Looking Beyond the Minimum

EWN Compliance News | vol. 5

by Dr. Matt Joiner, EWN Executive Director of Education

Eversource Energy (EE) is a Fortune 500 and Standard and Poor's 500 energy company headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut and Boston, Massachusetts. EE employs over 800 gas employees in over 14 locations across its service region. In 2016, Eversource was searching for a customized training and compliance solution that would better ensure the rigor, effectiveness, and integrity of its training content, test security, records management, and overall Operator Qualification (OQ) Program. By 2018, Eversource and ENERGY worldnet, Inc. (EWN) had forged a superior collaboration in which regulatory guidelines were exceeded and a fully-customized OQ Plan was adopted.

Working together, EWN committed its team of highly credentialed, dedicated experts to work alongside Eversource in the development of customized content and compliance materials tailored to their geographic region, specialized equipment, and internal policies, procedures, and plans. In the end, the Eversource-EWN collaboration involved:

• Auditing existing content, evaluations, and materials and recommending improvements;
• Developing customized quizzes, knowledge checks, and examinations;
• Securing seasoned, credentialed subject-matter experts and industry insiders to vet materials;
• Recommending the use of a third-party Authorized Training and Assessment Center (ATAC) to perform unbiased field and performance evaluations;
• Recommending the use of a third-party testing site that would serve as a proctoring location for Eversource employees and its contractors; and
• Producing content and conducting evaluations in EWN's award-winning Learning Content Management System (LCMS) and on its best-in-class mobile app.

Creating a plan like Eversource's, one that ensures compliance above and beyond minimum standards and safeguards the consistency of training and evaluation programs, may sound like a daunting task. After all, Eversource was well-prepared given their size and available resources, right? But what about companies that don't necessarily have the expertise, personnel and/or financial resources to spare?

EWN is here to help. We can assist you in creating a defensible OQ Program regardless of your company's size and existing resources. What was accomplished at Eversource can be accomplished for you as well. EWN has over 25 years of first-hand industry experience and a customer-oriented team sitting at the ready to work with you. EWN supports training and compliance requirements for a large portfolio of clients throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and South America. We know what to do.

About the Author

Dr. Matt Joiner is the Executive Director of Education at EWN. His notable background in education includes a Bachelor of Education Degree from Tarleton State University, a Master of Educational Administration Degree from TWU, and a Doctor of Education Degree from Texas Tech University. Dr. Joiner has a long list of certifications and accolades from his public education days, and he serves on the Decatur ISD Board of Trustees.

For more information, contact the EWN Compliance Team at compliance@energyworldnet.com.