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What You’ll Learn
Today’s jobseekers are watching your utility’s communications to see what kind of organization you are. And while your primary audience will almost always be your members or customers, Weston Putman says it’s crucial to signal to potential new hires that your organization is a place they would want to work.
Guest Speaker
Weston PutmanShow Notes
Transcripts have been lightly edited for clarity and readability.
Intro: A production of Pioneer Utility Resources. StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers.
Andy Johns: What are recruitications, and why do they matter to your organization? That’s what we’ll be talking about on this episode of StoryConnect: The Podcast. My name is Andy Johns, your host with Pioneer, and I’m joined on this episode by Weston Putman, who is the manager of public relations at Umatilla Electric Cooperative. Weston, thank you for joining me.
Weston Putman: Thank you, Andy. Happy to be here.
Andy Johns: I should say the award winning manager of public relations. Weston and I were hanging out in California recently for the NIC Conference, the NWPPA’s NIC. And I believe they said that you guys were the first organization ever to take home the overall communications award in back-to-back years. So that’s awesome. Congratulations to you guys.
Weston Putman: Thank you, Andy. We as a whole team are very appreciative. It was a good evening at the NIC. And you know we’re just very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish. But I just want to hit on, and I mentioned it at the night of the award ceremony, but it’s all due to the team and then everyone in the whole industry as well. We learn a lot of things from the whole industry, from the personnel, both in communications and across all departments, every utility. So it’s a whole public power win.
Andy Johns: For sure, and it certainly represents a lot of good work being done by the folks there at Umatilla, so good work there. We’ll be talking about just a little piece of that today with this firm recruitication. So when you Google recruitication, there are two pages on the entire internet, which is a big place. There are two pages on the entire internet that come up. One of them is a LinkedIn post by Weston Putman, and the other is the 2023 NWPPA agenda, which described a session that you do. So I think you may have cornered the market on this word for now. But I guess once this podcast goes out, there will be at least one other spot where recruitication is mentioned. So let’s start off by defining the terms. So what do you mean when you say recruitication?
Weston Putman: Yeah. So thanks, Andy. And the reason, I think, the reason that there’s only two is because it is a completely, completely made up term that I came up with. And what it is, is, and just overall or from a high level, is really the combination of the term recruiting and communication. And I talked about it during my NIC talk at the NIC. But really what it comes down to is just you as communicators, focusing our communications, focusing our messaging and material strictly for recruitment or recruiting. You know, I think so often as communicators we focus, or as electric utility communicators, we focus on messaging towards our members or our consumers or, you know, whoever it may be. Maybe it’s our horizontal partners in the industry or community partners. But I think sometimes we often, and we don’t mean to, but it gets put on the back burner, a bit of message messaging or marketing towards potential employees that could come help support the utility, come help support what the mission that we’re on or the values that we hold. And so that’s where I started thinking about recruitications. And really the definition that, you know, we were able to come up with is the innovative and strategic utilization of creative content and communication materials in the recruitment process. And so during my talk, I talked about different ways that you can incorporate recruitications and whether that’s, you know, eye appealing pieces, you know, informative and more marketing focused job ads, employee videos, visually rich social media posts, whatever it may be. These are just all things that encompass recruitications. So that’s really from a high level overview of what the term means. And, you know, like you said, hopefully after this podcast there’s a third search topic on Google.
Andy Johns: Yeah, I think it should. So and you know, I think it comes at a really good time. You know, if you look at the overall kind of labor landscape for electric utilities and broadband providers or most of the people in this audience. You know, we know that there’s a lot of the boomer generation retiring. We know on the broadband side, there’s $42-44 billion worth of fiber dollars, and, you know, in the pipeline to come out. So there’s going to be a lot of fiber to be built there. There are a lot of folks who are looking for talent. And I think it’s a good approach to get the communication side into it because, and I know it’s not just on social media, but maybe we can start there. We’re hiring right now for an administrative role at Pioneer, and on the interviews that I’ve been in on every single candidate has said, “I looked on your Facebook page.” Or, “I looked on your LinkedIn page,” and they mentioned something they saw on there. Which (a) shows they’re good candidates; they’re doing their homework. But (b) shows that we’ve we provided stuff out there. So let’s start on the digital side of that then. What are what are you seeing, you know, either things you all are doing or other utilities are doing well on the digital side of our recruitications?
