Supervisor, Customer Assistance Center

We recognize our competitive advantage - our people. We believe in our people, who share our vision of meeting the needs of our employees, customers, and communities and who carry out the continued success of the company.

Our employees are committed to the company's foundational values: integrity, excellence, teamwork, environmental stewardship, and community commitment. In turn, we invest in our employees, providing opportunities for challenge and advancement and offering a competitive compensation package.

Posting End Date: 03/06/2025 at 11:59PM HST

BRIEF POSTING DESCRIPTION:

The P CH CUSTOMER CONTACT CENTER Department of the P CUSTOMER RELATIONS Division at Hawaiian Electric Company has 1 Management vacancy available. This position may be filled on Oahu, Maui, or Hawaii Island. (Role: Professional Supervisor)

JOB FUNCTION:

Supervises and directs the daily operation and activities of the Customer Care Center with key accountability for providing an exceptional customer experience on all contacts; continuously improving the customer care & support center's practices and procedures; managing resources to maximize efficiency and productivity and utilizing techniques to enable automation and digitalization.

The scope of the position covers all customer-facing service activities including in-person, telephone, online, email, and chat interactions relative to electric utility accounts, products and services. This position requires very strong leadership, communication, and time-management skills; mentoring, coaching and developing high-performing employees; thorough understanding and functionality of the Customer Information System (CIS), Interactive Voice Response (IVR), rules and rates, products and services, customer website and portal, and Public Utility Commission (PUC) regulatory rules and tariffs.

Additionally, the Customer Care & Support Supervisor provides oversight of financial transactions: billing & collections of commodity and non-commodity accounts, credit payment arrangements, and accurate posting of misc. financial postings by the Customer Care & Support personnel.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

Leadership

• Collaborates with key internal business partners to identify and resolve people, process or technology issues for assigned area; provides information and data to business units as requested to assist in customer experience, performance or system improvement and business decision making.
• Ensures that customer communications, needs and expectations are met in a professional, timely and proactive manner & serve as liaison to resolve issues that may arise in own or other departments.
• Develops training and development plans for direct reports to maintain high performance, efficiency and customer experience.
• Meets and/or exceed KPI and service level targets on a consistent basis.
• Responsible for driving results, setting expectations, prioritizing work, evaluating results and taking corrective action with urgency.
• Supervises, manages and directs employee activity (work management, delegation) to ensure high performance, efficiency and accountability.
• Tracks, monitors and measures operational performance, knowledge and skill of direct reports in all contact channels (voice, email, online, chat, etc.) to achieve established goals (service level, productivity, quality).

People

• Develops the business knowledge and technical skills of employees necessary to succeed in their jobs. Is accountable for employee performance management, development and coaching.
• Drives performance and accomplishes results through effective recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management/coaching/correction and rewards and recognition.
• Fosters, builds and maintains supportive & collaborative peer relationships.
• Holds self and direct reports accountable to model and champion the desired behaviors of the Company’s Culture Dimensions: Customer Focus, Adaptable, Empowered, Accountable, Collaborative. Demonstrates civic and corporate citizenship.
• Lead & participate in regular meetings with direct reports, peer groups and upper management to cascade & reinforce key messaging, engage in problem solving & decision-making discussions, and ensure high performance and accountability in the customer care and support center.
• Lead and champion morale building activities among direct reports.
Provide employee coaching centered around meeting individual, team, and center goals while also facilitating the growth and development of team members. Assist in goal setting.

Process/Tools

• Analyzes and evaluates business data and information, researches best practices to design and develop process improvements to improve productivity and efficiency and ensure an exceptional customer experience.
• Assesses resources and staff levels; coordinates, plans, and directs resources for appropriate service level goals. Utilizes techniques for forecasting, monitoring, reporting and communicating performance measurements, metric and performance plans; analyzes reports to identify trends; interprets historic statistical data to determine future needs for resource allocations.
• Assists in administering the department budget by participating in planning, monitoring and revising schedules, work plans, expenditures and assignments.
• Collaborates with training specialist and peers to document workflow, processes and procedures, create standard procedures and training for assigned business area; researches and investigates unique or complex customer or business issues and provides resolution. Serves as a subject matter expert for assigned areas and associated processes, maintains data and provides trending analysis as requested.
• Contributes content to repository/database of standard operating procedures and improvement initiatives.
• Develops and manages operational plans including contingency planning for core activities within assigned area of responsibility.
• Develops, communicates and ensures standards for quality, service, policies and procedures in accordance with Hawaiian Electric’s Service Promise and Standards, and ensures compliance and adherence among direct reports.
• Identifies, responds to, and resolves service disruptions (vendor, systems, process).
• Investigates and determines root cause failures in a timely manner for incidents and near misses.
Partners with various parts of the organization to provide resolution (verbal and written) on escalated and regulatory complaints in accordance with established service level agreements and regulatory rules and tariffs.

