Florida Engineering Society (FES)

By David Cowan, Jr., SENIOR ENGINEER, CMA

David Cowan, Jr., P.E., ENV SP, is a senior engineer at CMA in the West Palm Beach office. David has over 10 years of experience and holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in civil engineering with a water resource focus. David serves as a state director for FES, District Director for TBP, and on the Urban Drainage Standards Committee for EWRI.

Filling in the Talent Gap

News Alert! Florida is facing an engineering staffing crisis. Part of the solution, fortunately, could come in the form of recognizing the problem and recruiting new members for the Florida Engineering Society.

As our federal and state governments each pump more money into our failing infrastructure through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and similar programs, the need for talented engineers with experience is rising dramatically. Add to this the steady retirements of baby boomers, and we find that we come up short-staffed. As human resource professionals and company owners try to hire staff to do this work, they are finding talent gaps in the workforce.

A Perfect Storm

This talent shortfall has been simmering on the horizon for years. Unfortunately, we have struggled to communicate to the next generation the value of our engineering profession. Stacked on top of this are major 2009 demographic changes, the effects of COVID accelerating retirement, and engineering professionals leaving – or never entering –the field.

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor indicated that careers in biomedical engineering, environmental engineering, and civil engineering would grow the most over the decade from 2014 to 2024, with civil engineering growing 8.4 percent. The estimated demand for civil engineers in 2024 would be close to 305,000 employees. These projections do not consider the impact the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will have on engineers in the next five to ten years.

In 2017, the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) published a report identifying trends in engineering degrees. The data indicates that all disciplines generally saw a downturn in degrees awarded with a low point between 2007-2009. Even as the demand for civil and environmental engineers has increased and projections show even greater need for these engineers, these disciplines have remained relatively flat.

As construction contracted during the Great Recession of 2008, the need for engineers decreased. During this period, 2005-2010, engineering graduates found work in other occupations, a shift that continues today. This has resulted in a demographic bottleneck of professional engineers with 10 to 15 years of experience, which limits the availability of engineers currently in senior level roles.

Because of economic factors and increased demand due to infrastructure spending over the past few years, the market is seeing a surge in demand for engineers to deliver projects. In addition, there’s a need for senior engineers to lead the design teams through these projects. How will we deliver these projects now and not overshoot the demand for engineers in the future?

How Can We Evolve?

Recognizing that it takes time to develop the most valuable elements of experience and leadership, our industry needs to create more transparent processes for engineers who are just below the experience-bottleneck created by the last recession to take responsibility and methods for creating accountability.

Additionally, our education system needs to assist our industry in recognizing that engineers entering the market today need not just technical skills but also project planning and leadership abilities so that they can fill in the talent gap. Over the past five years, there has been a major shift in the industry. Workers want more flexibility, and they want employers to focus on the greater good, not just their bottom line. They also expect higher wages earlier but may be willing to trade off career advancement for work-life balance and well-being.

The industry needs to become more transparent about what it takes to move up in our companies. We, as an industry, need to reevaluate the training and retention models we’ve used in the past. As we try new workforce models like remote working, how do we keep people connected?

One idea used by several companies is biannual or quarterly gatherings, getting all staff into one location with their spouses and focusing on really getting to know their team and families. Another idea is to slow the brain drain that the industry is seeing through the retirement of baby boomers.

The industry needs to consider other work schedules than the 9-to-5 that would allow a person of retirement age to stay on, possibly part-time, for a drop period. During this time, the experienced engineer would provide dedicated and accelerated mentorship to a junior engineer that elected to be part of an intensive project management apprenticeship program. This could move more engineers into these missing leadership positions and, at the same time, slow the demand for engineers to be replaced.

Engineering firms can start looking for talent earlier through an apprenticeship program. Local community colleges can create associate in science degree programs (AS) that matriculate to local universities. These programs could produce engineering technicians that are ready to start at an engineering firm as a drafter/designer. The local company can take this student in an apprentice program as they pursue an ABET-accredited degree – possibly even with some level of financial support if the apprentice commits to proportional years of service. In the long run, this would result in firms retaining staff longer in a volatile market and staff at the end of their bachelor’s degrees having vastly more professional experience.

Employees and companies need mutual commitment to the companies’ mission statements and successes. This mission statement must include the success of the employee. As an industry, we need to find ways to work together across generations and industries to solve this talent gap and whatever future issues we will face.

We can help meet the challenge by joining together with others who share our passion for the industry. We all need to spread awareness of this problem among our peers. Together we can ensure “the boats on a rising tide” are filled with professionals who are taking advantage of the tide to steer their careers and our industry to successful destinations.