BRUNO MOUGEL and DANIEL PASTUREL, JEAN FRANCOIS AT
Skills management, a process dedicated to performance improvement
BRUNO MOUGEL
EDF Nuclear and Thermal Generation Division
Lyon, France
DANIEL PASTUREL,
EDF Nuclear and Thermal Generation Division
Deputy Director OF HR and Management Delegation
Paris, France
Jean François AT,
EDF Nuclear and Thermal Generation Division
Development Director of EDF’s Technical Training Unit for Generation and Engineering (UFPI)
Lyon, France
Abstract
EDF started the development of its nuclear fleet forty years ago. From the beginning the question of competences management was central. EDF alongside the growth of its fleet, has developed its skills management structure from a local management to a management controlled nationally, but with close links with each site. This organisation of competences management is now fully part of the Integrated Management System implemented for the management of the nuclear fleet. This closed loop process based on the Systematic Approach to Training, involves all the relevant actors at the different levels, from the first line managers on the plant, to plant and corporate managers and HR staff, and training organisation.
Front-line managers constitute the first link of the process, as their observations of the activities carried out by their staff in the field, feed the skill maps of their team. Then the data is aggregated to ensure their control at the department level, site level, and finally, at the national level. These different levels ensure a coordinated and effective response in matching resources to needs, to career path management and in dealing with any competence deficits.
This strong organisation for the competencies management, applied from the first level of management to the corporate level contributes to the reinforcement of nuclear safety through a strong commitment of the staff involved.
1.BRIEF REVIEW OF EDF'S NUCLEAR PROGRAMME
EDF started its nuclear programme over 40 years ago. From the outset, the question of staff skills was central to the operation of the first power plants built and to the rapid development of the fleet. From 1970 to 2000, 58 units were built on 19 different sites. All these sites had their own training centre for initial training, while the Bugey national training centre was created and equipped with simulators to train operating teams.
The training organization evolved in parallel and in the 1990s, these training centres were grouped into a single training organisation responsible for designing, developing and carrying out technical training. The training structure then evolved with the setting up in each local training centre of a full-scale simulator, exact replica of the control rooms and processes of the site, while the Bugey training centre evolved to become the national training centre for maintenance and technical supportprofessions. This was the beginning of a decentralised training organisation, which remained under the sole management of the vocational training department, which manages all the group's training.
2007 was the year of the restructuring of EDF's training entities, with the creation of training organisations specialised by field of activity: generation, distribution, sales, etc. This involved the creation of the Technical Training Unit for Generation and Engineering (UFPI - Unité de Formation Production Ingénierie), a unit dedicated to training EDF industry branch personnel, which has 3 national centres to provide training for maintenance, engineering and fuel handling professions and 20 shared training departments dedicated to each nuclear plant and receiving commissions both from the site to which they are attached and from the UFPI management. This dual affiliation is aimed at maintaining a strong foothold at the site, while benefiting from the pooling of UFPI's training expertise.
2.THE ENTITIES responsible for SKILLS MANAGEMENT AT THE NUCLEAR GENERATION DIVISION
At EDF’s Nuclear Generation Division (DPN – Direction de la Production Nucléaire), the field of Human Resources constitutes a macro-process ("Mobilising Women and Men") within the DPN’s Integrated Management System. This macro process is organized into sub-processes, each with a major challenge:
Managing human resources (workforce flow, payroll and career management)
Boosting social dynamics
Managing housing
Professionalising employees to achieve industrial efficiency at the plants in operation (skills management).
The last of these sub-processes is managed by the Human Resources Management Department (DRHM), which reports to the DPN. The main entities in charge of skills development are the Organisational Efficiency and Skills Advisory Division (PCCEO) and the Technical Training Unit for Generation and Engineering (UFPI), as well as the DPN's operation and engineering centres, its employees and employee representatives.