Weston Putman: Yeah. So one, just to kind of echo what you said, we run into that same thing, and it’s a good thing to run into. So we’ve had applicants during interviews say, you know, “I see your logo everywhere.” Or, “I see you guys are really involved in the community.” And that makes us feel really good, because what it does is, you know, one, you know, we’re cooperative, or we’re a public power utility. So we are very involved with our community, as with others, as folks who are listening to this, are. So it makes us feel good in that sense. But then two, it makes us feel good because it shows that what we’re putting out there, people are seeing, right? And we’re attracting the right people. Because typically if someone says that, says, “Hey, I’ve seen what you’re doing. I like, I like your guys’s logo out here.” Or, “I like what you support.” If someone’s saying that, more than likely they are someone who shares that same mission and value as public power, right? Or as a utility, or in our case, a cooperative who has so much concern for community that, you know, we emphasize and prioritize our involvement in the community. So from a digital standpoint, what I’ve seen other utilities and UEC, I think does a good job of it too, is just like – and it’s easier said than done. But I would just emphasize to when you’re messaging, whether it’s on your Facebook, your LinkedIn, because LinkedIn’s super critical when you’re talking about recruiting or hiring. But message on you know and I know everything’s fun, but message on the fun stuff. The stuff that you know you’re proud of as utility, the stuff that’s going to attract people.
Weston Putman: And again, focus your messaging towards recruiting. It’s really easy. An easy example is the past couple of weeks we’ve been holding our member appreciation luncheons for, you know, National Cooperative Month in October. So we’ve been holding our luncheon. So our messaging has been primarily focused on that. And so, you know, and it’s easy to fall into just so member-focused and member-driven messaging that it’s easy to, I don’t want to say forget, but to fall behind on the recruitment messaging. So social media is an easy tool for that. So I would say, you know, I don’t think there’s a magic formula for it, but all I would say is just whether you run your social media or involved on a team that runs your social media, and again, whether that’s Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn or others that are out there, just remember in the back of your mind every few posts, maybe it’s one out of every five, one out of every four, try to put something towards recruitment. And it depends on how, I don’t want to say struggling, but how important recruitment is to you at the time. You know, there are some utilities who are hiring for a ton of positions, and there are some that are doing really well right now and, you know, may not have an opening at the time.
Andy Johns: Sure.
Weston Putman: You know, just be mindful of that as well. But social media, I think with demographic that we’re seeing coming into the workforce, is going to be a huge platform and tool for us. And for us as utility communicators.
Andy Johns: Sure. So when you’re talking about a recruiting message, I’m assuming you’re talking about something more subtle than, you know, “Hey, USC is a great place to work!” With smiling employees doing a thumbs up. You know, like you’re not necessarily talking about an overt come work for us, you know, we’re hiring and happy employee pictures. I mean, obviously, a picture is happy employees factor in, I’d assume. What kind of things are you meaning when you say, you know, message for if you’re going to say one out of four, one out of five posts, whatever it is, what types of messages are you talking about?
Weston Putman: Yeah. So that’s where it goes back towards the communication, towards recruitment or potential applicants. So I talked about it at the NIC. But I think what we fall into is when you’re trying to hire someone or recruit someone, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of you’re hiring for one person. But the way I think we look at it is, you know, you’re not hiring for one person, right? You’re either hiring for his or her significant other. You’re hiring for their children. You’re hiring for whoever family is planning to come with them. So an easy way, and it sounds simple, but for recruitications is just to emphasize and communicate, whether it’s with graphics, videos, the region that you’re from. And talk about some of the benefits of the community, whether it’s the eateries you have, you know, if people are interested in golfing, you know, hiking, fishing, outdoors, whatever it may be, and emphasize some of that. So and that in terms of utility communicators is something that I don’t think we emphasize because, you know, why would we, right? Like we’re messaging again towards our members or consumers or customers, and so it’s why would we put that top off the radar? But when you start thinking about recruitications, that’s where it perfectly falls in line.
