Find out the top 10 core skills you need to master as an utility plant operator and what hard skills you need to know to succeed in this job.
A utility plant operator ensures the proper functioning of a utility plant by operating, repairing, monitoring and maintaining utility systems. He/she operates electronic controls of the air conditioning and heating systems as well as monitoring for repairs on the utility system.
Other duties including repairing and maintaining air conditioning, ventilating and heating systems as well as generators; operating power distributions systems as well as operating and maintaining drainage and sewerage systems. They also include inspecting machinery; controlling the quality of water by performing tests on boiled and chilled water; operating, monitoring, repairing and maintaining piping systems; keeping records of the equipment and their operating logs; controlling repair and maintenance materials and stock as well as ensuring that the utility equipment is well lubricated.
Core Skills Required to be an Utility Plant Operator
Core skills describe a set of non-technical abilities, knowledge, and understanding that form the basis for successful participation in the workplace. Core skills enable employees to efficiently and professionally navigate the world of work and interact with others, as well as adapt and think critically to solve problems.
Core skills are often tagged onto job descriptions to find or attract employees with specific essential core values that enable the company to remain competitive, build relationships, and improve productivity.
An utility plant operator should master the following 10 core skills to fulfill her job properly.
Customer Oriented:
Customer Oriented is a skill that focuses primarily on the client as the King offering quality services that meet the customer's expectations with an aim to inspire people rather than just try to sell their product.
An Utility Plant Operator needs to be customer oriented to boost the image of their company, stand out from the rest of the people and devise innovations of tomorrow that focus its sights on a new target ? satisfying the customer expectations.
Organized Workplace:
Organized Workplace is a vital characteristic that helps the business to thrive for long term due to the sense of structure and order which efficiently promotes the team spirit.
An Utility Plant Operator must be organized in the general organizing, planning, communication, time management, scheduling, coordinating resources and meeting deadlines to support the staff in being well structured and run the company successfully.
Ethical Behavior:
Ethical Behavior is acting in policies that are consistent with what the society and individuals typically think are good morals or values.
An Utility Plant Operator should put emphasis on ethical behavior as best as he does to performance because it's as important as high morale and teamwork to all individuals who are committed to keeping the company values as well as speaking up when such costs are broken.
Initiative:
An initiative is the ability to assess and initiate things independently often done without any managerial influence offered.
An Utility Plant Operator must train his workers to take up tasks without being asked to and work on them without being supervised to a quality that is accepted by the company, therefore nurturing a skill that grows the individual and the group as well.
Orientation to Work:
Orientation to Work is the introduction that is given to a new worker whereby he is introduced to coworkers and given relevant information like schedules, performance standards, benefits and facilities, names of the supervisors, etc.
An Utility Plant Operator must ensure that all new employees go through an orientation process to assimilate into the workplace and become familiar with what is expected of them.
Personal Growth:
Personal Growth is the improvement of one's awareness, identity, developing talents and potential to facilitate the growth of oneself and the position they handle at the workplace.
An Utility Plant Operator ought to assist his employees in finding themselves by introducing or referring them to methods, programs, tools, techniques and assessment systems that support their development at the individual level in the organization.
Consistency and Reliability:
Consistency and Reliability are the ability to be trusted to do what you do best all the time with or without supervision and without failure to produce results.
An Utility Plant Operator is liable to maintain a high level of consistency and reliability by engaging with employees and treating them with respect deserved which produces excellent results in various kinds of reliability coefficients.
Deadlines - On time:
Deadlines - On time is the ability to prioritize the important tasks and setting up a plan on how to work on them first to deliver within the set period.
An Utility Plant Operator must have the art of managing deadlines by being able to prioritize the work that is set for scheduling to the workers according to how vital the projects are and how soon they need to be executed and submitted.
Quantity of Work:
The quantity of Work is the amount of work accomplished by an employee against the expectations set by the employer.
An Utility Plant Operator should be keen to monitor an employee's job performance by comparing it to the standard work measurements that are often given at various intervals while evaluating the production to tell when to refresh a worker's skills or address any behavioral factors.
Process Improvement:
Process Improvement is the creation of new processes or improving the existing ones that will work and take your corporation to the next level.
An Utility Plant Operator must maintain the continuous improvements in the workplace that are favorable to the current investors, potential investors, and stock owners while working with methods that can serve as a foundation for future business decisions causing a profitable growth.
Hard Skills Required to be an Utility Plant Operator
Hard skills are job-specific skill sets, or expertise, that are teachable and whose presence can be tested through exams. While core skills are more difficult to quantify and less tangible, hard skills are quantifiable and more defined.
Hard skills are usually listed on an applicant's resume to help recruiters know the applicant's qualifications for the applied position. A recruiter, therefore, needs to review the applicant's resume and education to find out if he/she has the knowledge necessary to get the job done.
An utility plant operator should have a good command of the following hard skills to succeed in her job.