Homer electric association: helping employees be successful.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: 2016 Top 49ers

Homer Electric Association (HEA) General Manager Bradley Janorschke has been in the energy industry since 1989, beginning in the distribution engineering department of a generation and transmission cooperative and then serving as a CFO and CEO at two different cooperatives in Minnesota. During his early career he "kept moving north in Minnesota ... because I love hunting and fishing and I don't like big population centers. People always laughed and said, 'Where else are you going to go? Alaska?"' Turns out that was the next step, as Janorschke and his family moved to the Last Frontier in 2004 when he accepted the position as HEA's general manager. He says the move has been wonderful for him and his family: "The kids have loved it. They're in or have graduated from UAF and are doing their thing, and I love Alaska."

Leading HEA

Janorschke says one of the most vital things he does in his position, nearly every day, is to do a walk around where he visits with employees. "I could sit in my office all day or I could travel, legitimately so, to Anchorage and the Lower 48 for meetings year-round, but the board didn't hire me for that," he says. Instead he ensures that he spends time with different employee groups in Homer Electric's Kenai and Homer offices and visits the cooperative's three generation sites regularly.

"Even to this day I know almost every employee by name, and I'm horrible at names," he laughs. "Eve really had to work at it." Janorschke says it's important that employees have as much information as possible about what's going on at the utility; one way Janorschke accomplishes this is that he distributes to every employee by email the monthly update that he prepares for the board of directors the day after the board receives it.

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He says that he's not a micromanager, and he encourages his professional staff to not micromanage either. Janorschke says the key is to give employees the tools for leadership, mentor them, and then help them be successful. A positive workplace is important: "We spend most our waking lives at work," he says.

Adjusting to Change

And the work going on at HEA is important. HEA is a member-owned electric utility with more than twenty-three thousand members. For 2015 they report gross revenues of $97 million, $5 million more than 2015.

One of the cooperative's mandates is to keep rates as low as possible, but many variables can affect them. "Over the last couple years we've been missing one...