Speaker’s corner: Sarah Hopkins, people & engagement director, Wales & West Utilities

Forecasting, insight and analytics are now widespread in our businesses.

The data that we have on our assets and customers is being used in more and more sophisticated ways to drive performance and innovation and prepare ourselves to face the challenges of the future. When it comes to our colleagues, however, forecasting our requirements for the future is somewhat harder – but many businesses say “people are our greatest asset”.

So what could a manager or colleague of the future look like? We have high expectations of our managers and have long expected them to be experts in safety, performance, people management, budgets and problem solving. Today they are also expected to be experts in technologies that didn’t exist ten or 15 years ago.

We’re all focused on driving customer excellence, and this will undoubtedly continue to be important in our sector. Having been a leader in this area within gas distribution, we take this extremely seriously and continue to innovate with our customer strategy and initiatives.

It’s important to our people, but interestingly it features heavily on the agenda of external candidates too. Potential colleagues see external customer service levels as valuable insight into the way we treat our colleagues.

Our newest generation of colleagues – and next generation of managers – has never known life without the internet or social media, or work without smart devices and sat navs. Engaging in a different way with these colleagues will be critical as they progress in our organisations. And without wishing to generalise too much, they will be more focused on corporate values and behaviour, and attracted to companies who invest in wellbeing and technology.

We’re already taking steps to future proof ourselves. At Wales & West Utilities we’ve transformed the way we talk about our business strategy, to drive transparency, understanding and connection internally and externally.

We’ve also revamped all our communications channels to make us more accessible and engaging for customers and colleagues.

My learning and development strategy now features neuroscience, coaching, behavioural analysis and mental health resilience, alongside our traditional engineering, IT and customer service training. Critically, this is in response to the demands of colleagues rather than being the latest HR or industry fad. To a manager, understanding people’s behaviour is important –not just because it is interesting but because that’s how we can drive the next level of performance.

Staying ahead of the people game won’t be easy, but talking to our colleagues, focusing on customers and technology, and thinking innovatively with our people strategies must be a critical part of our thinking when we look to the future.

Sarah is speaking at the Utility Week HR forum on 13 September. For more details, visit: www.uw-hr.net