3.THE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT (DRHM)
As department responsible for the skills management sub-process, the DRHM defines and implements the recruitment and training strategy for nuclear operations. To this end, it coordinates the annual Divisional Skills and Jobs Anticipated Management Plan (GPEC – GestionPrévisionnelle des Emplois et des Compétences) drawing on the Unit GPECs, which in turn draw on departmental GPECs. It interfaces with skills management (training) and reviews employee trajectories and associated hiring forecasts using Unit data.
In addition, it defines the multi-year training guidelines, manages the development of a training plan and monitors its implementation. It also develops various skills management guides.
4.ORGANISATIONAL EFFICIENCY AND SKILLS ADVISORY GROUP (PCC-EO)
PCC-EO's main mission is to accompany the Nuclear Generation Division’s major national programs and to support the plants in terms of business and organisational effectiveness. It is a national team of 40 people, attached to the Deputy Resources Director of the Nuclear Generation Division. In the field of skills management, PCC-E0 develops business forecasts to identify and analyse changes in professions in order to anticipate the necessary skills; defines common elements to harmonise training and career paths in order to develop a real synergy between jobs with common elements; establishes professional reference frameworks according to SAT to define and describe the activities and skills necessary for the exercise of a profession as well as training guides to give each Manager a training framework for their staff. The production units are responsible for implementing these national guidelines and standards, taking into account local specificities.
PCC-EO is also responsible for running the Nuclear Generation Division’s professional networks, which makes it possible to document best practices from the sites and better share the Division's challenges, as well as of anticipating changes in skills, training content and associated training resources, and national training project management.
5.THE TECHNICAL TRAINING UNIT FOR GENERATION AND ENGINEERING (UFPI)
The UFPI is the training organisation of EDF's Nuclear and Thermal Generation Division. It provides training for all technical professions and as such designs, develops and conducts the necessary training for the division's personnel. The UFPI belongs to a common support division of the group's industry branch as a whole. It is therefore independent of the Operation and Engineering Divisions.
The UFPI has 20 training campuses near nuclear sites (19 Nuclear Power Plants in operation + Flamanville 3 EPR). All are equipped with a full scope operations simulator, an exact replica of the control room, as well as simulators dedicated to the study of post-accident physical phenomena. These local facilities are supplemented by educational tools dedicated to maintenance such as simulated work areas or educational models. In addition, UFPI has facilities at the national campus of Bugey dedicated to maintenance training and also at the training centre of CETIC at Chalon-sur-Saône which is dedicated to nuclear fuel handling training, using full-scale refuelling equipment. Finally, the Saclay campus completes this system by being dedicated mainly to the group's engineering units and international projects. The vast majority of UFPI instructors come from operation professions. Armed with their field experience, they provide training in technical professions in which they themselves have worked. They are thus able to deliver training that closely reflects practices in the field and the most recent developments in the professions concerned. In addition, the team also includes young instructors (all with at least a master’s degree) recruited externally whose first job as an instructor follows extremely advanced technical training and numerous periods of field immersion. All instructors receive instruction in teaching skills and, like the people they are to train, they receive "instructor" accreditation specifying the skills area on which they are allowed to teach.
6.THE SKILLS MANAGEMENT PROCESS IN NUCLEAR OPERATION
The skills management process [1] is intended to ensure that the Nuclear Generation Division has skilled professionals at its disposal at all times. To this end, it anticipates skills needs (based on the evolution of equipment, organisations and professions) in order to implement pragmatic training solutions through local and/or standardised training programmes. In addition, the detection, analysis and elimination of performance gaps must facilitate the strengthening of skills, for example by setting up responsive training courses. The empowerment of production sites and their managers is also a central point in the implementation of this process.
This process is consistent with international best practices (AlEA, INPO) and is based on 8 objectives:
The first objective focuses on skills management in terms of strategy, management and tools. It is based on AlEA standards.
The following 6 objectives are based on the six objectives of the INPO guide ACAD02-001. They respectively cover performance improvement through training management, management of training processes and resources, initial training, continuing training, implementation of training and evaluation of trainees, and evaluation of training effectiveness.
