Just wrapped up my first full year with 2 employees here in Santa Rosa. Went from solo practice to small team and learned some hard lessons. Thought I'd share what caught me off guard hoping it helps others making the transition. PG&E territory work is complex enough without adding management headaches!
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First year with employees - what I wish I'd known
Iris, definitely interested to hear your experience. We're at 8 people now but I remember those growing pains from the early days. What was your biggest surprise? The administrative overhead always shocks new employers - payroll, benefits, workers comp, all the compliance stuff that takes time away from actual auditing work.
Randy, exactly - the administrative burden was huge. Spent way more time on HR stuff than expected. But the biggest shock was how different people work. I have my systems for analyzing PG&E bills but each person processes information differently. Had to learn to manage styles not just assign tasks. One auditor is great with commercial accounts but struggles with industrial rate schedules, the other is opposite.
That's so true about different work styles. I'm dealing with this now - have one guy who's methodical and slow but catches everything, another who's fast but sometimes misses details. Learning to assign TVA accounts based on their strengths rather than just splitting workload evenly. How do you handle quality control with multiple people working?
Jeff, I had to implement a formal review process which I never needed solo. Every audit gets a peer review before going to client, then I do final sign-off. Slows things down initially but caught several expensive mistakes early on. One auditor miscalculated demand charges on a large manufacturing account - would have been a $15k error in our savings projection. The review system pays for itself.
Quality control is critical. We're still small here in Columbia but I'm already thinking about these issues. Ameren Missouri has some tricky rate structures that are easy to misinterpret. Did you create written procedures or just train people one-on-one? Wondering about the best way to document institutional knowledge as you grow.