What It Takes

Helper positions often launching pads

While not one of OPPD’s most visible jobs, for many, the helper position can be the start of a long career with the utility.

The helper role is an entry-level position, one that OPPD relies upon filling with talented individuals serious about their careers. After all, from the ranks of helper have risen an OPPD plant manager, a senior director and OPPD’s longest-tenured lineman, to name just a few success stories.

Helpers play a vital role at OPPD, and the position is one the utility is always seeking to fill, said one OPPD official.

“The helper role allows OPPD to invest in that entry-level person just out of trade school or someone making that mid-career switch who wants to be invested in to help grow their career in that space,” said John Staup, director of Talent Acquisition at OPPD.

Helpers are present in all the skilled crafts, and they play a crucial part in the functioning of our generating stations, Staup said.

OPPD recruits mechanically inclined people for helper positions. OPPD moves those people to the apprenticeship level once they’ve proven themselves, Staup said. Then they work through classes and on-the-job training to become journeymen or operators or whatever that next level is in their chosen career path.

Finding the right fit

Finding someone to invest in him is what Mike Smith, a helper with the Underground Construction department at OPPD, looked for.

Smith worked construction his whole career, most recently shoring up levees damaged by the 2019 floods for a company from Missouri before joining OPPD. The Plattsmouth native applied at OPPD for 10 years.

“I knew OPPD was a great company, but I also knew it was hard to land a job here,” Smith said recently, while taking a break from filling exposed chunk of road on Saint Mary’s Avenue near downtown Omaha.

OPPD hired Smith as a helper in the Utility Operations department at Nebraska City Station (NCS) in 2022.

“It was a big learning curve after spending my whole career in construction,” Smith said. “So when I saw the Underground Construction opening, I switched. I knew that was the right fit for me.”

Typical days

For Smith, days begin with a safety meeting. Then he and his colleagues review the day’s work orders. From there, they get the materials and equipment needed for the job ahead.

Some days, Smith might have to load up an excavator or skid loader and haul it to a site. Smith has a Class A commercial driver’s license to drive tractor-trailers for OPPD. That is a requirement for helpers in the underground department.

Recent jobs have included putting in manholes, running new ducts to manholes, and even installing streetlights.

Smith appreciates the variety of work. “One week, we might be on the same job all week long, and the next week, we might be at several job sites in one day,” he said.

The transition from the operator’s program to the construction side has been good for Smith, who hopes to begin his apprenticeship soon. The biggest difference? “Working around live wires, you must be very careful in this role.”

Inside the plants

For helpers at the generating stations, days involve routine plant equipment and systems checks. They do many such checks multiple times a day.

Helpers check oil levels in pumps or electric motors or the bearings of different plant systems, among other things.

Keith Bahr is familiar with this work. Bahr came to OPPD in 2005 as a helper and is now the manager of Station Operations at OPPD’s North Omaha Station (NOS).

OPPD hired Bahr after he graduated from the Power Plant Technology program at Bismarck State College in North Dakota. Now, OPPD gets a fair share of graduates from the energy generation operations program at Southeast Community College in Milford, Nebraska, Bahr said.

OPPD hires those grads as helpers, Bahr said. The training is similar at both NOS and NCS but differs slightly. At NCS, the first block of training is six weeks, but at NOS, the initial block lasts 10 weeks.

“North Omaha has more units, and they run on different fuel mixes. That’s the big difference,” Bahr said. “We break it up with a few weeks in the classroom and a few weeks on the floor working with operators and crews.”

Once those initial training blocks are done, the helpers must go through their qualification cards with a qualified operator. The cards are a series of tasks that must be completed successfully. Once they complete the cards, helpers move into the role of auxiliary operator, where they undergo more training and testing.

“There is always a need for helpers in the plants,” Bahr said. “We see people transfer to other areas, and we must fill those roles. It is shift work, and that can be hard for families. For many people, it is a foot in the door and a chance for OPPD to see what they can do.”

Helper positions at OPPD

Each of the crafts and the line technicians use helpers. Every area from steamfitters to transportation mechanics to meter technicians have helpers.

Employees typically work an average of six months in helper positions before starting apprenticeships, said Andy Clark, field supervisor with Transmission & Distribution.

In the underground department, Clark looks for helpers who have basic excavation skills and who are inquisitive.

“We first make sure they know how to use a shovel properly – you’d be surprised how many people don’t,” Clark said. “And then we want people who can do the work and get along with others. Can they take direction well and follow instructions properly?

“We also want to ensure they aren’t claustrophobic, since a lot of work involves going down in a manhole. And we want to make sure they can use a computer. All our work orders come in on a tablet.”

Across the utility, there are about 25 helpers, but this number fluctuates as helpers advance to the next step of their careers.

OPPD has helper positions in the following areas:

• Power plant operators
• Steamfitter mechanics
• Machinists
• Underground construction workers
• Transportation mechanics
• Warehouse and storeroom workers
• Instrumentation and control shop workers
• Plant electricians