Weston Putman: Because you know, again, you’re not hiring for that one person. You’re hiring for your area as a whole, and you’re not hiring just for your specific job that you have open. You’re trying to get them to become attracted to the area that you live in and the area that you call or that your utility calls home. And another good, or I think a perfect example that we’ve done of this is we did, we posted on our social media as well as housed it on our careers page right now, is an employee video. So we interviewed our PR team and HR team got together, and we collaborated for a effort to interview a few of our employees from all sorts of different departments. And we asked them questions, our group asked them questions related to, you know, some of those things that I hit on. The area that they live in, why they enjoy living here, what brought them here, the growth opportunities that the cooperative and just things along that nature. Because I think we try to stray away from the job specific duties that people talk about in everyday ads or everyday job postings. And we want to emphasize that there’s so much more than just your day to day job, right? Like there’s so much more to public power, to electric utility than just your day to day.
Weston Putman: And so that’s a perfect example. I think someone could, you know, work towards. And when you’re talking about making a video, the video that you have right here in your cell phone or whatever it may be, is perfectly capable of making a video like that. Grab 2 or 3 folks from your electric utility and just have them sit down, you know, and just ask them these questions. And I think you’d be surprised with the type of video you’re able to put together. And then you can take snippets based on job or based on job roles. And we’ve had that idea. So we’ve interviewed folks from operations, folks from public relations, engineering, outside linemen. And so we have a bunch of these. We all meshed them up into one video. But now what we have is the opportunity to, okay, we’re hiring for linemen. Let’s grab that interview we did with our linemen and, you know, make lineman specific. And so it’s just it’s getting even more creative with what you already have, and really creating an ultimate Swiss Army knife of recruitications.
Andy Johns: Now, when you’re looking at featuring staff or featuring folks that represent the community, how much do you look at diversity? And when I’m, you know, I know, like, north central Oregon. That’s where y’all are. I’m here in the mountains in East Tennessee. Neither one of those areas known for being a particularly racially diverse area. But, you know, there are other forms of diversity, too. Are you looking to feature folks with different ages, different backgrounds? Are you taking an effort to make sure that you’re representing folks from a lot of different backgrounds that may appeal to different folks when you’re putting that together?
Weston Putman: Yeah, absolutely. So like I said, our the team got together, and I think they did a wonderful job of, you know, making sure that was an emphasis. So when we interviewed, we had folks that were fresh into the electric utility world, right? So we had a few 20 year old, you know, being able to talk about the the benefits that they’ve already seen. And then we had folks who were, you know, have been here for, you know, 20 to 30 years. And then we had both male and females, because what we wanted to do was to showcase that, you know, this door, this world of public power is open to anyone, and the opportunities are endless. And another thought that we had when we wanted to, like, run with this is or that they had when they were running with this is by showing the folks who have been here for 20 to 30 years, by interviewing them, you’re able to show again, maybe a more green or more green applicant, or maybe someone who just graduated college the opportunities, right? When you’re interviewing someone that has been at a utility for 20 to 30 years, even that alone is showing that potential employee that someone you know is being is staying here for 20 to 30 years, like something’s keeping them.
