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One of the difficulties of running a business is finding an appropriate way to outfit your employees. While it is not a legal requirement to supply “ordinary clothing” for work – items like winter jackets, work uniforms, and rain gear, for example – expecting your workforce to spend thousands of dollars individually to comfortably complete their job is unreasonable. 

State-mandated labor laws provide a framework for employers to follow when utilizing their workforce. If you are working in an industry with additional regulations, there are likely other guidelines your employer must consider (OSHA, MSHA, etc.). However, while many employers look to the law when determining how to outfit their employees, it can mean a lot to work for a company that takes care of its employees above and beyond the minimum requirements.

When it comes to construction, most workforces are expected to perform in all elements: rain, snow, sleet, wind, and very high or low temperatures. They need to be prepared for anything. Do they need fire-resistant clothing? Waterproof clothing? Insulated gloves? What do they need to bring themselves and what should be provided for them?

Basic PPE is an obvious requirement that employers must provide (hard hats, gloves, earplugs, masks, etc.). The pandemic makes it even more difficult, as no gear should be shared among groups of people without extensive sanitization protocols. All gear should be individualized and provided to employees to use for work purposes.

Even the “ordinary clothing” employers are not legally responsible for providing should be considered. Are these items things workers normally have and wear? I don’t know about you, but I do not casually wear lined Carhartt pants on the weekends, or a high-visibility rain jacket, or a fire-resistant long sleeve shirt to lounge around in at home. But at many companies, I would be responsible for equipping myself with (and paying for) those items. In total, my gear probably costs at least $5,000. This is not an instance where “business casual” will suffice. Here at One Energy, we believe that items required by an employer should be supplied by the employer.

Then there’s the issue of items that can provide additional comfort for workers when completing their job requirements – things like hand warmers, yak tracks, heated clothing, bandanas, etc. At One Energy, we believe these items should be provided at the employer’s discretion.

What we have regularly done at One Energy is trialed new gear with individuals who feel the item would be a value-add to the construction and operations groups. If it turns out to be a good addition, we will often buy the product for the entire team. This type of back-and-forth communication with crews is beneficial to both finding the best products available and maintaining a sense of well-being as a team. A comfortable workforce equals more productivity (when my fingers are numb, I am the slowest cable terminator of all time).

I recommend the following rules for employers in the construction industry who are outfitting their teams.

Outfitting rules of thumb as an employer, or the “New Minimum”:

  1. Buy and issue critical PPE to all employees.
  2. Buy your workforce everyday work uniforms.
  3. Buy your workforce “job required” gear.
  4. Determine if there are any specialized or unique items needed for specific work activities and stock that distinct PPE to be issued on an as-needed basis.
  5. Create a catalog of items that your workforce can choose from. Regularly update that catalog.
  6. Allow for your employees to demo new products that may be more comfortable for them.
  7. Set up an annual review of employee work attire and see what needs to be replaced and/or allocate a dollar value for replacement (for example, assuming 10% of my gear needs to be replaced every year, I would allocate a $500 budget to new gear).

The items noted above may seem obvious. Here is something that is not. I am a woman in construction. When I show up to work, I don’t put a power suit on, I put on a pot of coffee and my most durable gear for that day’s weather. I have also hired many women to work in construction, and finding quality gear to outfit them with has been perplexing. This industry is male-dominated, and it is PAINFULLY obvious. I regularly order men’s clothing for myself because I know they have a range of products that will work. For women in construction, there is a wide selection of pink hardhats, boot-cut jeans, and too-large-for-my-hands gloves, but comfortable and durable workwear for women is rare. What if there is a pregnant woman on your staff? I have recently investigated maternity workwear and came up with nothing. (On that note, if you read this and know of construction clothing or brands suited for women, please leave a comment!)

When industry standard doesn’t set the bar high enough, employers need to adjust. Workplace outfitting is one instance where that adjustment is straightforward and pays for itself. If a team is outfitted well, they look more professional, act more professional, and ultimately get more done.

 

          Chelsea Bumb is the Head of Construction at One Energy.

          Learn more about Chelsea and the One Energy team.

How big are they, exactly?

Well, for the turbine pictured here, the three blades that make up the rotor are ~140 feet long each and the nacelle that sits on top of the tower is ~265 feet in the air. That’s the size equivalent of a football field, spinning on top of a 26-story building!

Notice how small the crane to the left looks in comparison to the turbine? The crane is in an upright position (or “boomed”) at ~85 feet in the air (or as tall as the length of a blue whale!).

Learn more about how One Energy constructs these big turbines on page 4.7 How to Build a Wind Turbine

Last week, Congressman Bob Latta visited One Energy and the North Findlay Wind Campus. The visit was featured on Hometown Stations Lima, as the Congressman toured our headquarters and viewed our wind turbines up close. Educating our community is a core pillar of what we do, and we were pleased to share the positive impact of Wind for Industry with Congressman Latta and his team.  

March 08, 2021 – Wind Study | Question 10

What’s a “capacity factor,” and what’s it got to do with wind energy?

In this week’s Wind Study, we’ll explain what the term capacity factor means, and how it relates to power production for potential Wind for Industry projects. After that, we’ll need your help solving two related math problems featuring capacity factors and percentages.

Download this week’s Wind Study questions here. 

🔗 Download this week’s Wind Study homework questions here. (This series is also available via Facebook and Twitter.)

Check back on Friday for the answers! 

Prepare to be thunderstruck… with science!  

In this episode of Science Shorts, Project Engineer Michelle explains the difference between AC and DC (or alternating current and direct current) power 

Watch to learn how electricity goes from a generation source (like a wind turbine) to an object (like a light bulb or your cell phone!). Michelle will cover everything involved in electricity currents, from electrons, voltage, power, and direction of flow, to how it works with wind turbines, and more!  

