Organizations around the world are embracing paths to cleaner energy and working toward net-zero targets. This makes it especially important for renewable energy organizations to examine their current workforce, organizational structure, and approach to rewards to ensure they are prepared to meet increased demand in coming years.
WTW gathered and analyzed data specific to the renewable energy industry and identified key trends to watch this year.
Employee attraction and retention remains challenging
Across every industry, organizations continue to grapple with sourcing talent for major roles around the world (see Figures 1 and 2).
Voluntary attrition rates in key markets
Figure 1. Table of average voluntary attrition in Australia, India, United Kingdom, Taiwan, China, Brazil and France ranges from 13% to 7%.| Country | Average voluntary attrition rate |
|---|---|
| Australia | 13% |
| India | 13% |
| United Kingdom | 12% |
| Taiwan | 11% |
| China | 10% |
| Brazil | 8% |
| France | 7% |
Employers’ plans for hiring in 2024
Figure 2. Table reflecting the percentage of organizations recruiting for key roles in information technology, engineering and sales in Australia, India, United Kingdom, Taiwan, China, Brazil and France.| Information technology | Engineering | Sales | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 58% | 56% | 52% |
| India | 63% | 61% | 44% |
| United Kingdom | 61% | 51% | 43% |
| Taiwan | 51% | 57% | 58% |
| China | 48% | 54% | 54% |
| Brazil | 57% | 54% | 47% |
| France | 52% | 57% | 51% |
Salary budget increases continue
Because salary affects an organization’s ability to attract and retain talent, this pattern of higher salary increases is expected to continue this year, but employers will be cautious about allocating their budgets (see Figure 3).
In addition, 60% or more of employers in every industry around the world have taken or are considering taking certain specific measures:
- Compensation review of specific employee populations
- Full compensation review for all employees
- Targeted increases for specific employee populations
- Hiring people in higher in their salary ranges
Employment within the renewable energy worldwide is continuously growing, now estimated at 13.7 million jobs globally, with China, Brazil and the European Union leading in employment. As organizations prepare for the talent war, Figure 4 reflects the top 3 functions at professional level (P3) with the highest pay across the energy and natural resources sector, where the workforce for the renewable energy industry will most likely be sourced from.
Top 3 functions with the highest pay
Figure 4. Ranking of the top 3 professional level (P3) roles with the highest pay across the energy sector in Australia, China, India, Brazil, France and United Kingdom| First | Second | Third | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | Engineering | Project management | Environmental health and safety |
| China | Sales, marketing and business development | Legal | Project management |
| India | Audit and financial/business controls | Financial analysis and tax | IT development |
| Brazil | Petroleum engineering | Well operations | Natural resources exploitation |
| France | Environmental engineering | Production planning and control | Accounting project cost control |
| United Kingdom | Petroleum engineering | Corporate affairs/investor relations | Energy trading |
Time to prepare for the future
The key asset renewable energy organizations will need to meet the challenges of changing priorities around ESG goals is data. Successfully building teams and attracting and retaining the right talent requires a data-based approach that will be defensible and competitive in the talent market.
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