Talent shortage: how to solve a critical challenge for the industry?

For a couple of years now, a trend has been taking place that has accelerated significantly in recent months: the shortage of talent for the industrial sector, especially in critical plant positions.

To understand this problem, which is a real challenge for those of us who promote search and selection processes focused on the industry, it is important to be able to understand what it consists of and what its impact is.

First of all, we must clarify that the phenomenon of lack of talent is reflected in the small number of profiles that simultaneously meet two key conditions:

• Technical knowledge suitable for each position.
• Critical skills for the current production system, both soft skills and digital capabilities, including language proficiency.

This difficulty in finding candidates who combine solid technical skills with the skills demanded by the market reveals a problem that can be explained in three dimensions:

1) Limited number of existing graduates based on demand from certain industrieswhich shows the dimension of the gap between the educational system and the national productive matrix. The low volume of supply is clearly reflected in the few engineering graduates that the educational system produces annually, in relation to a growing labor supply.

2) Deficiencies in updating specific knowledge, limited work experienceand poor development of skills and abilities currently required by the labor market.

3) Difficulty adapting to changes which generates the fourth industrial revolution, based on the growing impact of the incorporation of artificial intelligence and automation. This translates into the obsolescence of skills and professional mismatch.

These three dimensions affect critical areas of the productive fabric, with the consequent negative impact on the competitiveness of the industrial sector.

What about plant positions?

If we refer to positions in industrial plants, we find that the number of professionals willing to work in manufacturing facilities is decreasing.

This is due to multiple reasons, including the impossibility of accessing benefits such as home office or hybrid work modality.

Also due to a lack of knowledge or full understanding of the characteristics of this type of positions and their impact on the operation.

To address this last gap, many companies are calling on us, as the only industrial niche headhunters in Latin America. Activities are carried out with staff from other areas of each organization, with the aim of sharing the advantages and opportunities that operations positions offer for professional development.

Consequences of talent shortage

Among the consequences that arise from the lack of talent, we can highlight the following:

• Rising labor costs: When there is a high demand for talent and a limited supply, companies must offer higher salaries and better benefits to attract and retain qualified employees. This can significantly increase operating costs.
• Reduction in productivity: A lack of qualified personnel can slow down project progress and impact operational efficiency. Without the necessary talent, companies may not be able to complete key tasks or meet deadlines.
• Impact on innovation: Talent shortages can limit a company’s ability to innovate and develop new products or services. A lack of experts in critical areas, such as technology or research and development, can hinder a company’s growth and competitiveness.
• Over-stretching of existing staff: When there is not enough talent available, employees may be overloaded with additional work. This can lead to increased stress, lower job satisfaction, and eventually, higher employee turnover.
• Increase in outsourcing and automation: Faced with a talent shortage, companies may turn to outsourcing functions or automating processes to make up for the lack of staff. While these can be effective solutions, they may also have their own challenges and limitations.
• Competitive disadvantage:Companies that fail to attract or retain qualified talent may fall behind their competitors. This is especially critical in fast-growing or highly competitive industries.

Solutions to the talent shortage

The lack of this type of professionals is not something that the educational system can solve in the short term. But strategies and concrete actions must undoubtedly be implemented to reverse the trend.

For example, reforms can be promoted from secondary school onwards to encourage the development of vocations oriented towards the study of engineering.

In this sense, it is important to highlight that the integration of the educational system into the productive matrix must be worked on with a long-term vision.

Decisions made today will take at least 10 years to become a reality in the market.

Hence the importance of articulating public policies with private investment initiatives that seek to achieve this objective, since it is impossible to become a competitive country without human resources that are prepared to work in the industries that are intended to be prioritized in a nation’s development plan.