Subscribe to our YouTube channel and don’t miss any future Science Shorts!

March 05, 2021 – Wind Study | Answer 9

On Monday, we posted a Wind Study homework question examining the wind resource assessment process we go through when planning Wind for Industry projects. We asked for your help rounding and sorting wind speeds into “bins” and adjusting wind data to represent wind speed at the height of a wind turbine hub.

🔗 Download those homework questions here and check your work in the answers here!

And be sure to share this educational series on Facebook and Twitter!

Not all safety measures are created equal. Some are more effective than others!

In this episode of One Energy’s Engineering Safety series, Head of Construction Chelsea Bumb introduces us to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Hierarchy of Controls. This triangle helps workers identify how to isolate hazards at work and prevent accidents.

Follow along as Chelsea explains the elements of the triangle from the most effective measures to the least effective: elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment (or PPE).

This hierarchy is foundational in our risk elimination. In future Safety Minute episodes, we’ll describe actions One Energy takes to control workplace hazards according to these principles – so keep this triangle in mind and try to identify which element is being discussed in each video! ! (If you haven’t watched the previous episodes in our Engineering Safety series, you can get caught up here and  here.)

Watch the video below, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss a minute.

My grandfather, Walter E. Krynski, Jr., was a force in this world who taught everyone around him how to be better simply by being that way himself. He was born in Detroit in the 1920s and was forced to grow up quickly through the Great Depression and World War II. He peeled potatoes at Kroger as a young teenager and went on to spend 40 proud years working the night shift at General Motors, all while raising 5 children with his lovely wife, Olga, in a 1,000 square-foot bungalow.

My grandpa learned a lot in his life and was always quick to pass on his lessons to his grandchildren. One lesson came in response to my sister’s disappointment in another family member, whose fear of driving in the dark forced my grandpa – at 80 years old – to make a late-night airport run. After hearing my sister complain, my grandpa looked at her and matter-of-factly said, “Don’t expect what people don’t have to give, Lindsey.”

This lesson, though quite simple, has had the greatest impact on me and has shaped my approach to leadership as an executive. My grandpa taught me that you can’t set expectations for others (in my case, for your team of employees) that are simply unattainable. And the same goes for your personal life. When we expect what is unattainable, we are setting ourselves up for failure and disappointment.  

But let me be clear – this is not an excuse to have a mediocre team. It’s quite the opposite. This lesson puts a great deal of responsibility on executives to understand our employees, to learn exactly what they have to give. Conversely, we must learn our team’s current limitations in order to maximize their potential. We have to keep in mind, that just because our team cannot meet our expectations now, that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to meet them with additional training or mentoring.

Take baseball, for example. In baseball, you would never expect your starting pitcher to also be your homerun leader. They don’t have that to give. They spend too much time perfecting their pitching arsenal to worry about how much power they have in the batter’s box. But they are still vital to your team’s success. Knowing when to sub in a pinch hitter is the responsibility of the team manager.

As we get to know the strengths and weaknesses of all our employees, we as executives can leverage that knowledge to get the most out of our team. It is our responsibility to make sure we have the right people on the team and in the right positions to achieve our goals. If someone is not meeting expectations because they simply don’t have the ability, it is up to the leadership to course-correct. If you know your team well, it will be easy to recognize potential and determine when an employee can be pushed further than what they believe.

When my team is underperforming, I typically ask myself the following questions:

  1. Did I clearly communicate my expectations?
  2. Does my team have the ability to meet my expectations?
  3. Did I properly enable the team to meet expectations? Did I provide the training, mentoring, or authority needed?
  4. Is this the right team for the job?

It often comes down to communication. Whether the expectation was not clearly stated, or more questions should have been asked initially, ineffective communication directly leads to unmet goals. You can only expect from your team what you tell them you expect in the first place. We as leaders must set clear, attainable, expectations. If we don’t do this, then we run the risk of setting our team up for failure, and setting ourselves up for disappointment.

As executives, we must know our team’s capabilities and anticipate their limitations. We must learn what limitations are absolute, what limitations are temporary, and what limitations can be overcome. The success of the team as a whole depends on our ability to not expect from our employees what they simply don’t have to give.

          Jessica Grosso is the Head of Project Planning and Technology at One Energy.

          Learn more about Jessica and the One Energy team.

Industrial facilities are looking to take control of their energy. That’s why this plastics plant in Ohio partnered with One Energy to install a Wind for Industry project on-site at their facility.

These wind turbines are offsetting a portion of the plant’s electricity needs, so they’re using less from the power grid – and saving on their power bill. All while reducing their carbon footprint!

This is what industrial decarbonization looks like.

March 01, 2021 – Wind Study | Question 9

When planning a Wind for Industry project, One Energy needs to know what the wind is like at the location where the potential project will be installed. To find this out, we conduct what’s called a wind resource assessment using data from a wind instrument, such as an anemometer (like the ones covered in this Science Shorts video posted earlier this month).

Using that wind data along with the manufacturer’s power curve, we’re able to calculate energy production at any given wind speed. We explained power curves in an earlier Wind Study (Q5 of 2021).

The problems? 1.) manufacturer-provided power curves use different increments than actual wind speeds, and 2.) anemometers are not as tall as wind turbines.

To solve these problems, we need your help rounding and sorting wind speeds into what we call “bins” (0.5 m/s increments) so the power curve from the manufacturer can be applied.

Then, we need you to adjust the wind data to represent wind speed at the height of a wind turbine’s “hub” (the top of the tower, where all the blades attach), instead of the anemometer’s height.

🔗 Download the homework questions here.

Check your work on Friday; we’ll post the answers then!

And be sure to share this educational series on Facebook and Twitter!