Employee hiring and retention practicesOntario Power Generation

Eric Jelinski

April 12, 2023

When I was a hiring manager, and this was while I worked at Ontario Power Generation - Nuclear Division many years ago, we had a motto: Hire for Attitude and Train for Success.

Eg. in the 1980’s and 90’s with the introduction of computers in the workplace, everybody suddenly had the computer tool to write their own memo’s, procedures, and any documents without going through the “Typing Pool”. So, the typing pool became obsolete, actually obsolete everywhere. The best response from management was to retrain the mostly female staff who became our finest First Line Managers throughout the organization, and some also chose to learn a trade and work with tools in maintenance and/or train to be a licensed First Operator.. This was achieved without a blink or any kind of mishap. OPG had other downsizing in engineering and construction once the Darlington project was completed. Nobody got fired. People took to their new jobs with support from everybody else. But it was up to you to accept the opportunity to learn new skills.

Several lessons can be learned from this:

1. Your personal success and succes of your organization depends on being a team player and a learning organization.

2. Not everybody needs to know the details of nuclear physics, there are lots of different jobs/tasks in nuclear or in any industry.

3. As industry needs to change because technology and jobs come and go, so do you need to expect to learn new skills.

4. There is no status quo. While you are on a career path, you need a plan B, C, or more as a backup. While expansion of your company is expected, you should also be thinking about industry contractions, and what would be your next steps.

I tell my graduate students to go forth with an open mind to embrace opportunities beyond what has been taught in classrooms.

Eric Jelinski M. Eng. P. Eng. Alumni and Contract Lecturer

University of Toronto

Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry

CHE568 Lecturer, Nuclear Plant Engineering

Ontario nuclear power