The automotive industry is experiencing an era of unprecedented disruption and dynamism. The convergence of the tech and automotive industries has created a new geography of autonomy, connected technologies, sharing, alternative propulsion and active safety systems. As this massive disruption continues apace, the impact and demands upon businesses’ human capital continues to grow. It is clear that the greatest challenge facing the industry is not technological change, but the workforce. In addition to a dramatically evolving skillset need, overlapping with other industry sector talent pools, the industry also faces a massive workforce planning challenge with a retirement bubble impacting short term leadership talent benches.
We have an extensive industry background and have worked with leading organisations such as global OEMs, suppliers, aftermarket, start-ups, and private equity investors.
We help our clients build teams that will address the challenges of today and tomorrow. We help you attract, develop, and retain best-in-class talent for your organization. To cope with the challenge of the agility required to manage the ongoing disruptive environment, your business needs a robust pipeline of ‘ready now’ and identified future talent. We work with you collaboratively to identify the relevant solutions to your talent-related needs.
A significant aspect of the current industry disruption is the trend of electronics replacing mechanical elements as the appeal factor in car specifications. We live in a world where we expect constant updates to personal electronics, and this has inevitably led to similar expectations from the car as it becomes a software platform.
This has created a shift in talent demands. Whilst mechanical engineering is as important as ever in creating increasingly sophisticated products, the mechanical skillset is evolving as companies require engineers which effortlessly integrate with a progressively software and electronics focussed environment. In addition, the demand for software skills is greater than the market can supply. This issue is compounded by manufacturing struggling to compete for top technology candidates against other industries.
The industry has historically struggled to attract diverse talent given traditional stereotype perceptions surrounding the sector. We have an impressive track record of assisting automotive clients to attract women and people of colour at every level and function, globally. This, in turn, has had dramatic impacts on their working cultures.
Given the massive disruption in the industry, and the overwhelming impact on the workforce, all businesses need a talent strategy to identify and manage the required capabilities in leaders and teams. We’ll assist you build those strategies and create talent requirement charts that will define the core skillsets and capabilities that will allow your company to navigate the new digital workforce environment. That gives us the basis to assess your current workforce against those requirements and recommend a strategy that will address your needs to invest in development, redeployment and recruiting.
The change impacting the industry is causing widespread disruption. However, when it comes to the workforce, many companies are coping with the changes in a reactive manner.
Our experienced strategic workforce planning consultants will help you identify the organizational and talent risk, and put in place long term talent plans, so that you are ready for both today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. The automotive industry, in particular, has an impending retirement risk bubble that most firms are yet to plan for. We’ll advise on how to mitigate these risks and also suggest optimal cost structures and corporate headcount actions.
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