Page 21 - Impiantistica Industriale

SPECIALIZED RESOURCES

Bridging the ‘Talent Gap’

in Engineering and R&D

How successful companies are

transforming engineering roles to
attract and retain top talent

Daniel Suter, Partner, Zurich
Bill Radzevych, Partner, Seattle The engineering brain drain
Junna Hashimoto, Partner, London As technologies in all industries grow increasin-
Parvathy Kailasam, Associate Partner, Mumbai gly integrated and complex, IT and engineering
Jessica Port, Senior Manager, San Francisco functions are converging in companies large and
Bain & Company small. That means tech companies such as Alpha-
bet, Amazon, and Microsoft are entering industriali-
zed markets outside the software sector and com-
very engineering chief technology offi- peting for a slice of the business.
cer is feeling the pain. Industrial firms Fierce competition for talent means that attrition ra-
are urgently seeking to expand their tes at ER&D companies are likely to increase over
ranks of engineers to cope with new the next three years, according to Bain research.
technologies and fast-changing mar- That trend will be exacerbated by the retiring baby
Ekets while tech giants have been luring boomer generation. The number of graduates in
away some of their best engineers for years. STEM disciplines grew at an average annual rate of
In fact, 73% of engineering- and R&D-focused 1.8% from 2016 to 2019 in OECD countries, whi-
(ER&D) companies report talent gaps, and that di- le the population reaching retirement age (65 and
vide will widen as baby boomers retire more quickly older) during the same period grew at 6.2% each
than new graduates fill their shoes. Adding to the year.
problem, midcareer engineers are transitioning to
non-engineering roles. Globally, the percentage of
engineers quitting their jobs at engineering com- Nearly three-quarters of
panies has risen to between 16% and 17%, up by engineering and R&D-focused
nearly 2 percentage points from three years ago.
The shortage of engineering talent is affecting all “companies report talent gaps
geographies and is likely to continue throughout
the coming decade. Leading companies are reali- But young employees are also leaving enginee-
zing that in a tight talent market, it’s as important to ring firms for more attractive jobs. About 40% of
improve the attractiveness of engineering roles as young engineering professionals globally say they
it is to scour the market for new pockets of labor. are likely to change jobs within the next six months,
Employee demands are changing, and traditional according to a recent Bain survey. Many say they
engineering firms won’t be able to attract talent to are frustrated by the low level of productivity at tra-
expand their roster of engineers without significan- ditional engineering firms. For instance, aerospace
tly transforming the value proposition they offer to and defense engineers say they spend only about
potential employees. With the recent waves of tech half their time on active engineering work, of which
layoffs, there is a rare opportunity to recruit some more than 30% is spent on rework and more than
much-needed talent. 40% on lower-value tasks.

Impiantistica Italiana - Luglio-Agosto 2023 17