The energy industry is booming as demand rises, especially for renewable or clean energy. Investments in clean energy projects recently reached a record $133 billion thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Last year, the industry’s 3.8% job growth outpaced overall employment growth, led by 3.9% growth in the renewable energy sector.
Despite the industry’s growth, energy companies of all types are competing for a limited supply of top talent with skills in project management, engineering, geology, and other competitive fields. In an industry long dominated by oil and gas, only one in eight workers have a “green skill” relevant to the fast-growing renewable energy industry.
If your energy recruitment team is looking for a fresh approach to hiring, try these tips to attract a skilled talent pool, hire the right people, and retain them long-term.
🎯 Take energy industry recruiting to new heights with these five strategies. Learn how targeted recruitment efforts are essential to attract top-tier talent:1. Target Your Recruitment Efforts
Get specific with what you’re looking for in job postings, social media ads, and outreach messages. Focus on the most important qualities for the role, like industry-specific skills or knowledge that are non-negotiable. Your energy company can attract best-fit candidates by creating targeted social media ads and posting on industry job boards.
Streamline your recruiting process and help shape the future of the energy industry by partnering with an energy-focused technical college or trade school. You’ll gain a reliable pipeline of skilled talent who are already interested in a career path in the energy sector — and already familiar with your company.
2. Define and Amplify Your Employer Brand
Your employer brand shows candidates what your company is all about and what to expect as an employee. HR experts advise that employer branding is authentic and as true to the employee experience as possible. This attracts candidates whose values match yours and nurtures a positive workplace culture.
Your employer brand also allows you to dispel any misconceptions candidates might have, especially in the energy sector, where many businesses are transitioning from focusing on fossil fuels to renewable energy solutions. It’s where you can communicate a forward-thinking and environmentally conscious image, appealing to candidates who are passionate about making a positive impact.
Define your employer brand by understanding what your business has to offer its employees. What sets your workplace apart? What growth, learning, and innovation opportunities can candidates anticipate? You should also know what you’re looking for in an ideal candidate because once you understand that, you’ll attract the right people to your organization like a magnet.
🌐 Building a strong employer brand is key for recruiting top talent in the energy sector. Discover how to define and amplify your company identity for recruiting success. 🚀 Read more:3. Apply Your DEIB Strategy
By now, we know that committing to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) isn’t just the right thing for businesses to do; it’s the key to continued success. A diversity of perspectives and experiences in your workforce leads to increased innovation and productivity. But the energy industry isn’t known for its diversity — dominated by men, just 25% of workers are women. Black, African-American, Hispanic, and Latinx workers are underrepresented as well.
Ensuring your hiring practices are informed by your DEIB strategy is becoming even more essential as the talent shortage persists. Here’s how:
- Don’t be afraid to hire people with little or no experience. Be willing to offer training not only to widen your talent pool but also to add more skills to your business’s repertoire.
- Create hiring initiatives aimed at increasing representation for underrepresented groups in your organization, like women or veterans.
- Ensure diversity in the hiring process. Candidates should see themselves represented in your organization whenever possible.
4. Thrive through Evolution
The best way to thrive is by constantly evolving, which also applies to your recruiting strategies. You should evaluate them regularly to make sure they’re working as you intended. Get feedback from candidates and new hires to uncover blind spots. This iterative process helps you fine-tune your approach and ensures your strategies remain agile and responsive as the market changes.
Embracing evolution in your recruiting strategies also means keeping up with industry trends and tech advancements. Look for tools and platforms that can streamline your processes and enhance the candidate experience. As the energy sector continues to innovate, so should your recruitment methods.
Thriving through evolution is about adapting to the present and anticipating the future. Foster a culture of continuous improvement and agility so that your recruitment strategies are a powerful force, bringing in top talent and aiding organizational success.
We’re in the Era of Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is growing far faster than its nonrenewable counterparts. As the demand for energy increases worldwide, so too do interest and investments in clean energy.
- Renewable energy sources are expected to provide between 65 and 85% of global generation by 2050.
- 170,000 new clean energy jobs were created in the U.S. last year, with growth reported in every state. These jobs now make up 40% of total jobs in the energy sector.
- President Biden’s IRA is expected to create as many as 1.5 million new jobs in clean energy over the next decade.
5. Use Recruiting Tech with AI and Automation
Slow hiring is one of the most common ways companies scare off top candidates, but time-to-hire is on the rise. Energy industry hiring is competitive, and you can’t afford to lose valuable candidates on inefficiency. Speed up hiring and keep up with HR trends and tech advancements with HR software that offers artificial intelligence (AI) and automation tools.
Here are just a few of the tasks you can streamline with AI and automation:
- Utilize AI to write job descriptions, candidate emails and texts, and offer letters faster than ever.
- Automate candidate outreach with drip email campaigns.
- Generate interview links automatically in outreach emails for faster scheduling.
Leverage AI and automation in your recruiting process to show your company’s agility and efficiency and attract high-quality candidates in the energy sector.
It’s an exciting time to be a recruiter looking for skilled workers in this flourishing industry. With the right combination of winning strategies and cutting-edge technology, your team can find, hire, and keep skilled employees and drive productivity and innovation at your company.
See why ClearCompany Recruiting is the right software solution for HR teams in the thriving energy industry. Get in touch to learn more about our AI and automation tools — book a demo.
