ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION
H O W T O F I N D , Q U A L I F Y, M O T I V A T E A N D RETAIN TECHNICAL TALENT Businesses are facing a major problem as technical vacancies are extremely hard to fill. Asset Performance Magazine brought together four experienced players in the field of asset & solution management to analyse the situation and to look for possible structural solutions.
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verything starts with the influx of talent. How can companies ensure that qualified people join them? Sarah Geeroms: “At La Lorraine Bakery Group, we are always looking to attract experienced technical talents, but due to the current labour market, we introduced a different approach and aim to also attract less qualified people with our vision ‘hire for attitude, train skills’. We particularly emphasise our assets such as an intensive on-the-job training and growth opportunities. Contact with schools is also becoming increasingly important in order to attract qualified staff. Unfortunately, there is still a big gap between educational institutions and the business world. Expectations need to be aligned even more closely so the gap narrows and in the long run preferably disappears.”
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24 | AP Magazine 2022
Christophe Dhaenens: “At Fluvius there are two activities for school leavers. During the Easter holidays final-year students are given the opportunity to take part in an instructive work placement with us. They are evaluated like the technicians, which strongly motivates them to give it their best effort. In addition, we offer a dual learning programme for 16and 17-year-olds. This is not just another course but broad education in an industrial working environment. It requires a lot of flexibility from our teachers, but it yields satisfactory results.” How can the knowledge and expertise required for certain tasks and jobs be transferred and disseminated in a company? Jorim Rademaker: “At Manual.to we
deliberately built a straightforward way of passing on knowledge. We create a broad support base on the floor and give these workers the tools to easily and quickly share their know-how themselves. The advantage of this approach is that the older co-workers, who used to rely on paper manuals, now connect with the younger co-workers, who are more used to apps such as TikTok and YouTube. They learn from each other, which boosts their skills as well as their motivation.” Peter Verstraeten: “Simplicity is indeed key when it comes to making knowledge available. Digital communication, for example via an online platform with short and clear instructions and videos, is an ideal tool. But there is a caveat. Videos and tutorials are useful, but evidently you don’t have time to watch them when you are in the middle of wrestling with a problem. That is why a step-bystep workflow with bite-size instructions is crucial to guide people while executing the job both in an online and offline context.” Keeping employees motivated: what is the best way to do that? Verstraeten: “I strongly believe in engagement. Every company operates on the basis of specific procedures and guidelines. They are usually directive and operate in a single direction. Giving your people the opportunity to share feedback on the way they work, this one-way traffic becomes two-way traffic. This creates an elevated level of