- Notes from leadership
- Root cause analysis - The "5 Whys" technique
- EWEB Employee Giving Drive ends Friday!
- Diversity Team in the spotlight: Jill O'Dea
- Testing... Testing... EWEB's Emergency Alert System
- Thank You Thursday
- Photos from the field
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Notes from leadership
EWEB Executive Team
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- The State and County COVID-19 metrics continue to trend high. Lane County will remain in the “High” risk level for another week.
- Following the County’s lead, EWEB will also remain in the “High” risk level through at least May 23.
- Leadership will continue weekly risk level evaluations.
- As a reminder, the “High” risk level includes some more conservative workplace protocols, such as:
- Level 2 health screening at HQ and ROC
- When possible, indoor meetings should be held virtually
- Reference the conference room risk level matrix on the COVID Insite page for open rooms and use only as approved by a Manager or Executive
- Outdoor meetings are permissible for gatherings up to 50 in areas that are not accessible by the public. Remember to maintain six feet of distance, or wear a mask.
- Masks ARE required in the following situations per OHA/OSHA Workplace/Business requirements, regardless of vaccination status:
- In all publicly accessible areas
- When conducting a meeting outdoors that does not allow for stationed designated areas for people to safely maintain 6 ft distance (for example, seated in chairs)
- In all areas in buildings except offices with closed doors and single occupancy
- When in doubt, please put your mask on
- Masks are NOT required, regardless of vaccination status in the following situations:
- In parking lots unless within 6 ft of other people
- When conducting a meeting outdoors where stationed designated areas for people to safely maintain 6 ft distance has been established
- In work zones that are monitored for public access unless within 6 ft of other employees (for example, coned-off areas or inside substation fences)
- When in doubt, please put your mask on
- Job site reporting will be in place for field employees as practical.
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Root cause analysis - The "5 Whys" technique
Frank Vaughan, Continuous Improvement
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Asking “why?” may be a favorite technique of three-year-olds for driving adults crazy, but it could teach you valuable problem-solving skills.
The “5 Whys” is a technique that helps you get to the root of a problem quickly. This elementary and often effective approach to problem-solving promotes deep thinking through questioning and can be easily adapted and applied to most problems.
The “5 Whys” technique was originally developed by Sakichi Toyota. It was used within the Toyota Motor Corporation during the evolution of its manufacturing methodologies. It is a critical component of problem-solving training, delivered as part of any successful continuous improvement system.
Want to learn how to conduct a “5 Whys” analysis?”
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EWEB Employee Giving Drive ends Friday!
Holly Shugart, General Manager's Office
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The EWEB Employee Giving Drive is coming to an end with over $12,000 in donations already pledged! If you would like to contribute, there’s still time! Please visit the EWEB Online Pledge Site to enroll in payroll deduction (one-time or recurring), make a one-time or recurring credit or debit card gift, or even choose your charities and send in a check.
Access the site from your personalized email invitation sent on May 3 from the EWEB Employee Giving Team or log in to the site with your email address and password. Contact Holly Shugart if you need help!
Last week Joe Moll of McKenzie River Trust and Heather King of Willamette Riverkeeper joined Tony Arnell from EarthShare of Oregon to speak with us about the work they do to protect the lands and rivers of the Willamette Basin. EWEB relies on the beautiful McKenzie River as our sole source of drinking water, and the Hayden Bridge Filtration Plant to deliver safe water to nearly 200,000 area residents. As part of our focus on resiliency, future plans call for a secondary source of water with small filtration plant on the Upper Willamette River. Protecting these watersheds, and thus our community's drinking water, is a common thread for us all.
Willamette Riverkeeper is celebrating their 25th year of working to protect and restore the Willamette River’s water quality and habitat through education, advocacy, and research--all 187 miles of it, starting right here in Eugene! Heather highlighted some of their efforts and programs, including Clean Water Act enforcement and legal advocacy, and their River Discovery and River Guardian programs. They are also the stewards of the national scenic Willamette River Water Trail – a collection of properties that span over 200 miles that provide access and camping to paddlers on the river. Learn more at willamettewatertrail.org.
McKenzie River Trust has been around for 30 years and has a long-term relationship with EWEB working together in response to dam relicensing and proactive investment in the watershed from a drinking water protection standpoint. They work to protect over 7,000 acres of natural lands across 8 watersheds in Western Oregon. Hear Joe speak about the four focuses of the Trust – protect, connect, restore, and sustain. Read about the MRT’s volunteer activities and events.
