March 2019

30 n EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT March 2019 www.drivesncontrols.com There are ways you can tackle skills shortages “Ironically, job-hopping is currently more of an issue with senior engineers in our area. Their skills and experience are in particular short supply.” I am based at Rittal-CSM, our manufacturing facility in Plymouth. It’s been clear for some time, both to us and to other members of Plymouth Manufacturing Group, that skills shortages for engineering, production and technology roles are now acute in this area. For a rapidly expanding business like ours, recruitment into these positions has become a pressing concern. However, necessity is the mother of invention and so, while resourcing has created huge pressures for our business, it has also led to us making changes that have turned out to be very positive for everyone. We have invested heavily in additional early training for graduates, and then pitched them in, giving them significant early responsibility. While this fast-tracking increases the demands on them (as well as the rest of us), it has proved to be highly motivating and almost without exception they have embraced all of the challenges that we have presented them with. In fact, contrary to popular opinion, the millennials that I’ve met are not looking to job-hop, nor are they seduced by the gig economy. They are concerned with personal growth and greater autonomy. They value working in environments that require complex problem-solving, decision- making, and the application of technical skills. In recognising and responding to this, we’re finding we inspire longer term loyalty and workforce stability. Ironically, job-hopping is currently more of an issue with senior engineers in our area. Their skills and experience are in particular short supply across our catchment area, and that of course also leads to concurrent pay inflation. Of course, it’s not just graduates who benefit from training. I am firmly in favour of creating a culture of learning across the organisation. Again, it improves staff satisfaction and retention, as well as helping the business move forward and innovate. We encourage our engineers to do Masters degrees and we ensure they engage with CPD, rotating around different departments – quality engineering, supply chain and so on – to provide them with the necessary experience to become Chartered Engineers. For those wary of investing in training staff only to see them poached by a competitor, it may be necessary to agree contractual terms to avoid this happening. But I am also reminded of the quote by Henry Ford: “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave, is not training them and having them stay.” While I’ve concentrated here on changes that companies can usefully make to retain staff, I recognise that we still need people coming through our education system who want to take up STEM apprenticeships. The fact that this pipeline is thinner than we would all like it to be is indicative of a growing problem. The dwindling numbers are in part down to the funding arrangements for our education establishments, which are, in turn, dependent on keeping headcounts high. However, companies can still develop a rich pipeline of apprentices by getting engaged actively with local schools, colleges and universities, forging closer links through sharing facilities, and providing relevant skills training. n Managing Director, Rittal UK and Ireland Dr Stephen Hobbs