Throughout Prairie Land Electric Cooperative’s 86 years of operating in northwest and north-central Kansas, it’s weathered some big changes, expanding its headquarters—twice—merging with another co-op and acquiring part of an investor-owned utility, among other events.

Its latest transformation isn’t quite as visible.

Over the past three years, the nearly 25,000-meter Norton-based co-op has been focusing on revamping its culture by examining workplace values, employee views and the behaviors that shape interactions between staff and managers—and ultimately service to members.

This latest initiative came about after Kirk Girard was hired as Prairie Land’s new CEO in 2021. Near the end of that year, the co-op hired a consultant to help it create a strategic action plan and a new mission and vision statement. As part of that project, it decided to conduct a survey on employee culture for the first time in Prairie Land’s history.

“We had a lot of things we wanted to address,” Girard says. “‘How do you view senior management? How do you view your direct department head and interdepartmental relations? What is our safety culture?’”

The results stung.

“Some comments were hard to read,” he says. “As with all surveys, you always hope for the best, but you also have to be realistic. We learned what we were doing well and what we needed to shore up.”

Among the feedback was a desire by staff to have more pathways for advancement, to have a stronger safety culture, better defined roles and responsibilities and improved communication.

“Historically, at least for our co-op, ideas stayed the same, because they seemed to work,” says Director of Administration April Karnopp. “But the truth is, we live in a different world than we did several years ago, and it wasn’t working anymore. We needed to look at things differently and respond differently.”

The strategic planning effort resulted in an employee-led committee that crafted the new mission and vision statements for Prairie Land along with its first-ever set of core values: safety, integrity, unity, respect and accountability.

It also led to a host of new programs and procedures, including a new employee handbook and new leadership training for supervisors. “Lead Where You Are” training is also available to any employee to help foster better trust and understanding across departments.

There are now standardized self-assessments for current and aspiring leaders, working retreats for senior-level directors, a monthly virtual “Power Hour” to share information with employees, and for the first time, the co-op will be implementing performance management.

“We’re starting to see ownership amongst the employees regarding safety,” says Girard.

The initiatives have generally been well received, he says, although they’ve led a handful of employees to leave the co-op. About 20% of Prairie Land’s 80-member team turned over in 2023-2024, most due to retirements and restructuring, but some were voluntary departures.

“When we first hired our consultant, she warned us that change is hard for many, and some may be unwilling to make those changes,” Girard notes. “When we started addressing employee issues, making decisions based on our values and holding employees accountable, some decided to move elsewhere—which was fine.”

Broad institutional changes like those at Prairie Land are by definition disruptive, says Delaine Orendorff, NRECA’s director of human capital planning and compensation. But the rewards can easily outweigh the challenges.

“The benefits of a positive culture for the cooperative are many,” she says. “Employees willing to contribute to organizational innovations and improvements, increased attention on achieving goals and enhanced focus on service to members.”