The Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor hired about 550 employees last year in an effort to offset personnel lost due to retirement.
Some of the new Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) hires are operators, who assist in the operation of a process or equipment within a nuclear facility at the Department of Energy site in South Carolina and can include nuclear material handling and monitoring. The contractor is also hiring scientists, engineers, radiological control inspectors, and maintenance mechanics.
As of June 2016, SRNS reported that 50 percent of its workforce was expected to retire in the next five years, and that the average age of its employees was 54.
For the past couple years, the company has been considering options to address the wave of anticipated retirements. In June 2016, for example, SRNS reported that it hired 80 new operators.
The hiring and retention efforts are coming to fruition, which is why the 2017 hires are being celebrated, SRNS President and CEO Stuart MacVean said a Jan. 12 press release. The company has driven down the average age of its employees to 48. “We are focused not only on new hires, but also retention of our employees and supporting them as they grow,” according to MacVean.
Over the past four years, SRNS has hired more than 1,900 workers, and believes it will need to hire another 2,000 over the next five years to keep up with the falling staff numbers due to retirement.
Employment has continued to fluctuate at SRNS, but the contractor has maintained a workforce of about 5,300 over the past year. That’s an uptick from years past, according to previously reported numbers. For example, in May 2016, SRNS reported a workforce of about 4,900.