• Participates in Company emergency response activities as assigned, including any activities required to prepare for such emergency response. Other duties as assigned.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

Knowledge Requirements

• Working knowledge of business, management, call center, and continuous improvement principles.
• Working knowledge of customer service, team building, and team motivation principles and practices.
• Working knowledge of personal computers and/or mainframe systems and related software applications such as spreadsheets, word processing, etc.
• Working knowledge of the principles of accounting normally acquired through college level accounting course or equivalent experience.
• Working knowledge of basic credit and collection practices and law.
• Working knowledge of various Company systems (CIS, IVR, customer website and portal, etc).
• Working knowledge of state & federal laws including FCRA, FACTA, Company’s code of conduct and privacy program, as well as PUC rules and tariffs relating to electric utility services.
• Working knowledge of Company’s tariff, rate schedules, and collective bargaining agreement.

Skills Requirements

• Demonstrated ability to effectively resolve difficult and/or sensitive issues/information with tact, courtesy, and good judgement.
• Ability to remain flexible in a demanding work environment and adapt to rapidly changing priorities.
• Supervisory/leadership skills and demonstrated ability to achieve results, measure performance, build and maintain effective management and performance systems, and manage a high performance team.
• Demonstrated ability to make presentations, conduct group meetings and facilitate process action teams.
• Advanced analytical, interpersonal and negotiation skills.
• Advanced customer service and diplomacy skills.
• Technical ability to understand meter reading, billing and effectively respond to bill inquiries.

Experience Requirements

• 3 - 5 years experience in the Customer Assistance Center or similar work experience in customer service, customer relations, credit operations, and/or management.

Role: Professional Supervisor

Number of Vacancies: 1

Location: Oahu, Maui or Hawaii Island

Hiring Range: The hiring range for the Supervisor, Customer Assistance Center [Req ID 9570] position is $85,700.00 to $109,300.00. The person selected will be placed according to his/her skills and qualifications.

About Hawaiian Electric Companies
Hawaiian Electric Companies provide electricity and services to 95 percent of the state's 1.4 million residents. The company is also one of the state's leading employers and a major contributor and supporter of community and educational programs.

The demand for power that has fueled the growth of the Hawaiian Islands has been met by Hawaiian Electric Companies for well over a century. And as the next millennium unfolds, the company is committed to providing quality service and seeking clean local energy sources to power generations of Hawaii families and businesses to come. Visit us at http://hawaiianelectric.com.

Interested individuals should apply online. The application must clearly indicate the demonstrated experience/knowledge/skills/abilities the candidate possesses which specifically qualifies him/her for the position.

Applicant Certification
By submitting an application for the position, candidates:
1. Authorize the Hawaiian Electric Companies to confirm all statements contained in the application and/or any materials submitted and made a part of the application as they relate to the position and to the extent permitted by law;
2. Authorize and consent to, without reservation, the Hawaiian Electric Companies sharing any and all information regarding previous or present employment, educational training or personal information from their records and from any other source with the hiring department or subsidiary company;
3. Release, discharge, and hold harmless, Hawaiian Electric Companies, from any and all liability for any damage which may be claimed as a result of furnishing such information to the hiring department or subsidiary company;
4. Authorizes release and transfer of all personnel records to be maintained by the hiring company in the event of an inter-company transfer; and
5. Authorize, direct, and consent to Hawaiian Electric Companies and/or its authorized agents to conduct investigations into candidates' background. These investigations may include, but are not limited to searches for information about applicants; record of criminal convictions to the extent permitted by law, education records, professional certifications, personal character references, and employment history.

EEO Statement
Hawaiian Electric Companies is an equal employment opportunity/affirmative action employer. We actively seek diversity among our employees. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, sex/gender (including gender identity/expression), ancestry/national origin, disability, marital status, arrest and court record, sexual orientation, pregnancy, veteran status, genetic information, domestic or sexual violence victim status, or other protected categories in accordance with state and federal laws. We further encourage individuals with disabilities, minorities, veterans and women to apply.

Hawaiian Electric Companies complies with Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Any request for reasonable accommodation needed during the application process should be communicated by the candidate to the HR Service Center at (808) 543-4848.

Affiliate Disclaimer
Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., Maui Electric Company, and Hawaii Electric Light (“Company”) are Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (“PUC”) regulated companies. The disclosure relating to Affiliate Transaction Requirements that follows is made pursuant to the PUC’s Decision and Order No. 35962, issued on December 19, 2018, and subsequently modified by Order No. 36112, issued on January 24, 2019 in Docket No. 2018-0065.

By submitting your application, you understand and acknowledge that, if you are hired by the Company and subsequently transferred, assigned or otherwise employed by an Affiliate, said Affiliate will be required to make a one-time payment to the Company in an amount up to twenty-five percent (25%) of your base annual compensation.

In addition, if you are hired by the Company and subsequently transferred, assigned or otherwise employed by an Affiliate or an Affiliate-Related Entity, for a period of one year, you cannot appear in negotiations or otherwise interact directly with the Company or work on the same matter that you worked on while with the Company.

Affiliate is defined as “any person or entity that possesses an ‘affiliate interest’ in a utility as defined by section 269-19.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes (“HRS”), including a utility’s parent holding company, except as otherwise provided by HRS section 269-19.5(h).”

Affiliate-Related Entity is defined as “a third party that provides electricity-related services in a regulated utility’s service territory that has a material financial, operational, or ownership interest with an unregulated affiliate of the utility and of whom the utility has reasonable knowledge.”

For a current list of all Affiliates and Affiliate-Related Entities, please see:
https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/about-us/key-performance-metrics/financial/affiliate-transactions

This list may be amended, updated or revised from time to time without notice.