Home > Solar technology and the ‘war for talent’

At the end of the 1990s the leading strategy consultancy McKinsey & Co declared the opening of a new area of conflict in the business world, the now ubiquitous ‘war for talent’.

According to their assessment, based upon a year long study of companies around the globe, success over the next two decades would no longer be based upon capital, strategy or R&D, but on an organisation’s ability to identify, recruit, develop and retain the best people.

In their view capital would become widely available for good ideas, clever strategies would become increasingly easy to copy and new products and services would be quickly outmoded by the lightning speed of the ideas pipeline. In such a business environment, access to smart, sophisticated business people with technical literacy, operational agility and global awareness would therefore provide the only genuine competitive advantage.

So how has this putative war had relevance to the microelectronics arena so far and how is it likely to impact on it in the immediate future?

At first sight it seems arguable that current conditions have produced less of a war for talent than a war for work in the microelectronics market. The semiconductor industry, always a prisoner of its cyclical ‘boom or bust’ nature, is in a period, whilst not of recession, then certainly of consolidation with growth running at only 2-3%. As a result we have seen a general slowing of the hiring process at all levels, more focus on particular experience and skills-sets and, in some extreme circumstances, even blanket hiring freezes. However, behind this gloomy picture lies a development which is not only changing the technical face of microelectronics, but which may also have a major effect on its labour market –the growth of the solar Technology arena.

Predicted to be worth around $3 billion by 2010 and now employing over 30,000 people across Europe (although still well behind the 150,000 working in the ‘classic’ semiconductor industry), solar is growing rapidly with major industry players such as Applied Materials already investing substantial resources in the Technology and setting up dedicated business divisions. And interest in the area amongst microelectronics professionals appears to be growing at a similar rate. The reasons for this are manifold. In the first instance solar is a relatively new industry and consequently offers a whole new set of technical challenges and opportunities. Secondly it appeals to the ‘green’ motivation – after all, why not work in an industry which might end up helping to save the planet if at all possible? And thirdly it sets few technical barriers to entry as the Technology it employs, in many cases is actually less complex than that already in use across the more conventional areas of microelectronics.

For the moment, however, those attracted by renewable Energy jobs will find themselves focused on a relatively limited number of locations. In Europe this means Spain and Germany, the two countries which have embraced the developing Technology with the most enthusiasm. Germany, for example, has been the world’s largest investor in the sector since 2005 when it overtook the previous front-runner, Japan. The German government has reportedly subsided the industry to the tune of around €1 billion so far, resulting in the creation of clusters of solar companies (similar to those of internet companies which sprang up in California’s Silicon Valley in the 1990s) in the east of the country and, in particular, in the states of Brandenburg, Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. So far the UK has not followed the German or Spanish leads. Instead the growth of green technology has focused on other areas of renewable Energy – jobs in industries developing technologies such as wind turbines and bio fuels.

The Gulf states of the Middle East are also major investors in the solar sector, perhaps not surprisingly, given the nature of their climates. Abu Dhabi, for example, has pressed ahead with US $15 billion worth of investment in the industry recently and has announced plans to build the first city in the world with a zero carbon footprint – Masdar - as part of a long-term strategy to move from a dependence on oil to alternative energy. Further east, the rapidly expanding economies of China, India and Malaysia are all benefiting from the establishment of manufacturing facilities - Signet Solar, the US maker of photovoltaic modules that use thin-film Technology is building its next major factory in Madras, for example, while Q-Cells, the world's largest producer of photovoltaic solar cells, is creating a similar operation in Malaysia.

The fact that the solar industry is developing in specific silos of activity around the world is creating its own set of staffing and skill-set problems. The Gulf states, for example, are dramatically short of both technical and managerial personnel, in large part because the level of investment and development in the solar arena has not been matched in training and education locally, but also because of a failure to attract sufficient expatriates. The Asian countries have few problems in finding sufficient production staff for their manufacturing operations, but struggle to find sufficient senior managers with in-depth technical and commercial experience. And in continental Europe the tendency for professionals to stay with one organisation much longer than their counterparts in Anglo-Saxon countries is causing newer players in the market major recruitment headaches. At the same time there are some signs that employers in the traditional semi-conductor sector are fighting back against the brain-drain of talent to solar and that a bidding war for the best people may break out before long.

While this situation presents employers in the solar technology sector with daunting challenges, it also offers a whole new range of opportunities to microelectronics professionals willing to plan their careers on strategic lines

Historically microelectronics specialists have been able to reach the top of their profession without having to consider moving outside their home countries, apart from occasional business trips or short term assignments. But the world is shrinking and, while some organisations still offer a career path which maintains a purely domestic focus, the globalisation of technologies like solar is creating the need for a new breed of individuals with genuinely international experience. As the global net spreads, it has become increasingly clear that the old model of a senior management team which has only worked in traditional centres such as the USA or Western Europe, is not one that will best respond to the new challenges and opportunities this is creating.

Consequently it is the specialists who can combine ‘first world’ and ‘developing world’ exposure who will reap the rewards of this development. Of course the international career option is not one which will suit everyone, so how do you decide if it will be right for you? The first step is to assess, perhaps with the aid of a straight-talking friend, exactly what sort of person you are. Working in a developing country, for example, can mean coming to terms with a completely different environment to the one you are used to at home. Simple things that you now take for granted such as the fact that the electricity supply will continue uninterrupted, that all the people around you have a specific level of professional competence and that people will turn up for appointments and meetings on time (or at all), are not necessarily a given in some countries. Neither is the sort of work ethic that you may have come to accept as the norm.

Different cultures have different attitudes to just how important the workplace is in the great scheme of things, from the exceptionally high levels of commitment to an employer shown in a country like Japan through to an altogether more relaxed approach in some of the smaller, newer economies. Ask yourself the direct question – am I flexible enough in my approach to adapt to such a change in circumstances? If you are, then you may be able to reap rich rewards from the investment of time effort and commitment involved.

MRL Technology is a specialist recruitment consultancy focused on roles in the semiconductor/solar technology field in key markets around the globe – www.mrl-technology.com

If you’d like to talk about using our recruitment services contact your regional MRL office or email enquiries@mrl-group.com

To find renewable energy jobs in your area, use our executive job search or register your CV and we’ll contact you to discuss your career aspirations.
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