Offshore Wind Round 3: On your marks… Get set…

The allocation of the Crown Estate’s Round 3 zones is nearly upon us.

After what seems like a life-time of anticipation, the commercial negotiations are now going on between the Crown Estate and the wind energy consortiums, to finalise the allocation of offshore zones in Round 3 of the UK’s offshore development. I have spoken to a number of contacts in the industry this week, who confirmed that things are very close to kicking off. Now is the time to fasten your seatbelts, we are about to get very busy!

Massive demand for Development Skills.

Everyone to whom I speak acknowledges the fact that, should they be successful in securing a link in the supply chain towards delivering a new round of offshore wind, they will need to build their teams accordingly to make sure that they can deliver upon their commitments. From EIA specialists, to planning and consents analysts, and technical due diligence engineers, there is all of a sudden going to be a massive demand for talented individuals who can help to turn an allocated area of the sea into a massive power generating asset.

I was speaking to a specialist in Environmental Impact Assessments for Offshore Wind farms yesterday. He has been involved since Round 1 of offshore developments, and is known as one of the few real experts and heavy hitters in that arena. He is already very busy, and is anticipating his work load only to increase as time develops. Immediately the best of the best in this industry, those that have lived and breathed offshore wind already, are going to be seriously in demand.

How will you attract the best?

In a question of weeks and months, there are going to be up to 9 consortiums suddenly competing to secure the best teams in a short period of time. All of these groups of companies currently have key players already on board, but the development of a multi-MW wind farm demands significant resource and expertise. Employers, have you thought about how you are going to attract further players to your team? I’ve spoken to several people in the last few months who have claimed “we know who we want to hire already”, but have you considered that other people want to hire the same experts?

How will you create and implement a hiring strategy which allows you to identify quickly and efficiently the right people for your company, and then ensures that you are able to attract them without going through unnecessary to-ing or fro-ing, and most importantly without entering into a bidding frenzy?

How will you retain the best?

Have you also considered that other companies out there may have identified members of your existing team as the people they want to hire? How will you ensure that you retain your key players? Retention means ensuring that they are 100% comfortable where they are, and will not start to entertain your competitors’ flirtations of promotion, better benefits, more money, or increased responsibility?

Head-hunters are going to be all over this space. And whilst some of us do so with discretion, and with the best interests of all parties at heart (i.e. we have more values and ambition than just to make a quick buck), I warn you now that there are many who don’t.

You need to make sure that you have a strategy in place to hire the right people, and to retain the right people.

If you would like to discuss how you are going about this, please don’t hesitate to give me a call on 0845 241 4810 or email clare.buxton@ecosearchglobal.com.

By Clare Buxton

Wind Energy Sector Lead, EcoSearch

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What Is Cheap Recruitment Costing Your Business?

We are fresh back from the All-Energy 09 conference. What a difference a year makes in this industry!

One subject uppermost in every company’s mind at this year’s exhibition was the “cost” of recruitment. The current climate of course means that new entrants into the renewable energy recruitment market are popping up everywhere it seems. But is “cheap” good and what long term value are you building in your business – or even short term pain?

Here’s two real live examples we’ve seen in the last 2 days at All-Energy 09 where cheap recruitment can actually be damaging to your business:-

1. Company X - suffered the loss of no less than 3 senior managers in the space of a year. Result:- damage to credibility and reputation, missed opportunity and potentially revenue, wasted operational time. Cause:- Insufficient qualification of candidates, no background check on history, no behavioural testing against real life business challenges 
   
2. Company Y – 6 months on and still looking for a CTO using a multi-agency approach. Result:– damage to business credibility (not to mention future investor potential), misrepresentation in the marketplace as to company strategy, impaired ability to attract good talent on account of poor recruitment positioning. 
   

All this is easily avoided by investing time in giving full briefs about your business culture, vision and goals and working with a partner who takes the time to match and marry candidate motivations, aspirations, skills & knowledge – with everyone involved in the recruiting process. It’s not just about filling that seat! The quality of approach and qualification adopted by your recruiting partner is vital to the wellbeing of your business – the results can be the difference between failure and survival in today’s market, and the right partner can actually enhance your reputation in the marketplace – and bring you unexpected windfalls in the shape of direct approaches for future hires.

