Neoenergia, one of the largest companies in the Brazilian electricity sector, decided to bet on the replacement of the outsourced workforce by its own employees, a process called internalization. Since the company’s inception, in 2017, around 3 thousand professionals were hired in several areas, such as network inspection, commercial activities and construction work inspection, among others. One of the actions integrated to the initiative is the School of Electricians, aimed at training professionals who can join the group.
Enhancing safety and quality, as well as humanizing people management are the objectives of this initiative. “With own employees, we are able to increase the sense of belonging and, as a result, the commitment to the group’s culture, priority themes and assets”, says Adriana Teixeira, Neoenergia’s Human Resources Superintendent.
Internalization includes the three group’s energy concessionaries in the Northeast – Coelba (BA), Celpe (PE) and Cosern (RN). Elektro (SP/MS) already operates with own employees, with multidisciplinary teams covering all areas. This change is already reflected in productivity figures, pointing out to an efficiency increase over 30%, achieved through the optimization of processes.
The project is phased-in, and was started three years ago with the hiring of 1.8 thousand employees who joined Coelba’s and Celpe’s emergency service teams. This first move has contributed to improve the group’s quality indicators, including DEC, a ratio set by National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) to monitor the service provided by distributors. All Neoenergia’s concessionaries boast results above those set by the regulatory agency and, between 2018 and 2019, the average energy interruption duration fell 1.7 hours, considering the four companies.
Next, the network project activities at Coelba, Celpe and Cosern were internalized. This allows higher control at all steps, since the design of the strategy for these initiatives, and results in higher quality for the projects. Network inspections, management and inspection of works and urban pruning are further areas who greeted own professionals in the last few years.
MODEL EVOLUTION
With the arrival of new professionals, Neoenergia has also changed its management model for field teams and kicked-off the so-called UTD 4.0, acronym for Distribution Territorial Unit in Portuguese. “Due to the new demand, we realized the need for getting employees closer to their leaders, in order to gain operating efficiency, safety, productivity and quality. Thus, we increased the number of operational bases, from 60 to 188, in the entire concession area of the three distributors. This new structure has enabled the creation of operational support positions, held by engineers, analysts, technicians and assistants, in addition to 40 new leadership positions”, says Carlos Eduardo Soares, Distribution Development and Application.
SCHOOL OF ELECTRICIANS
Aimed at fostering professional training in the company's concession areas and offering job opportunities to residents of these states, Neoenergia created the School of Electricians, one of the initiatives of the internalization project. The action is active in four states where the company operates - Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte and São Paulo. Exclusive classes for women were created in Coelba and Celpe, with the purpose of promoting diversity and inclusion.