Kevin Over, Head of Power at Astute Technical Recruitment, takes a look at the current state of the market and shares his thoughts on where the team is seeing high demand and what the reasons for that might be.
In the power industry, we're seeing quite high demand across all areas within the team in the division.
We focus on construction projects and the operations and maintenance of the plants.
What we are finding is there are continued high demands throughout and I think that's a victim of the circumstance of the highly candidate-driven market.
There are a lot of jobs and less talent, largely due to the current economic climate.
What we are finding is that the skills shortages tend to be across the board, so we are advising clients to move quickly when they see a candidate they like and any talent that they're that keen on.
We find that moving quickly and paying the right money is typically what secures what they need.
At the moment, and possibly more than ever before, we're finding that candidates are driven by money.
As shallow as it might seem we do find that the salary range is a very big driver of what motivates candidates' decisions.
We find that travelling and commuting can also be a sticking point for people.
Of course, with fuel prices, etc., going up and everything rising with the cost of living, people are looking to try and make as much money as they can.
So we're seeing a lot more counter offers, a lot more choice and typically the candidate does go to the highest bidder.
So we are trying to consult clients through the process to advise, to either look to match, look at salary surveys, and understand their market, which is something we also provide.
If we look firstly at the construction desk, typically we do find commercial roles can be particularly tricky to find.
We're looking at Contracts Managers, Commercial Managers, but also right down to a Quantity Surveyor level.
We do find that some businesses do like to have this type of role in-house and on permanent full-time engagement.
However, what we do find is the role sometimes lends itself to contractors.
So what we do find is that if clients are struggling we look to try and consult them through looking at options and engagement options, in particular trying contractors.
What we find in the operations and maintenance desk is EC&I Engineers is that there are a lot of EC&I Engineers still offshore, and salaries don't typically draw them back onshore.
And when we're looking within a radius of sometimes quite an isolated area or plant you can find it a little bit difficult to find the talent pool within that specific area, especially with Electrical Control and Instrumentation engineers.
So that's probably the two areas that we see the most need for.
If you’re a client or candidate looking to get in touch, looking for a career change, looking for a little bit of advice on the industry you can reach out to me directly, or any of the team at Astute, for a conversation about how we can support you.
About the Author
Kevin Over joined Astute as a Delivery Consultant (Talent Specialist) in 2013.
He now works as Head of Power, overseeing the Permanent and Contract recruitment across EPC, Construction, and Operations and Maintenance.
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