Vice President of Customer Care, Communications & Human Resources, Northwestern Enrgy
Search every verified Bobbi Schroeppel interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Bobbi Schroeppel, Vice President of Customer Care, Communications & Human Resources at NorthWestern Energy, discussed the company's workforce and operational strategies in a podcast released April 17, 2025. She noted that retirement ages have shifted later since the Great Recession of 2008 and that applicant pools are currently strong, with the company hiring more than expected for roles such as linemen. Schroeppel stated that the work-from-home model for customer service agents adopted during COVID-19 has expanded recruiting, with agents now located across Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, and beyond. She also described the company's use of AI and job boards for recruitment and said that when smart meters were implemented, the company worked with displaced meter readers to find them new roles with comparable or better pay. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Schroeppel participated in virtual town halls in 2020 where she outlined NorthWestern Energy's response. She said the company moved 100 customer service representatives to work from home within a couple of weeks and classified employees as mission essential, critical, necessary, or as needed. Schroeppel stated that the company decided not to terminate any customers and instead offered flexible payment arrangements, including potential credits for those who met 12-month payment plans. She also noted that the company gave away approximately $2 million annually in shareholder funds to communities, with an additional $300,000 allocated during the pandemic for programs including small business grants. Schroeppel added that the company kicked off a community sustainability working group and created an internal sustainability director position reporting to her.
“We have such a unique and foundational purpose. It didn't take me very long to grasp that and we hear that from employees all the time including new hires, they're here for a matter of months and they're like, 'Oh, I get it. This is really special work.'”
“At the peak of the 2005 ice storm in South Dakota, we had about 85% of our customers out of power. Fortunately, we were able to get large percentages of them back on within 24 hours, but they were hanging on by a thread.”
“That 2005 ice storm probably took years off of our cultural integration in a good way. Prior to that, there was a lot of animosity about the smaller utility buying the bigger utility, but the storm helped us realize we are better and stronger together.”
“Up until 2014, we operated two billing systems and had separate call centers in South Dakota and Montana. Putting in a common billing system really pushed us over the edge and allowed us to bring everything together into one seamless customer service operation.”
“The work-from-home model for customer service agents that we adopted during COVID has really opened up recruiting. We now have agents all over Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, and beyond, all working together as one big machine to serve customers.”
“Since the Great Recession of 2008, retirement ages have shifted later, and during COVID we predicted steady waves of retirements. However, our applicant pools are very strong now, and we're even hiring more than expected for some roles like linemen.”
“We used to hardly hire and mostly relied on apprentices or customer service reps to get in. Now, we use AI and job boards extensively to recruit, and I think people are appreciating the stability of companies like Northwestern Energy more than ever.”
“When we implemented AMI smart meters, it eliminated the need for many manual meter readers. We worked closely with those employees to find them new roles within the company, often with comparable or better pay.”
“The Montana Power and Northwestern Public Service merger worked well operationally because we initially ran the companies separately, avoiding significant operational conversions. Employee integration was smooth because most stayed in their existing roles.”
“We are committed to making job offers to all employees from acquisitions like Energy West because treating employees well is core to our culture and bad things come from not doing that.”
“Back in 2009 we did pandemic planning around H1N1 and we were able to pull that forward — our strategy has been social distancing: every employee that can work from home, we moved home. On any given day we can have as much as 900 of our roughly 1,530 employees across our service territory working from home.”
“We've classified every employee as mission essential, critical, necessary or as needed, and that classification can change over time — there's a formal request process if someone needs to change their status.”
“Our pod strategy covers critical mission-essential employees like control room operators, generation plant operators, linemen and gas crews; because our service territory is about 136,000 square miles we're somewhat socially distanced by geography but we still keep crews in distinct groups and staggered start times.”
“We are ensuring all of our contractors and third parties follow the same COVID-19 protocols that we do, and we maintain a special COVID-19 page on our external website that we update daily.”
“In a matter of a couple of weeks we moved 100 customer service representatives from contact centers in Butte and South Dakota to working from home, and it's going incredibly well.”
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