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CPR Gold!!
Atkins are very good at providing fodder for Continuous Professional Development. I have a ready supply of wider industry news articles and studies to scan, over my packed lunch, which depressingly I take ‘al desko’.
This struck me as a good CPR handle, as skills shortages are surely one of the main strategic risks to the UK construction industry as it struggles to deliver the National Infrastructure Plan.
Enjoy
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Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
What did you think of the report? CPR Gold is reading it and having an opinion that is evidence based, or justified at the very least. Do you think the Chairman of Atkins comments that engineering offers compensation (aka salary) at one of the highest levels sits well in a report that also suggests that a future risk is increased costs due to increased salary demand? Both will struggle to be correct. Surely paying more sooner would reduce the long term pressures and so mean lesser increases later. The telegraph suggsts that starting salaries for nursing are better than engineering and doctors earn 50% more than professional engineers. Any comment?
Hi Richard
Thanks for that.
I understand your point regarding the apparent conflict between risk of future compensation rises versus apparent high levels of engineering compensation. I think that there are two conflicting realities. Market forces dictate that the salaries will rise rapidly driven by a shortage of skills. That was definitely borne out on my experience of the Crossrail project. A further symptom of this shortage was an exodus of many to become self employed, trading security of a large company for significantly increased remuneration and the flexibility to chase ever increasing hourly rates. Pinch points such as project managers, construction managers and inspectors attracted rates far in excess of any doctors I know! £450-500 per day not uncommon.
But the Chairman, and other like him have an imperative to attract young people into the sector, and a good starting salary with prospects is central to that. It is informative to note that it was not the professionally qualified engineers that were earning the big money on Crossrail…it was very definitely the managers. This creates a conflict with the above.
The problem, for me, goes much deeper than simply paying a bit more at the outset. The focus must be on recruiting high calibre individuals in large numbers. This is about changing the perception of professional engineers such that it is as attractive as medicine or law or banking or media. This can only happen by inspiring young people at school, college and university and resource rich engineering companies like Atkins could reach out more, and articulates their point better. I recently read something on motivation that distils a career into 3 key objectives:
Autonomy – the ability to direct your own life; perhaps by earning a good enough salary to afford options to do so.
Mastery – to urge to get better and better at something that matters to you.
Purpose – the opportunity to work in the service of something larger than yourself.
I think this applies to many of us, and certainly applied to my aspirations at the beginning of my career. If all that drives you is money, you’re never going to have enough. Perhaps it is incumbent on the engineering sector better demonstrate the breadth of opportunity to the market.
The theoretical concept of autonomy, mastery and purpose are fine but the question becomes one of how it is evidenced. I agree that the chasing of greater remuneration purely for its own sake is unlikely to deliver satisfaction in the round but suggest that the way an organisation demonstrates your worth to them is through the package they offer and that the feeling that what you do matters and can only be done by you or someone with a similarly developed skill set is indicated by the drive the industry puts into retaining you and others like you. It is very telling that the way to get people into engineering is not to champion engineers at the top of their game and the package offered to engineers but to suggest it is a good starting point for a better paid profession in PM where your skill set will be more highly valued! This failure to rate ourselves does our profession more damage than any amount of trying to convince school leavers to start off in engineering will ever put right! As it stands engineering is a calling and stepping stone not a long term career choice!