“Crisis! CRISIS!!” The call echoes around the energy industry whenever the words ‘recruitment’, ‘talent’ and ‘skills’ are mentioned.
And it’s hard to argue. Not only is there a shortage of people within the industry, there’s a dramatic shortage of people outside who want in.
‘People-centric culture’ and innumerable other clichés born of HR roundtables and executive away days get thrown about willy-nilly as solutions to the problem.
But these are goals, they are not based in the hard reality of day-to-day work. Real work that real people are doing.
We need ‘work place propositions’ that actually make a difference; that make every day a dynamic, rewarding experience, worthy of a workplace in 2024.
And this is why digital innovation should sit at the heart of any recruitment strategy, delivering the kind of platforms that HR folks have probably never even heard of (mud tracking dashboard, anyone?)
But this is not a time for comfort zones. It’s time for change; change led by digital innovation.
Here are three specific reasons why:
1. The Green Transition
One thing every right-minded person wants to be part of is the green transition.
Notions of sustainability, energy security, and carbon footprint reductions are amazingly attractive to recruits, particularly the new blood that’s needed.
Conversely, people hate green washing. They hate all the talk without the walk. And there is A LOT of talk.
Digital innovation allows companies to invest more deeply in renewable energy and efficiency technologies.
It enables them to optimise existing projects, create new product & services, and discover new business models.
In their words: it enables companies to actually deliver the green transition – rather than just talk about it. And what’s more, the tech proves it.
With digital tools, companies can harness data to track, predict, optimise, and DEMONSTRATE the change they are driving, showing recruits they’re genuinely committed to a cleaner future.
That demonstrable proof of change – and desire for change – is crucial to reinvigorating the industry’s deeply tarnished brand.
And – hey! – you get to save the world, futureproof your business, and make lots of money at the same time. What’s not to like?
2. Purpose
Let’s talk about ‘purpose’ beyond environmental considerations.
Because, let’s be honest, starting this list with the Green Transition is a form of green washing itself.
We can’t pretend that everyone’s primary driver is saving the planet. It isn’t. it might be one driver, but human beings are infinitely more complicated than that.
We’ve got to presume the new recruits we’re talking about will be right at the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – and desperate to be all they can be.
In the context of skilled engineering work, we’re talking about throwing people into an environment of discovery, innovation, and change.
We’re talking about feeding and supporting a desire to develop ever-changing skills sets that let one slice and dice one’s role and opportunities in ways that go far beyond any job description.
Real engagement and fulfilment will be from giving people the tools they need to discover, drive and shape opportunities, moulding themselves to the industry and the industry to them – often with far greater work-life balance at the same time.
Only one thing can put this opportunity in eager recruits hands: technology.
AI in particular, with it’s ability to process and present data in ways that anyone can understand, is a gamechanger here.
3. Digital Adventures
Not long ago I read Roald Dahl’s ‘Going Solo’ to my kids which, among other things, details the author’s time working for Shell Oil in Africa in the 1940’s.
The way he talks of his adventures and the challenges speaks to why is was such an attractive job to do, back in the day.
Now, before we get letters, this is not a segue into calls for a return to Empire. And, of course, there’s still of plenty excitement out in the field, if you go looking for it.
But day-to-day life is very different. Engineers are drowning in manual reporting as they desperately try to reconcile emails, PDFs, spreadsheets and God knows what else.
It’s slow. It’s mind-numbing. It doesn’t make work fun or engaging – and it dramatically limits opportunities for the kind of insight and opportunity they signed up for in the first place.
With simple digital platforms you can take that away. (Again, AI, is key here – particularly OCR, classification and machine learning models… ask me if you want to know more.)
And here’s the kicker!
When you do that you not only take away the soul crushing boredom, you free people up to do higher value tasks.
Not only does this result in higher levels of job satisfaction levels and lower turnover, it delivers buckets more productivity.
And that productivity means some of the recruitment pressure us lifted off you because you get loads more bang for your buck.
How much more? One energy firm we worked with on mud tracking tech saved the equivalent annual hours of FOUR FULL-TIME ENGINEERS by automating manual tasks that were wasting so much of their time. (I’ve written more about how we did that here.)
Re-energise
Of course there’s plenty more reasons a digital innovation zealot like me can throw at you in support of digital tech investment, both practical and philosophical.
But with all of them the lesson comes down to the same thing: humans have increasingly complex workplace needs and demands. Often those will align exactly with what you need to succeed and grow.
And the one thing that unites and delivers on all that is digital technology.
If it’s not at the heart of the recruitment conversation, we will fail to re-energise energy.
Michael Millar is co-founder and partner in SmplCo, empowering the energy industry to find new ways of working, improve performance, and drive the energy transition, using bespoke digital platforms, products and services.
Recommended for you