Laundry Supply Drive – Help St. Vinnie’s provide the gift of freshly washed clothes to families and individuals in crisis by donating laundry supply items such as soaps and dryer sheets. Collection barrels are located at ROC and HQ. Reminder – the end date of the laundry supply drive is “to be determined.” Feel free to drop off donations if you’re in the office, but don’t worry about making a special trip. We’ll keep you posted on a future end date.
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Diversity Team in the spotlight: Jill O'Dea
EWEB Diversity Team
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This is the second in a new series of articles spotlighting Diversity Team members. As a reminder, the Diversity Team is open to all EWEB employees. Diversity Team meetings mainly center around open dialogue to educate ourselves on topics of diversity [1], equity [2], and inclusion [3]. Meetings take place once a month, and if you’re interested in attending please email a member of the Diversity Team who can answer any questions you may have and forward the next meeting invitation to you. Please come check it out! |
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Meet Jill. Jill has been a Change Management Analyst on the Continuous Improvement (CI) team since October 2019.
Growing up, Jill’s family moved quite a bit. Between kindergarten and college, Jill lived in five different states (Kansas, Louisiana, Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina). Since then, she has also added Arkansas, Idaho and Oregon to that list. Fortunately for us, she loves Oregon so much she plans to stay here.
Moving so often was both a challenge and opportunity for Jill. Every time her father got a promotion, the family would pack up and move. This was very challenging because each time her family moved, she had to find new friends and learn how to fit in all over again. On the upside, she was exposed to many different cultures and learned to be a keen observer of people. Jill draws on many of her experiences and lessons from change in her personal life when supporting and encouraging people through organizational change.
Jill is 1/16 Potawatomi, and her dad was proud of his Native American heritage. After her dad passed away in 2014, Jill chose to honor her dad by further engaging in her culture with a Potawatomi naming ceremony. The gentleman in this picture with Jill is Dave Carney, the member of the Potawatomi tribe who guided the ceremony.
The name she was given as part of that ceremony is Zhetotkwe (“Shaw-tote-kway”), which means “Woman Who Creates.” Jill’s Potawatomi name is particularly significant to her as she thinks about her work at EWEB where she enjoys having the opportunity to be a part of creating meaningful change.
Early in her EWEB career, Jill was intentionally getting to know as many of her new colleagues as possible and learned of the Diversity Team from Anne Kah. Participating in the Diversity Team is a natural fit for Jill who considers herself a lifelong learner and explorer of how to foster diversity, equity and inclusion in the culture of an organization.
Jill approaches new situations from a position of curiosity and seeking to learn. She recommends if you are interested in learning about topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion explore them in a way that most resonates with you. For example, you may learn best by listening to podcasts, reading books, or watching documentaries. If the first thing you read, hear, or watch does not connect with you, do not give up! Keep going until you find something that does. Another tip she offers is to not underestimate the power of being curious about the people around us. We all have many different layers that make up who we are. Do not miss the opportunity to show respect for one another as individuals by seeking to learn more about and understand each other.
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[1] Diversity is the unique traits that individuals possess, which may be inherent or acquired.
[2] Equity is the outcome of fair treatment, which looks different for everyone.
[3] Inclusion is a state in which all individuals feel a sense of belonging, valued for their differences, and empowered to participate and contribute freely.
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Testing... Testing... EWEB's Emergency Alert System
Lana Kindt, Water Division
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EWEB will be testing the Emergency Alert System on Wednesday, May 19 at 9 a.m. to all employees who have registered for the alerts. It is very important that we hear from you if you are signed up and do not receive your preferred communication type. Please send an email to Lana Kindt if you are registered and do not receive the test notification.
The phone number will come in as a 1-866 phone number, so to prevent you from mistaking the alert for a possible spam call, we are encouraging you to create a contact in your cell phone to be aware of who is contacting you in an event that we need to use the system.
Please create a contact as follows:
Name: EWEB Emergency Alert System
Phone Number: 1-866-402-7267.
*Last week's edition of Employee News listed an incorrect testing date. The test will happen on 5/19 at 9:00 a.m.
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From Jessica Hutchings: Big thanks to Jenny Henry, Catherine Popp and Mark Duvall, Customer Operation Leads, for providing such an approachable, informative and thorough CEI Portals training for our Contact Center, Accounts Receivable and Customer Solutions staff this past Wednesday. Balancing your every day workloads, testing and then creating a training from the ground up is a lot of work and it has not gone unnoticed! I think you are ROCK STARS! Kudos to you! |
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An intake pump at Hayden Bridge was recently rebuilt as part of EWEB's regular source-to-tap drinking water maintenance program.
Infrastructure like this, and the people behind it, reliably deliver clean water to customer homes and businesses 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
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