The
past 12 months have been different from other years, for the 200 staff
of listed wind energy company, Infigen (ASX: IFN). That’s because a year
ago they got the chance to have their say about the leadership of their
company. That had never happened before – not by way of a formal,
anonymous staff survey – and it changed the leadership in significant
ways, says CEO Miles George.
Speaking to LeadingCompany after
yesterday’s annual general meeting, George described how the response
from staff – 65 in Australia and 130-odd in the United States, where
Infigen also has a solar business – led him and his leadership team to
re-think their approach. George discovered that his staff of passionate,
motivated Gen Ys had a lot to say on how the company could be improved.
“We’ve conducted staff surveys to provide feedback on things staff like
and don’t like and tried to respond. We have just done our second one,
and we try to act on that feedback to demonstrate we are listening, and
to make improvements.”
A difficult time to listen
It’s not an easy time for the company to take on more change and criticism, even if George deemed it to be for the better.
For renewable energy companies, the past
few years have been trying, with frequent changes to regulations, grant
programs, business opportunities and levels of community support. George
says: “This is probably true for other sectors as well as renewable
energy, but I find I need to focus more and more on external issues and
factors, stakeholders, because of uncertainty from the government and
legislators.”
The wind sector has vocal critics in the
community and in government: changes to Victorian government rules about
the proximity of wind farms to communities has halted all new wind
energy projects in the state. “We are talking, not only with government
and opposition, about their policies,” says George. “There is a lot of
advocacy in favour of renewables, but we have relatively tiny but noisy
groups that oppose wind energy for various outlandish reasons that are
very effective in getting press coverage. There are a lot of untruths
that need to be dealt with.”
That kind of uncertainty scares off
investors and bankers, and the high upfront cost of wind farms means
Infigen is more highly geared than companies in other sectors, and
George is under constant pressure to keep costs lean – particularly
operating expenses.
However, George and his six direct
executive reports know their workforce delivers them a competitive
advantage. They are passionate advocates of the product Infigen sells:
renewable wind energy. “Our team is incredibly passionate about
renewable energy,” he says. “We benefit from having people in their 20s;
they have really added a lot to the vigour of our business. We spend a
lot of time trying to encourage innovation from that young and
passionate team.”
The staff survey was an effort to harness that enthusiasm, and to give staff a greater sense of power over their careers.
Could do better
Among the responses that came back, one
stood out: the need for personal development, both at the front line and
at the management level. “We took that on board, and now we encourage
people to individual look for technical of financial courses at uni or
TAFE, to think about their self- development – and we obtained
commitment from our board to fund things that are, at least vaguely,
relevant to our business,” says George.
Source:http://www.leadingcompany.com.au
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