Guangzhou Power Supply Co. Ltd.: Unleashing human resources potential to bring vitality to enterprises

We often hear from grassroots units that their work load increases with the annual increase of electricity sales and facilities. As a result, a number of problems appear, such as the lack of front-line production workers and competent workers, unreasonable employee age structure and employee retirement. As such, we should cope with the strong need to increase grassroots employees. Meanwhile, the increase of human resources at Guangzhou Power Supply Co. Ltd. should conform to the “zero labor force increase” policy approved by SASAC. Therefore, enterprises face the imbalance between zero labor force increase and the lack of front-line production workers.

 
The root cause: unreasonable human resources allocation and lack of training efforts
 
Guangzhou Power Supply Co. Ltd. compared the number of its employees and advanced power supply enterprises and found out that they have enough employees, but the problem mainly lies in unreasonable human resources allocation and lack of training efforts. The only way out is to restructure the human resources. To this end, Guangzhou Power Supply Co. Ltd. sought for solutions from practices and found out the way to improve the efficiency of human resources based on the problems of various grassroots units. The tailor-made solutions eased the lack or excess of grassroots employees, brought the vitality to Guangzhou Power Supply Co. Ltd. and improved the management efficiency of enterprises.
 
Substation operation: innovate the management and work mode, increase the operation efficiency and teach more skills to employees
 
Key word: vitalization
 
In recent years, with the rapid development of Guangzhou power grid, the number of transformer substations has been soaring. However, the number of operating crew hasn’t seen a tremendous increase. On the other hand, the business volume is not even in various aspects of substation operation, for there are more people but easier tasks at 500 kv transformer substations while there are less people but heavier tasks at 220 kv patrol centers. As a result, we can tell it is possible for us to vitalize human resources.
 
In 2014, Guangzhou Power Supply began to optimize the management mode of transformer substations. This has changed the traditional “500 kv transformer substation on duty + 220 kv patrol center” mode into the “patrol center” mode.
 
At the same time, Guangzhou Power Supply adjusted the work mode of its operating crews. Previously the 500 kv Beijiao Station had 3 shifts while the 220 kv Jiahe Patrol Center had 8 shifts, which has caused serious waste on human resources. At this point, 500 kv patrol centers start to have 6 shifts—5 shifts during daytime and 1 shift during the night. In this way, the emergency response capability of patrol centers has been tremendously strengthened. At the same time, 500 kv patrol centers has also transcended the barriers between the original 500 kv transformer substations and 220 kv patrol centers.
 
Start from 4 aspects to build a professional talent team
 
Key word: cultivation
 
Power transformation overhaul is an important type of work in power grid enterprises. Nowadays the overhaul major at Guangzhou Power Supply Co. Ltd. faces a series of challenges, such as the growing number of facilities, complex categories and types, not enough employees, and uneven technological development. On the one hand, the growth rate of maintainers is far from that of the facilities, thus the Company is lack of maintainers. On the other hand, the training cycle for a professional maintainer is 4 to 5 years, a quite long period. However, there are only few technical backbones that are able to conduct the overhaul mission on the field. Alongside that, most of them are relatively senior people. That is to say, the hard core is not enough while the new blood cannot take on important missions. In a word, the situation is not looking good.
 
Therefore, Guangzhou Power Supply Co. Ltd. starts to address these problems in 4 aspects.
 
In recruitment: Guangzhou Power Supply Co. Ltd. largely increases the number of junior college graduates via recruiting students in universities and colleges and enriches the overhaul team. In addition, there have been more experienced professional maintainers with advanced skills thanks to the social recruitment.
 
In organizational structure, the company sets up a “thorough overhaul” management mode, achieved integrated management for overhaul majors, and gave full play to the comprehensive allocation efficiency of the current human resources.
 
In talent cultivation, the Company set up a mentor studio for the overhaul major to enhance trainings for grassroots maintainers. It also selected senior maintainers to receive training in equipment manufacturing factories and construction units with the purpose to build an overhaul team with competitive professional background.
 
In external overhaul resources, Guangzhou Power Supply Co. Ltd. took initiative to work with qualified external overhaul teams based on its unleashed self-reliant overhaul potential. As such, the company entrusted some of the missions to external overhaul teams to ease the pressure on its own overhaul team.
 
The “streamlined” and “intensive” distribution network to improve customer service
 
Keyword: management
 
At Guangzhou Power Supply Co. Ltd., excessive employees at distribution network and structural lack of employees are the most serious problems. There are too many management levels, which has leads to the overlapping responsibilities and inefficient business instructions delivery. In addition, uneven human resources allocation and work load for different employees are ubiquitous, causing employees’ low satisfaction for their job and impacting customer service. Based on the features of rural companies and urban companies, Guangzhou Power Supply Co. Ltd. optimized the structure of distribution network and sought the structural potential according to its management ideas of “streamlined” and “intensive” distribution network.
 
Guangzhou Power Supply Co. Ltd. promoted streamlined management pilot projects in urban companies. As a pilot project of optimized structuring in urban Companies, Tianhe branch eliminated power supply administrations and integrated teams and groups. Before the elimination, Shahe Power Supply Administration, the only power supply administration of Guangzhou Tianhe Power Supply, was mainly responsible for power supply in villages located in Tianhe District. It is of the same level as departments under Tianhe branch, thus has lead to excessive management. After the elimination, various businesses of the power supply administration were distributed to various departments under Tianhe branch. Meanwhile, the electricity allocation department and marketing department are optimized and the production teams and groups are integrated. Tianhe branch also optimized the production teams and groups of the entire company and redefined the responsibility for various teams and groups. At the same time, the team leaders and their workforce were reallocated sot that the employee age structure could be more reasonable and the uneven work load of different employees could be changed. Such streamlined management made it possible to reduce management levels and solved the inefficient information delivery. As the standards of villages in cities were getting close to urban areas, integration management is becoming possible. After the reform, the work efficiency has been largely enhanced. Take an example of the frequently inflicted areas in northern Tianhe District. The distribution network emergency response time was cut by nearly 30%, and the number of customer complaint cases was reduced from 85 to 30.
 
Guangzhou Power Supply Co. Ltd. promoted intensive management pilot projects in rural Companies. As a pilot project of optimized structuring in rural Companies, Guangzhou Conghua Power Supply Co. Ltd. decided to eliminate internal departments of its power supply administrations, integrate teams and groups, and conduct a management mode where teams and groups are directly lead by power supply administrations due to the remote and dispersive locations of some of its power supply administration. Moreover, Guangzhou Power Supply Co. Ltd. optimized electricity allocation department and marketing department, integrated production teams and groups, internal teams and groups in power supply administrations and set up differentiated electricity allocation and marketing teams and groups. After the adjustment, the lengthy process has been upgraded, for the number of interfaces has been reduced, efficiency and quality improved due to appropriate labor division. Meanwhile, the Company takes advantage of this opportunity to switch tasks among staff to enhance the communication among various departments and power supply administrations. Furthermore, most of the newly recruited university graduates were appointed vice monitors at the front line. The Company followed the principle of “senior employees leading rookies and everyone drawing strength from one another”.