“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” – Henry Ford
The above quote loosely illustrates the issue with restricting job positions to people who are already in a sector – it simply doesn’t facilitate the transfer of technology and knowledge.
Requirements such as: “Oil and Gas experience is a must” or “Minimum of 15 years of pharmaceutical industry experience required” are very common place in job adverts.
Understandably, companies are concerned about a lack of industry experience when people cross between industry sectors. The knowledge gap is however usually down to differences in industry rules, regulations and processes rather than in broader competencies such as design engineering, project management or manufacturing engineering. Putting a well-structured training and mentoring programme in place for newcomers to the industry are good ways to overcome these. What companies will be gaining in return is a wider talent pool, challenge to the status quo, a different way of how things can be done and a reduced overall time to fill vacant positions.
As an example, several years ago, it used to be that most aerospace companies will only consider you for a role if you have had previous experience in that sector. A common saying within the aerospace industry is that it is 20 years behind the automotive industry. The first time I heard this comment was about twenty years ago. So, when a colleague recently mentioned it to me again, I jokingly said that the aerospace industry must now be 40 years behind the automotive sector.
Of course, it would be wrong to simply compare these two sectors as there are good reasons as to why the aerospace sector cannot do things the same way or at the same pace as the automotive sector. Top of these being the requirement for stricter safety regulations and control. But part of the reason the aerospace industry hasn’t caught up with some of the advances seen in the automotive sector is down to an employment policy that was inhibitive to the transfer of skills and knowledge from other sectors.
It’s good to know that this is now gradually changing and the aerospace industry is increasingly taking on people from other sectors (especially the automotive sector) and seeing the benefits of it. Hopefully, the “twenty years gap” starts to shrink. Other sectors can definitely take a cue from this.
Adé Popo-ola is a manufacturing engineering and operations professional with more than twenty years of experience in the automotive and aerospace industry. The scope of this article is based on his UK engineering experience.
Image credit: https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/recruitment-concept_9470606.htm#query=job%20requirements%20specifications&position=29&from_view=search&track=robertav1_2_sidr">Freepik</a>
Comments