The eighth objective takes into account the commitment of EDF Group employees and the skills development initiatives implemented by the Group.
All these objectives are translated into a looped process, focused on the everyday work of the professionals concerned and based on the Systematic Approach to Training. It involves all stakeholders in skills development by defining the organisation of the approach to be implemented and the roles of each entity within this organisational structure.
The first step consists in drafting the Skills and Jobs Anticipated Management (GPEC) plans for the various professions. These GPECs are updated annually by integrating the information from the skills maps and succession tables created by managers. They are calculated to cope with natural flows (retirements, departures to other units or transfers) and to allow the realisation of present and future projects within the units or at the national level. They include incubators, with appropriate training times built in. This data feeds into the Medium Term Plan of the Nuclear Generation Division.
These GPECs also make it possible to define training needs in the coming years as well as the resources needed to meet these needs: training resources or training equipment to be adapted or developed. These training needs are set out in a statement which constitutes the basis of the triennial Protocol co-signed by the DPN Management and the Director of the UFPI, which is designed to:
To give both parties a common vision of the Division's training challenges and the actions to be undertaken over the period,
To specify the commitments made by each to achieve the objectives set out,
To anticipate the resources that need to be mobilised.
This protocol covers a period of 3 years. It is examined each year with a review at year-end and a mid-year progress report.
Then comes the training phase, which takes place in UFPI training centres or in other organisations accredited by the UFPI. Different teaching methods are used according to the objectives of the training. This ranges from the classroom for theoretical courses to much more sophisticated equipment, such as full-scope simulators. These resources make it possible to work on all the components of the operational professions: learning elementary technical tasks, implementing operational procedures, team organisation. For maintenance and technical support jobs, models and simulated work areas are set up, with the same objective of placing trainees in situations that resemble as closely as possible their actual working environment.
A very important element of training is the long-term learning and ownership of the behaviours and attitudes required of nuclear professionals. To do this, the 6 practices defined by EDF for improving operational reliability are systematically applied during training.
The skills learned in training are evaluated by UFPI instructors; this evaluation is one of the elements taken into account when deciding whether an individual will be authorised to fill a position. This authorisation continues to be granted by the manager of the staff concerned. During the training, these managers can sit in to ensure that the training meets the required specifications.
The loop is closed once again by managers who carry out inspections of staff engaged in operational duties in the field. These evaluations make it possible to verify the implementation of learning outcomes in the workplace and they are used in skills mapping.
The entire process and its outputs are monitored through quarterly training committees. 3 committee levels exist at site level: level 1 for professions, level 2 for the department and level3 for the site. Their objectives are to control the process and to detect and address with a short loop any problem that may occur, or to handle requests for responsive training requested by the operator. Two national committees are added specifically to take into account the dimension relating to the plant fleet as a whole in order to ensure consistency and homogeneity of practices. These are the level 2N committee – led by the OrganisationalEfficiency and Skills Advisory Group(PCC-EO), dedicated to each profession and which brings together representatives from each plant, and the level 4 committee (led by the Director of Nuclear Generation Division) and whose purpose is to manage issues at the level of the fleet.
7.CONCLUSION
Thanks to its years of experience in operating a large number of nuclear plants, EDF has set up processes and an organisation designed to respond effectively to all the challenges of such a fleet.
In the field of skills management, the latest developments have led to the implementation of an integrated process, involving national entities with clearly-defined responsibilities which are located throughout the country as close as possible to nuclear sites, while a centralised management capable of dealing with all issues has been maintained.
Developments in recent years (in particular the skills programme and the deployment of the SAT approach) have given the fleet a solid, well-resourced organisational structure, in which each entity has a well-defined role.
The challenge now is to consolidate this work by bringing each site to the same level of ownership of the approach in order to ensure that each professional will get things right first time in the name of safety and sustainable performance.
References
[1]C. POIZAT, Technical note, Guide de management des compétences à la DPN, 2014.