Talent crunch

Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, the third time it’s enemy action. The words of arch James Bond villain Goldfinger on his evidently less-than-chance encounters with 007 in the 1964 film of the same name.

So when not one, not two, but three senior regional executives I met within the last month spoke – independently and unprompted – about the difficulties their companies are facing in recruiting skilled technical staff, I knew that there must be real substance behind recent reports revealing the extent of the so-called talent shortage, and that our lead story for the March issue was pretty well-timed.

For example, a study commissioned by our Control Engineering counterparts in the US found “Replacement of skilled employees” to be the number one challenge manufacturers expect to face over the next five years. This was well ahead of other typical concerns like competitive pressures and justifying new investments.

While demographic concerns and baby boomer retirements are more serious in the West (and Japan), in most of Asia, it is more of a demand issue, with the increasing amount of manufacturing activity and infrastructure projects not being matched by a readily available supply of technical talent to design, implement and operate all the new facilities.

Iris Yeo and Andree Mangels, two specialist consultants for recruitment agency Robert Walters in Singapore, tell CE Asia that shortage of engineering professionals is a particular problem in the oil & gas, water, power, and renewable energy sectors. And overall, and as a consequence, they expect to see a 15-20 percent salary increment for both technical and sales positions in the engineering industry.

“The war for talent has never been more intense. Companies are providing extra benefits like retention bonuses (to keep existing staff), joining bonuses (to attract new candidates), career advancement, as well as recruiting and grooming fresh graduates on niche skill sets,” they say.

For automation suppliers, the talent shortage is a double-edged sword. While they, like their customers, are hunting for scare skills, there is the added opportunity to fill in client-side gaps through training initiatives and outsourcing services, as well as create more sophisticated systems to replicate the knowledge and experience of plant operators.

But whether working for a supplier or an end-user, there has rarely been a better time to be an engineer than this, especially for those keen and motivated enough to regularly update their skill sets and gain wider experience. The good times may not last forever, so let’s make the most of them while they’re here.