New Years is a time of resolutions, new starts and a great time to empower employees to become better every day.
Like other resolutions, energy management initiatives often start off well but fizzle due to lack of direction, competing priorities, and other factors. Here are three tips to help launch your energy program AND maintain enthusiasm over time.
1) Diversity: Energy management succeeds with engagement from the C-Suite down to operations levels; it succeeds thanks to production, maintenance, finance, HR, health & safety and others. Interdisciplinary teams can and will learn from each other and support each other. Over time, infuse the teams with new staff to prevent burnout and share the team’s knowledge even further.
2) Education: Nobody likes doing things they aren’t good at. If employees don’t feel equipped to do what is asked, their enthusiasm will quickly disappear and energy management will too. Provide training on energy markets and rates, data analysis, and operating approaches to achieve both cost and usage savings. Involvement of an energy coach to mentor and support applying that new knowledge helps embed energy in your company’s culture.
3) Empowerment: Provide energy teams with a mandate to find savings, but give them autonomy and decision-making capability, coupled with the right education and support so they can own the program and determine their own best way to achieve targets.
There is no one fail-proof recipe to sustain a strong energy management program, but programs that succeed over the long term share these key principles. St Marys Cement, in St Marys, ON, is one of our clients that has achieved success at creating interest in energy management. To learn more about St Marys success, watch their case study.
