The Importance of Embracing Innovation to Attract and Retain Talent in the Energy Industry

The need for new clean energy sources, requirement of optimally running current energy sources, and the digitization of asset-intensive organizations is creating a trilemma of a new sort: a talent trilemma. While balancing meeting production goals, safety, environmental, and a myriad of other targets, organizations must now also meet the moment when it comes to hiring for the future and building a foundation for innovation. 

According to executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, traditional sources for talent recruitment in the energy industry as we know it are drying up. In interviews with 11 energy CEO’s and dozens of other senior leaders, the firm uncovered that demand for more energy, increasing complexity of working in the energy space, and the required qualifications of employees are creating a “zero-sum” game, as organizations aim to build for the future. 

Within the three categories of demand, complexity, and qualifications, organizations will also face macro challenges. 

Attracting and retaining a high-performance workforce will always be a challenge, however, today’s employment environment for energy companies and other heavy industries comes with some specific challenges.  

1. Diverse Educational Backgrounds: On top of losing experts to retirement, a new age of talent is knocking on the door. Education has moved towards computer-first, automated, and digitized – from ever earlier in students’ educational career, including high school. In fact, as a more recent market entrant, I can’t remember the last time I wrote with a pen and paper. Due to this, engineers entering the market today are not only joining with electrical and mechanical knowledge, but also with computer science degrees. They’re familiar with computing platforms and coding and completing even basic activities like note taking on mobile devices. These entrants are looking for innovative, fast-paced, and data-driven places to work. 

2. Cloud native or cloud hybrid experience: With computer science backgrounds becoming more common, the expectation of using big data in a cloud environment is also increasing. Over the last two years alone, we have seen an increase in cloud-native development for applications, increased cybersecurity measures taken, and new cloud markets opened that have historically not been interested in the technology. Today, even governments that were previously on-premises only have been showing interest in hybrid or cloud-native workloads. New market entrants will be deeply knowledgeable in these areas and expecting to join an organization that is actively investing in digitization.  

3. Expectation of speed and usability: One of the benefits of the energy space digitizing is that speed and performance are a focus. But, if an organization is lagging in the areas of speed, usability, and performance of internal solution, retaining current and new talent will be difficult. Today in asset-intensive organizations, software users are likely experiencing a blend of new and old technology. This deviation of experience can cause frustration and opens the possibility of employee dissatisfaction.  

4. Fully-remote or hybrid work schedules: According to remote work research from Forbes, 65% of workers desire to work remotely all the time, highlighting the popularity of this work model. At the same time, 32% prefer a hybrid schedule, which combines the best of both worlds – flexibility through remote work and collaboration opportunities from in-office work. This trend has held steady since 2020 and extends to people already in the workforce seeking flexibility as well. However, many asset-intensive organizations have a traditional site-focused structure. Organizations that are unable to keep up with the digitization required to support a level of remote work will ultimately be met with increased attrition rates and decreased interest from new market entrants.  

Identifying a way to attract and retain talent in asset-intensive organizations, such as power generation, oil & gas, and materials companies, is extremely difficult. Industry veterans are retiring in waves, new engineers who are beginning to be trained are interested in emerging technology, and mid-career employees are requiring more balance than ever. The good news is organizations can take steps to build a foundation and technology ecosystem that can address the challenges established above. 

Develop a scalable foundation that supports current and future employees

In the past, it was thought that the only way to create a scalable foundation for the future was to invest in a large platform provider that overpromised and underdelivered. In today’s age, digital solutions are interoperable, allowing organizations to choose multiple vendors that can help generate an ecosystem. For asset-intensive organizations, systems such as EAM, ERP, CMMS, and Asset Performance Management (APM) are all able to co-exist and generate value for all employees. GE Digital’s APM software is built on a modernized backend, with the ability to connect directly to IBM, SAP, PI, and nearly any other system that is hosting data relevant to Maintenance or Reliability. Pair this data with that existing in other systems in a central repository or data lake, and Asset Performance Management can be a piece of an enterprise solution that promotes the storage of subject matter expertise, ability to bring your own models and analytics, as well as AI/ML capabilities that leverage data to help your operation make better decisions.    

Integrate AI/ML tools, Digital Twin technology, and advanced analytic capabilities

Advancing the use of technology while balancing an aging workforce presents challenges in and of itself. To take advantage of a software ecosystem, it is integral that all parts of the business progress to digital-first. Once the digital shift begins to occur, and data begins to flow into a central location, technologies such as AI/ML and Digital Twins can begin to leverage the expertise of current employees and open the door for new market entrants to innovate off that expertise. Many solutions are now built on microservice infrastructure that promotes the ability to use data in new and interesting ways. These services also allow vendors to develop flexible applications that provide immediate value. Taking a look at AI/ML, which tends to be the biggest area of interest across digital providers, it requires immense amounts of data and outcomes to be able to train itself for future work—the same goes for Digital Twins. By developing a software ecosystem, data can be seen through a single pane of glass that can enable the next generation of employees to be productive and iterate on the past using new technology.  
 

Improve efficiency with mobile solutions with online and offline capabilities

Over the years, work has shifted from paper to desktops to mobile devices. Although digital transformation has had its documented challenges, moving to a mobile-friendly work capability is easier than it has ever been. Current desktop and enterprise applications have succeeded in making user experience and performance consistent across the two device types. In the Asset Performance Management space, mobile applications can collect picture, audio, corrosion, and other data types from the field, and then are able to seamlessly transfer data to a central location in online or offline mode. This digital capability is integral in helping to upskill current workforce in the field and is also highly attractive to new potential employees who spend the bulk of their time on a mobile device.  
 

Invest in solutions that are easy to use and built with expertise

For new talent entering the market, nothing is more important than being able to login and use critical systems from day one. Not only are new market entrants digital-first, they also grew up with high powered computing and all the information they needed in the palm of their hand. For enterprise systems such as Asset Performance Management, availability and reliability of performance are critical and require modernized infrastructure to support it. Therefore, for asset intensive organizations, finding a partnership with a provider committed to being available will massively impact employees. Once organizations have an available and reliable system, their users will gain confidence in the system's ability to support their work requirements. For more tenured employees, using new technology might be more of a learning curve, however companies can lower the barrier to adoption by choosing intuitive technology that incorporates domain expertise. As new employees work with the more tenured parts of the organization, having an easy-to-use system allows both parties to collaborate productively and work as one to better the business. 

Contextual visualization

The term ‘metaverse’ is currently overused and under-delivered on, however, organizations can progress their technology ecosystem towards a future where a “metaverse” could be possible. In today’s asset-intensive world, most critical assets have sensors or IoT technology to allow for near real-time remote visualization of them. Alongside technology like Asset Performance Management, leveraging 2D/3D capabilities is a common next step for organizations that are continuing their digitization. These 2D/3D models are created with near real-time data in addition to an asset’s CAD drawings or OEM blueprints. Technology allows users to get safely and productively closer to assets.  

Build a digital-first organization and enable a more connected and flexible mobile workforce with software.