Weston Putman: Keeping them here, whether it’s benefits, whether it’s the job itself, the people, the culture, whatever it may be, something’s keeping them here. And then on the flip side, when we show the 20 year olds or the people who are fresh and we interview them and get their perspective, we’re showing others that, okay, this is a place that people, this type of age, fresh out of college, the door is open for you too. Like, it’s not just 10 to 20 years of experience, like the door’s open for you. And truly, the opportunities are endless. So yeah, we definitely emphasize that. Andy, like I said, we wanted to interview both male and female, ages of all kinds and just, you know, get the whole perspective because, again, we viewed it as, by showing this and interviewing, you know, different demographics, we’re able to try to hit all the potential recruits that we could.
Andy Johns: Yeah. And it’s amazing. You know, I was reading something this week that talked about the more likely that a female candidate is likely to accept a job increases significantly if somebody in the interviewing room interviewing them is a female. You know, like, it’s amazing the ways that we may not even think about that representation. You know, mattering can be so important to folks, and I knew that you guys were paying some attention there.
Weston Putman: Yeah. And that’s just something to be super mindful like even. Yeah. Because there are studies out there. There’s, you know, interviews that are held already that or reports out there that, you know, there’s data that shows exactly what you’re saying, Andy, that having, you know, female in the room would help. Having, you know, both male and female in the room have helped. So it’s just something to be mindful of with you’re recruitment.
Andy Johns: Absolutely. Now, we’ve talked a lot about the videos and social media, the digital side, and if you’re trying to recruit somebody in from far away, that’s probably the best way to reach them. But are there some things that you guys have done, you know, I don’t want to say in the real world, but, you know, IRL. Are there some things that you guys have done, whether it’s print, whether it’s the way the actual building is, events, anything like that that you guys have done that you would classify as recruitications?
Weston Putman: Yeah. So, and I just want to emphasize, you know, I’m more on the recruitication word, I lean more on the “cations,” the communication side. Our HR team here at UEC does a really, really good job of the recruitment and, you know, attracting potential employees. But yeah, absolutely. Both PR and HR at UEC, we work collaboratively together to try to work on some of the stuff. And, you know, their group, HR, does a great job at making an active effort into showing up to career fairs, workshops, high school workshops. We have a community college here. We try to go up to there as much as we can when they have workshops or whatever it may be. Another idea that we implemented, again, both from a collaborative effort with our PR team and HR team, is they got together and made what’s essentially about a 5×7 little postcard that has just quick details of careers at Umatilla Electric, with the QR code going to the website. And we have those printed out. We have a bunch of them. So when we’re at these events in, like you said IRL, face-to-face, having these conversations. You know, because we all know how typical a career fair can be. You know, sometimes these kids are just trying to check a box. They’re trying to go from one booth to another, because maybe it’s a requirement that they have to hit five booths. And so they’re trying to –
Andy Johns: Get their bingo stamp or whatever it is. Yeah.
Weston Putman: Right. Yeah. They’re trying to check the box. And we recognize that. And you know, I think as a team again, both HR and PR, we had an effort to where by using these cards, if someone’s in a hurry or you find someone out in the community, whether it’s an event or or whatever it may be, you’re able just to hand them a card. And they can go visit the page, scan the QR code. And another utility that’s doing a great job of this is Clark Public Utilities. And when I spoke to them, you know, when I was preparing for my presentation at the NIC and I spoke to them, one thing they do is any like, it doesn’t need to be an event. It doesn’t need to be a largely attended event. It can be if you’re out at a restaurant, and you have this wonderful waiter or waitress and you’re like, “Wow, you know, he or she would be wonderful to have on our team. Let’s drop the card off.” Like it can be even even stuff like that. It doesn’t need to be a career fair. It doesn’t need to be a workshop. It can be your day to day effort into recruiting. And I think what that comes down to is the communication side of, you know, messaging to your employees that, you know, the whole organization is behind this. The whole organization wants folks that are good, that believe in the mission, believe in the value of public power, and, you know, want to come join our team. And so I think that’s where communications can help in or help in the recruitications piece.
