30 Years Strong | Leadership Series 8 of 12: Future-Focused Leadership
By Nicole Chapman, Chief Human Resources Officer
Every conversation about the future of this industry comes back, sooner or later, to the same question: who is going to do the work?
I don't mean it in the abstract. I mean the operator easing a hydrovac truck down a narrow residential street at seven in the morning. The crew reading the locates before any excavation begins. The dispatcher whose plan for the day has already changed three times before lunch. Spend any time around utility work and you learn quickly that the equipment is impressive, but the people are the job.
In May, I wrote about culture; what a people-first company actually looks like day to day. This article is about what comes next. The industry our newest hires are joining doesn't look like the one OE's first crews joined in 1996, and it will look different again ten years from now. Preparing our people for that future is, to my mind, the most important work a company can do in its 30th year.
The work is changing - and that's a good thing
Some of the changes are easy to spot. The trucks our crews run today would surprise an operator from 1996. Our NextGen hydrovac units run about ten decibels quieter than conventional trucks, which matters a great deal when the job site is somebody's front yard early in the morning. Scheduling, work orders, and reporting have moved from paper to digital. Tasks that once ate an hour of a crew's morning now take minutes.
Some of the changes are harder to see, and honestly, it's the part I find most interesting. Technology is steadily taking on the tedious work: the forms, the double entry, the paperwork that nobody got into this trade to do - and giving that time back to people. That's exactly the direction it should go. Not technology instead of people. Technology so our people can spend their day on the work that genuinely needs their skill and judgment: reading conditions, making the safe call, delivering for the Customer.
When Keith talks about OE being a people-first company, this is what it means in practice. Every tool we adopt gets asked the same question: does this help our people do their best work? If the answer is no, we're not interested.
Talent is infrastructure, too
When people say infrastructure, they mean pipes, cables, and roads. I'd add one more thing to the list: talent. A skilled operator is not hired, they're developed (over years!) on real job sites, beside people who've seen what the textbook doesn't cover. That kind of experience compounds, and it can't be rushed. Ask any of our senior operators how they learned the trade and you'll hear the same story: somebody took the time to teach them.
Everyone in our industry is feeling the same pressure. Experienced tradespeople are getting harder to find, and every utility services company in Ontario is looking for the same skilled hands. Our answer to that isn't complicated, but it does take discipline: be the kind of company skilled people want to join, and the kind they never want to leave.
Some of that is equipment, giving people machines they're proud to run, and a company that keeps investing in them, in continuous training, and in accountability. A lot of it is safety, because nothing says "we value you" more clearly than sending everyone home safe, every day. The rest is harder to put on a poster: leaders who know your name, a real path from your first day to wherever your ability can take you, and veterans paired with the next generation so that thirty years of hard-earned field knowledge gets passed on instead of retired.
Transformation, without losing the plot
Transformation is a big word, and in our industry, it earns some healthy skepticism. So let me be specific about what it means at OE.
The company our people will work for in 2036 is being built by decisions we're making right now: the equipment we buy, the technology we adopt, the people we hire and how seriously we develop them. Transformation, for us, is modernizing the work without ever confusing the tools with the point of the work. And what doesn't change is the foundation the first thirty years were built on: safety first, people first, and the Customer's outcome as the measure of whether any of it worked.
The companies that will thrive in this industry's next decade won't be the ones with the flashiest technology. They'll be the ones whose people know how to use it well, and who stayed true to themselves while everything around them changed.
Looking ahead
As OE moves through its 30th year, here's how we're preparing for the next one:
- Investing in our people's development, mentorship, and careers, so that experience keeps compounding inside OE
- Investing in the fleet and tools that let crews do their best, safest work; including quieter, more precise equipment built for the communities we work in
- Adopting technology that removes tedious work and supports our people's judgment, never technology for its own sake
In closing
Thirty years ago, this company was built by people who cared about doing essential work well. Every year since has been built the same way. The next thirty will be no different. The trucks will change, the tools will change, but the future of OE will be decided by the people who show up and do the work.
And if you're one of those people - an experienced operator, or someone ready to become one - we're growing, and we'd like to meet you. Visit careers.oeservices.ca.
Nicole Chapman
Chief Human Resources Officer | OE Utility Services | www.oeservices.ca
What is your organization doing today to prepare its people for tomorrow?
Please contact us to discuss and find out how OE Utility Services can help you!
If you haven't already, we encourage you to read our leadership team's prior articles in our 30 Years Strong Leadership Series:
1 of 12 — Honouring Our 30-Year Legacy and Shaping What's Next — Keith Boulton, CEO
https://www.oeservices.ca/honouring-our-30-year-legacy-shaping-what-s-next
2 of 12 — Reliability at Scale: Leading Operational Excellence — Tony Kerwin, COO
https://www.oeservices.ca/reliability-at-scale-leading-operational-excellence
3 of 12 — Growth Through Trust: The Discipline Behind Sustainable Sales — George Chung, CSO
https://www.oeservices.ca/growth-through-trust-the-discipline-behind-sustainable-sales
4 of 12 — Built to Last: The Financial Discipline Behind 30 Years of Reliable Growth — David Branigan, CFO
https://www.oeservices.ca/built-to-last-the-financial-discipline-behind-30-years-of-reliable-growth
5 of 12 — People First: Building Culture in Utility Services — Nicole Chapman, CHRO
https://www.oeservices.ca/people-first-building-culture-in-utility-services
6 of 12 — The Most Dangerous Word in Safe Digging: Safer Than the Alternative Is Not the Same as Safe — Tony Kerwin, COO
https://www.oeservices.ca/the-most-dangerous-word-in-safe-digging
7 of 12 — The Real Price of the Lowest Bid: What Infrastructure Customers Are Actually Buying — George Chung, CSO
https://www.oeservices.ca/the-real-price-of-the-lowest-bid
