THE GRID, THE WORKFORCE, SAFETY. THE FUTURE.  |  PART 2 OF 5  |  AUGUST 2026

Investing In People

Why Workforce Development is ROKPOWER's Foundation 

By John F. Carter, Chairman & CEO & Dee Geary, VP of Human Resources

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In Part 1 of this series, John talked about a gap he'd watched grow for twenty years — a utility supply chain that wasn't robust enough to keep pace with the industry. There's a second gap that worries us just as much, and it is tied to the future.

Every conversation about grid modernization eventually turns to money — investment, megawatts, timelines. But money doesn't run a truck to a broken pole at 2 a.m. People do. And right now, this industry doesn't have enough of them coming up behind the ones who do it today.

That's why we're writing Part 2 together. At ROKPOWER, workforce development isn't only a leadership philosophy — it's an HR discipline. It has to be both, or it doesn't hold.

A Pipeline, Not a Pool

JOHN: I've said before that this industry gave my family a foundation. What I didn't say is how fragile that foundation can be if nobody tends to it. A union card gets you in the door. What happens after that — the mentorship, the safety culture, the real chance to move up — is what decides whether someone builds a career here or just passes through.

Too many companies in this business treat their workforce like a pool: dip in when a project needs hands, let it drain when the project ends. We built ROKPOWER to treat it like a pipeline instead — something you invest in continuously, so it's full when the industry needs it most.

A union card gets you in the door. Mentorship, safety, and a real path up — that's what turns a job into a career.

The HR Case for Workforce Development

DEE: I've spent more than two decades in HR — inside a Fortune 25 company and inside businesses built from the ground up. The lesson holds everywhere: culture beats compensation. You can win someone with a paycheck. You keep them with respect, growth, and a workplace that has their back.

Construction and utility work carries real physical risk, and that changes what HR has to be. It's not enough to process payroll and manage benefits. It has to build the systems that keep people safe, help them grow, and make it possible for an apprentice today to become a foreman — or a general manager — tomorrow.

That's the work I came here to do.

Closing the Gap

The pressures John pointed to in Part 1 aren't going away. The journeyman lineworkers who built this grid are aging out faster than the industry is replacing them, right as demand for power is climbing. Closing that gap takes more than job postings. It takes:

• Structured apprenticeship pathways that pair classroom learning with real fieldwork
• Safety training that protects people well enough that they stay in the trade long enough to master the skillset
• Clear, visible lines of advancement, so people can see exactly where the job leads
• A culture where showing up, working hard, and doing it right actually gets recognized

We don't have this fully built — no company does. But it's the direction, and it isn't negotiable.

THE ROKPOWER WAY doesn't stop at how we treat our customers. It's how we treat our people.

What's Ahead

If Part 1 was about why ROKPOWER exists, and Part 2 is about who we're building it with, Part 3 is about how we keep them safe while we do it. Safety culture isn't a separate conversation from workforce development — it's the foundation everything else stands on, and it's next.

If you're building a talent strategy in this industry — or looking for a partner who takes workforce development as seriously as delivery — we'd welcome the conversation.

ROKPOWER is committed to being a change maker in this industry. That work has already begun.

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John F. Carter is Chairman & CEO of ROKPOWER — A Utility Services Company, a national leader in power infrastructure services specializing in transmission, distribution, substation construction, and emergency response. Connect on LinkedIn or visit rokpowerutilities.com.

Dee Geary is Vice President of Human Resources at ROKPOWER, leading enterprise-wide HR strategy — including talent development, safety-aligned workforce planning, and organizational culture — with more than two decades of HR leadership experience. Connect on LinkedIn or visit rokpowerutilities.com.

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