Andy Johns: Bunny you say that example. We when we were hiring for a position maybe about a year and a half ago, I had a great experience with somebody, with a server. And, you know, attitude was great. Personality was great. I’m like, this is someone, you know, it’d be unconventional, but we ought to hire, you know, we ought to think about hiring this person. And then all of a sudden, the order came out. It was completely wrong. And I was like, “Well, there goes that idea.” But, you know, as you were saying that to go, that’s.
Weston Putman: It was a good thought. It was a good thought.
Andy Johns: You know, you never know where you’re going to find somebody. I think it’s smart to be prepared if, if you do. It takes all kinds, so. Well, that’s I think that’s some really good information, some really good tips. Last question I have for you, what advice would you have if there’s somebody who’s listening to this and thinking, “Wow, we don’t really do anything to talk to this audience. We thought we had all of our segments covered. We thought we had all of our audiences taken care of. But we haven’t done anything like this before.” What advice would you have for somebody who is just getting started down the the pathway, down the recruitication pathway?
Weston Putman: Yeah. And this may be a cheesy or cliche answer, Andy, but I would say just two words. “Just try.” Like there’s no harm in trying something, right? There’s no harm. Because even if you do something, if you attempt to do a video, if you attempt to create a graphic or related to a recruitications or, you know, have an initiative related to recruitications, even if it, you know, falls, if it’s done at 50%, well, hey, that’s 50% more than what you were doing already, right? So I think just two words that I would say is “just try”, and just try, and I’ll add another one, “fast.” And the reason I say that is we, I truly think are going to be hit with a wave here soon with retirements. And honestly, it puts some fear into me because there’s a lot of people here. I’ve learned a ton. I’ve been at UEC for three years now, and I’ve learned a ton from people in the industry, both at UEC and across the electric utility world. And it honestly is a little frightening that, you know, some of those folks may not be in the working field in 5 to 10 years. In fact, we pull, our HR team analyzes and and tracks, and in five years, we’re projected, or in five years, 16.7% of us just UEC’s workforce is going to be eligible to retire. Not saying they all will, but they’ll be eligible.
Andy Johns: You said 16? 1-6?
Weston Putman: Yeah, 16.7. So yeah, 1-6. So we’re in double digits already there. And if you add another five years to it. So if you get to ten years. So within ten years 25%. So that’s a quarter of our workforce at UEC will be again eligible. Not saying they will.
Andy Johns: Sure.
Weston Putman: But eligible to retire. And so, you know, and I would even encourage folks to start looking at that like, looking at your numbers. Because it’s something that helps you kind of stay ahead. Right? Like if we don’t start looking at our numbers, ten years from now, well it might be too late. So it’s just. Yeah, to answer your question, I kind of rambled on there, but to answer your question, I just try and then. At the same time, start looking at your numbers. Because you may hopefully you’re pleasantly surprised, but you might be a little frightened too at how fast this wave might be coming. And I also just want to like, there’s some tremendous, knowledgeable, phenomenal people in the working field that you know again will be eligible to retire. So the time we have that they’re still working and wanting to give back to the industry is incredibly valuable.
Andy Johns: Yeah. There’s a lot of knowledge in that group to be sure. So I’m glad you brought that up. And we should have spent a little bit more time on that earlier, because I know that you guys are you know, you guys are not alone in being in that position. Everybody’s numbers are going to be a little different. Some folks will have less, some folks will have more. But you know, if you look at the data, there’s a significant number of folks that are going to be phasing out in that 5 to 10 year span. So I think you’re smart, like usual. You guys are smart to look ahead and be thinking ahead on that. So I appreciate you sharing those thoughts and concepts with us on this podcast.
Weston Putman: Well, I appreciate it, Andy. Thank you for the time and allowing me to get on here.
Andy Johns: Absolutely. He is Weston Putman. He is the manager of public relations at Umatilla Electric Cooperative. I’m your host Andy Johns with Pioneer. And until we talk again, keep telling your story.
Outro: StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a communications cooperative that is built to share your story. StoryConnect is engineered by Lucas Smith of Lucky Sound Studio.