Technology is changing and fast. Labour availability and skills requirements are changing as well. Process control personnel makeup and skillsets have evolved over decades of iterations. The process industries are challenged to continue to operate efficiently in an increasingly competitive environment. At the 2017 ARC Industry Forum in Orlando, we hosted a roundtable discussion that enabled process industry end users to exchange ideas on the changing responsibilities and skill requirements in the operational technology space, and discuss strategies to address these challenges.
Process control challenges
Finding talent is a struggle. Most process companies prefer chemical engineers as process control staff. However, universities do not appear to emphasise process control training. People with process knowledge are rare. Chemical engineers with specific process knowledge and proper skill-sets are even harder to find. End users also noted that process control encompasses many divergent specialties, making it more difficult to find the right people. Two overall skill-sets – knowledge of operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) – make this extremely difficult. This scarcity also makes it difficult to retain good process control resources.
It was also noted that management does not seem to recognise that the organisation needs this ‘digital’ engineer. Because the skills needed lead to operational silos (even within the process control department), users are challenged on how to justify the seemingly extra staff needed to address these areas. Attendees also voiced a struggle with finding the best way to leverage people efficiently and acknowledged a need to identify transferable skill-sets.
Another issue expressed was how to deal with cybersecurity, particularly since virtually all available cybersecurity professionals are already employed. Engineers are pulled in all directions. The group posed the question: “What skills are really needed?”
Engaging human resources: A war for talent
This topic is intriguing in the sense that HR personnel themselves have little personal experience with the needs of process control. Several attending the session have engaged HR through preliminary reporting, using consequences like abnormal situation avoidance to justify the resources. Some have used contractors to augment staff, instead of hiring people directly.
A few realities were revealed as well. New hires would prefer to work at Amazon, Alphabet, Uber, etc. instead of often dirty, distant, and dangerous industrial facilities. Some mentioned that the trailing off of hiring in the 1980s and 1990s created an experience gap in the market. When you find experienced hires, there’s a culture clash between old and new companies.
Many have concluded that they have no long-range expectations for retention. One company uses a five-year rotation for new engineers and suggested making the acceptance of an assignment at a less desirable site easier, with a fixed time frame if it does not work out. A second company recruited engineers directly to small towns for a term of two to three years before possibility of going to corporate. A third company had an 18-month minimum assignment, but provided the option to request a move. A fourth company built a model based on five to seven-year employee turnover.
People sometimes marry in their smaller community, which might be a good thing.
Some suggested that companies should get involved in high schools, interacting with students interested in engineering so they can discuss all the options, including tech school. Attendees emphasized a consistent presence at the schools of interest and those involved in the programme should communicate the challenges and what excites them about the work.
If you hire locally, they may stay with the company longer term as their mobility may be constrained. Individuals that went away to college are potentially more mobile than those with ties to ‘home’.
There was some discussion about the competence of ‘GED’ students. Example given: During the Gulf War surge, the military changed the requirement from high school degree to a general educational development degree (GED). This was not viewed as a success, and the requirement was changed back to a high school degree. Participants seemed to agree that the best discipline for process control engineering roles is chemical engineering graduates. However, most agreed that the key is strong critical thinking skills. One quote offered was, “Hire for character; train for competency.” The challenge is how to measure character.
It seems that everyone is going after the same relatively small pool of technically adept people. We heard one end user mention that of 100 potential hires, only 27 met the absolute minimum requirements for various reasons. That spawned a discussion of how a company could make itself more attractive. The other, perhaps more difficult approach and certainly longer term, is to increase the number of candidates that meet minimum requirements.
As available automation talent continues to dwindle, it is incumbent on the industry as a whole to create solutions that either reduce the reliance on this talent, or invest in talent development.
For more information contact Paul Miller, ARC Advisory Group, +1 781 471 1141, [email protected], www.arcweb.com
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