PWC’s Global Industry 4.0 Survey last year was the largest survey of its kind, which reported on company thinking regarding the progress of Industry 4.0.
Speaking to over 2000 participants from the major industrial sectors in the world, they found that over a third of respondents felt that insufficient talent was one of the greatest challenges facing engineering and construction in the new age.
Throughout their interviews, companies reported that internal culture, leadership and skills were a big stumbling block for organisations, rather than external influences. This echoes our own observations within the technical engineering sector, where companies commonly face the same 5 internal recruitment challenges:
- High dependency on agencies
- High recruitment costs and low budgetary control
- Stretched human resources
- An over-used pool of candidates between competitors
- An ageing workforce and a lack of succession planning.
Each of these pain-points needs tackling in turn if businesses are to create a new recruitment framework that can be used to build their internal capabilities and gain market share in the 4th industrial revolution.
The goal of this new recruitment roadmap is to position the company, and its vision, as an attractive choice for in-demand talent that can help the business innovate and digitise. For this to happen, it is essential for an internally-based resourcing team to design a robust talent-resourcing process that increases direct hires and reduces agency dependency with its associated costs.
As PWC advised in their report:
“Success with Industry 4.0 will depend on skills and knowledge. Your biggest constraints may well be your ability to recruit the people needed to put digitisation into place. Remember to develop strategies for attracting people and improving processes as well as for implementing new technologies.”
Future competitiveness for companies within the technical manufacturing and engineering industry depends on cost reduction and improved efficiencies throughout the talent supply chain. In short, these companies must be willing to evolve outdated recruitment processes, and will need to become more innovative in how they source talent.
To read the report in full, visit: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/engineering-construction/publications/industry-4.0-engineering-and-construction-key-findings.pdf
To find out more about recruiting in Industry 4.0, visit: https://providepeople.com/connected/