Looking smart

Mark Wooldridge explains how Eon is coping with the challenge of finding suitable staff to install millions of smart meters across the country

Eon has now installed smart meters in 100,000 homes. This is an important milestone as we look to build momentum in our installation programme. We’ve committed to installing one million smart meters nationally in the foundation period up to 2014, ahead of the government’s objective to have every home fitted with a smart meter by 2019.

It’s vital customers receive a good experience of smart. Eon has introduced a comprehensive smart meter training programme for its customer service teams and meter technicians. We have chosen to focus on retraining appropriate current employees, providing them with new smart skills. Every employee involved has a smart meter fitted in their home so they can live with the ­technology daily and really understand how it works.

Historically, our installation teams were focused on fitting electricity meters, but through our smart meter training programme, we’ve re-skilled more than 160 traditional meter installers so they can install electricity, gas and smart meters. And because with smart meters customers are encouraged to proactively monitor and control their energy use, technicians have had to extend their traditional role as straightforward fitters to also include the roles of communicator, software engineer and teacher.

We do look to recruit externally too, but we’re heavily focused on training employees who have the right technical acumen and, just as importantly, good customer facing skills. So on our training programme you will find both engineers with 30 years’ experience and apprentices with relevant skills.

We carry out all the smart technical training at our academy in Tipton, ensuring workers achieve accredited national qualifications (a Mocopa Certificate to fit electricity meters and Gas Safety registration to install gas meters). We train in groups of 12-15 so technicians can learn together, share experience and pass on knowledge to colleagues.

Once on the road, we ensure our technicians visit a diverse range of properties that require different approaches. Our smart metering experts have vast experience in this area and are able to offer valuable guidance that wouldn’t be included in a manual.

It can take up to two hours to install both gas and electricity meters, so it’s important to offer high standards of service as well as making sure the smart meter is fitted correctly. So technicians spend time with customers helping them understand the benefits of using a smart meter. Every household is different in terms of its energy use, so we also provide tailored guidance.

Throughout our involvement in the smart meter process over the past couple of years, we’ve constantly taken on board feedback from customers and stakeholders. It’s a relatively new technology and we’re still transforming our business to make sure we surpass expectations. Over the next 18 months, we’ll be ramping up installations and our smart meter delivery team will evolve. We’re focused on adapting our approach as we go to ensure we achieve the highest standards of customer service.

Mark Wooldridge is field operations manager – smart metering programme, at Eon-UK

A workforce view from smart meter technician Phil Chamberlain:

“The part of my job I enjoy the most is explaining to people how the smart meter and smart energy display unit work and how these will help them understand exactly how and where they’re using energy around their homes every day. Once people are armed with this information, it’s much easier for them to make well-informed, conscious decisions about where their energy and money is being spent – and this is where people can then start to make real savings.”

This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 8th February 2013.

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