Panelists Aim to “Move the Needle” to Address Workforce Gaps

A National Cleanup Workshop panel comprised of federal and contractor leaders and community stakeholders from across the DOE complex shared insights into succession planning to help develop EM’s future workforce.

EM has a workforce of about 33,000 federal and contractor employees. However, the cleanup program is expected to continue for decades, and that workforce is aging, with employees who are eligible, or soon to be eligible, for retirement. EM faces an incoming worker shortage unless measurable actions are taken.

• About 25% of the current EM workforce is eligible to retire presently.
• Approximately one-third of the workforce is eligible to retire in the next three years.
• Almost half of the workforce will be retirement-eligible in five years.
• Only 15 employees are under the age 30 in the EM federal complex-wide workforce of 1,200 employees.

EM leaders recognize recruitment and retention are vital to EM’s continued workforce development.

“We have so many different issues particularly prevalent in our industry. We can sit and come up with 50 or 60 things that we want to fix,” said Kristen Ellis, EM’s director for regulatory, intergovernmental and stakeholder engagement. “And incorporating each individual site perspective is also very challenging,”

An inaugural EM Workforce Summit held Sept. 20 highlighted federal, contractor and stakeholder viewpoints on workforce challenges. Earlier this year, EM met with the organizations Energy Communities Alliance and Energy Facility Contractors Group to address near-term workforce pipeline challenges and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Those discussions included how EM can “move the needle,” as Ellis described, in the next 18 months to better drive successful programs complex-wide and identify contracting obstacles.

At the National Cleanup Workshop, the panelists addressed issues such as the loss of employees who move on to more lucrative positions with better benefits like day care; industry competition; and the lack of a diversified talent pool.

“We’re all fishing from the same pond,” said John Eschenberg, president of Central Plateau Cleanup Company, EM Richland Operations Office contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington state. “It’s a short-term solution…It’s not a recipe for success.”

About 95% of EM’s annual budget is used to contract with an array of industry partners, according to EM’s 2022-2032 Strategic Vision.

Eschenberg stressed that the trades industry is in high demand in the Pacific Northwest, with positions such as radiation technicians, electricians, welders and others available.

“We got to get to these kids in elementary and seventh and eighth grade,” Eschenberg said. “It’s more about convincing their parents that it’s okay for their son or daughter not to seek a four-year traditional college diploma and instead serve the needs of industry and the needs for this country in a much different way.”

The Paducah Site in Kentucky has also seen a problem with attrition — at a 20% rate — among radiation technicians. That was before Myrna Redfield stepped in with training. The president/CEO and program manager for Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership, the EM Paducah Site deactivation and remediation contractor, said recent training success with United Steelworkers 550 at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio carried over to Paducah Site training as well, and now 17 people are ready to be radiation technicians at the Paducah Site.

The panelists agreed that inspiring a meaningful mission is a solution for retainment.

“We need them to want to work for us to change the world,” Eschenberg said.