So what does cutting corners in recruitment quality, process and methodology cost your business?

It’s a sad fact that you can calculate the price of a failed of hire to 3 x salary and sometimes more. This could be down to lost opportunity, Directors time invested and damaged reputation.

So if someone is offering you a service at 12% in today’s market – you need to ask yourself what they’ve had to drop from their quality of service. Because if it’s a reference check they are dropping to save time in order to meet a volume “rack 'em, pack 'em an' stack 'em” approach you can bet your life that time will fall back on your desk sorting out the fall out from a failed hire. £1,000 extra spent today – could be a £20,000 return on investment in the next quarter because you are able to focus on the right things in your business.

Debby Lloyd
Managing Director, EcoSearch

Image based on this by malias

Do you still need Headhunters in an economic down turn?

If we at EcoSearch compare our specialist headhunt service to that of standard database recruiters on any given day, the pool of available candidates might look something like this:

The headhunt side on the left is populated with all those people currently working in the renewable energy field that would be relevant to your vacancy. These are the people we would contact about filling your vacancy first.

The database recruiter area on the right shows the active candidates that are relevant to your job at any given time. These represent those that a standard database recruiter would contact.

It might be easier to attract those active candidates, but the picture changes dramatically when the economy takes a turn for the worse:

As you can see, there has been a massive influx of applications to your job from outside of the Renewable Energy industry. Not everyone will be relevant, or even have any transferable skills that might benefit your business.

The database recruiter now has a lot more ground to cover as they sort the relevant applications from those without the skills you require.

For the headhunters, business in the largely unaffected Renewable Energy sector remains the same. It is business as usual.

So when other industries start experiencing job cuts, it is important to know that your recruitment process will not be slowed. It is vital that you can rely on the service you expect from your talent acquisition partners.

What's your view?

Word of mouth recruiting: Is it working?

Today, Mark Sawyer takes a look at ‘Word of mouth recruiting’. How does your company get to potential employees that have those hard-to-find skills, and is it working? We would love to hear your thoughts.

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To me that comes under the banner of employee referral schemes! Many companies say they have a scheme and that it is highly thought of within their firm. They suggest that the financial rewards for doing so is more than generous. However, it is widely recognised within the head hunter community that these schemes are little more than a token gesture to tick the corporate box. In reality and in my experience of delivering recruitment process management (RPM), companies should be able to hire between 35-40% of their staff through existing employees networks, but only if created, managed and supported appropriately.

There are several advantages to employee referral schemes, the first being that new recruits are likely to settle in at the company quickly and stay for longer because they have an instant circle of acquaintances through the friend that suggested him or her. The association with a member of staff also means the new employee may already have some understanding of how the business operates, and he or she will be motivated not to put in a poor performance that will reflect badly on the friend that made the recommendation. From a company’s perspective I can see how they feel it is a cost effective route to market, especially in a tight market where talent is scarce like that of the Renewable Energy vertical. So why do companies struggle to hire more than 15% of new recruits through an employee referral programme?

1. Current employees are not aware of the scheme. It is in the employee handbook – but when was the last time you read your handbook?

2. They don’t see those in their sphere of influence acting on it. Good behaviour breeds better behaviour and poor behaviour breeds….well you know!

3. The reward is always weighted in favour of the company and is typically £250-400. Although I have seen some as high as £1000, but only after the employee has completed 12 months service. (a perceived slap in the face when recruiter fees are a minimum of £5k and at the more senior end £50k)

4. People are not buying into actually improving the company – they have apathy with the culture.

However, there are concerns that employee referral schemes can stifle fresh ideas and limit the influx of new blood to a business because existing employees tend to suggest candidates in their own image. I have also heard that this situation has also led to worries that a need for fairness and diversity may not be satisfied.

A final potential problem with using employees as a source of new staff is the hit and miss nature of the method. There is no guarantee that the right candidates will be suggested at the appropriate time. And for this reason, the role of the professional recruiter is still a valid one.