Engineering labor market 2021Full steam ahead back into the skills shortage?
The agonizingly long-lasting coronavirus pandemic has also caused the job market for engineers to freeze in many places, but it has not come to a complete standstill, as a survey of recruiters shows. Will there be a race to catch up?
Dr. Bianca Mastnak is Head of Global Human Resources at Recom. Despite the coronavirus crisis, she was also busy "expanding our talent pool" and bringing new skills into the team. Staff that "would be hard to come by without the crisis", she says.
Bianca Mastnak did not have to deliberately put any staffing requests from her colleagues on hold. "We are still using every opportunity to recruit highly qualified personnel to strengthen our team." As Recom has come through the crisis very successfully so far, Mastnak "fortunately does not expect a race to catch up".
The radius has also been extended abroad - an advantage of the pandemic, if you like: "In 2020, we held online interviews with applicants from 15 different countries. This is an uncomplicated way to get to know more suitable applicants than with conventional interviews."
Interesting applicants for whom there is no current vacancy are added to a talent pool. "We contact them when a suitable position becomes available. It is also important to have a global focus here, as the willingness to relocate has risen sharply in recent years."
When the economy picks up, "there will certainly be more shortages of experts again, as we have already seen in 2018", the HR manager assumes. On the other hand, there will also be more candidates willing to change jobs, "who do not yet want to leave their employer during the crisis".
Bianca Mastnak therefore believes that Recom has a good chance of convincing one key player or another expert "at least in the first phase of the economic upturn" to join Recom and "strengthen our team with their experience and motivation".