcefulness shouldn’t become an expectation that people can keep taking on more and more without help.

Not every improvement requires a major investment. Sometimes it starts with simplifying a procedure, providing better training, or listening to an employee who knows there’s an easier way.

Here’s one place to start: Ask your employees which task they wish they could stop doing manually. Then find out what’s preventing that change.

You may discover that the best way to do more with less is to stop doing some things the hard way.