Industry 4.0 Changing Processes in the Engineering and Technology Sectors – How this has affected recruitment demand

A mere decade ago, the term Industry 4.0 was unknown to most- a fragmented idea not even Google had an in-depth description for.

In 2023, the term spearheads innovation in the engineering and technology sectors and is used to describe the next phase of digitalisation in manufacturing; reinventing how businesses design, manufacture and distribute their products.

Disruptive trends have resulted in a shift in desired skill sets and have ignited a demand for workers adept in advanced technologies. These trends include the rise of data and connectivity, analytics, human-machine interaction, and improvement in robotics, symbiotically combining people and technology.

With these pioneering technologies transforming job requirements, businesses are tasked with ensuring their employees are either reskilled or upskilled, to run parallel to the advancements of their sectors. Geographically, the outlook on reskilling differs:

‘In Europe, 94% of surveyed executives believe that the balance between hiring and reskilling should be equal or tip towards reskilling, compared with only 62% of U.S respondents.

– McKinsey and Company, August 2022

Shifting skill sets in the workforce –

When adapting to the changes Industry 4.0 drives, a future-ready workforce is a must.

With advancements in technology being heavily integrated into everyday processes, it is estimated that five years from now, over two-thirds of skills considered important in today’s job requirements will change. A third of the essential skills in 2025 will consist of technology competencies not yet regarded as crucial to today’s job requirements.’ – National Library of Medicine, PMCID: PMC9278314.

Upskilling and reskilling employees will generate different challenges – the demand for different skill sets generates a need for employee investment through introducing them to new skills to enhance their performance (upskilling) or by training employees to adapt to new positions within the company (reskilling).

Expected changes quantified below –

  • Demand for basic literacy and numeracy skills will decline by almost 20%
  • Demand for technological skills such as coding will rise by more than 50%
  • Demand for complex cognitive skills will rise by about 33%
  • Demand for high-level social and emotional skills will rise by more than 30%

– McKinsey & Company, August 2022

The vast pace of the digital revolution will result in a shortfall of professionals, meaning certain roles that call for specialised skills will be difficult to fill. Companies need to adapt their hiring processes to ensure they do not fall behind when hiring the necessary workforce. Recruitment specialists such as g2 Recruitment can help source this niche talent. Through using an innovative approach to tackle a modern problem – data-driven recruitment methods allow consultant to make objective hiring decisions.

Overcoming hiring challenges Industry 4.0 creates –

The inevitable skill gap created by Industry 4.0 will undoubtedly generate hiring issues.

Recruitment specialists should address this issue proactively, ensuring they are market experts, with a deep understanding of client’s requirements.

With over 15 years of engineering and technology expertise, accompanied by a diverse database of high-quality candidates, g2 Recruitment are perfectly positioned to support any companies going through the Industry 4.0 transition.

 ‘The automation of processes to increase efficiency using things like big data-analytics is becoming industry standard. Knowing where to begin can naturally be quite daunting, especially to traditional engineering, manufacturing, or industrial firms. Working with g2 Recruitment will be the key to drive progress within your business, simplifying your hiring processes and ensuring that you find the best people available to match your business needs.’

-Steffan Howells, BD Manager, g2 Recruitment

G2 Recruitment provide specialist consultants to help with the above; visit our Engineering and Technology page to find out more.

L&D Team

We are very lucky that g2 recruitment see Learning and Development as a vital part of a consultants journey which is why we have 4 people in the team who you will work very closely with from day 1 in your career. The team are on hand to guide you through your career at all levels and provide extra support working closely with the management team to give all consultants the best chance of success.  

Our Three Pillars of Training

Academy:
Week 1 is a series of remote sessions to learn all things systems, followed by a 1 week academy process which is a mixture of classroom and deskside this will be in one of our UK offices and usually consists of 3-8 other consultants all starting their journey together.

Experienced Modules:
These are a variety of sessions curated by us designed to support consultants as they are progressing through the career ladder, the aim is to ensure consultants at all levels have access to L&D.

Junior Management Programme:
Ran by our head of L&D this programme is designed to support junior managers as they start their management career. This involves things like personal branding, time management and ends in a business plan which is presented to members of the Exec board and senior management team.

Jaz123
Jaz D’Avola
Head of Learning & Development

Jaz joined g2 Recruitment in 2013.

She now leads our Learning and Development programme, transferring the knowledge and wisdom she learnt as a recruiter to the new generation of talent.

Imani
Imani WIlliams
Learning and Development Consultant

Imani joined g2 Recruitment in 2022.

His role involves developing individuals in all areas of the business, varying from inducting and onboarding consultants to working with them 1 to 1 to identify areas of development.  He aids with growth of L&D across the business, watching consultants experience and develop.

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Meghan Mcloughlin
Learning and Development Consultant

Meghan joined g2 in 2023 as an L&D consultant, Working in recruitment for 6 years, her role is to  help consultants at all levels to upskill and focus on development points. This could be anything from sales calls or candidate calls to organisation improvements.

Kane Gray
Systems & Academy Trainer

Kane joined g2 in April 2023 as an Academy & Systems Trainer.

His role involves teaching the consultants that are new to the company the foundations of recruitment and our systems before then helping them to upskill in areas specific to each consultant. Working closely with different consultants and watching them implement the feedback, apply it, and then benefit off the back of it.

Candidates

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Clients

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