How to Build a Strong Engineering Workforce: Best Practices for Employers

Now more than ever, successful engineering talent has become one of the determinants of innovative competitiveness. Organizations of all sectors are competing intensely to access limited engineer talent at a time of rapid technological innovation and evolving workplace expectations. This guide presents practical solutions employers can implement to develop, maintain, and nurture an outstanding-performing engineer talent base in the new challenging talent pool.

Understanding the Engineering Talent Landscape

Demand for skilled engineers in most disciplines remains higher than the supply. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects continued growth for engineering jobs through the decade. However, some more specialized markets, like software, electrical, and automation engineering, will experience desperately low supplies.

This misalignment challenges employers with delayed openings, inflationary wages, and fierce competition between traditional and alternative employers. Organizations that succeed in this marketplace approach talent acquisition and employee skill-building as a strategic strategy, not a tactical HR function.

Creating an Engineering Value Proposition that Connects

Engineers approach potential employers differently than the majority of professionals approach employers. Salary is important, but engineers highly value technical challenges, learning opportunities, and the opportunity to work with cutting-edge technologies. An engineering value proposition needs to capture these individual motivations to succeed.

Stating Your Unique Engineer Culture

Start by identifying what makes your workplace culture unique for engineers. Do you work on very challenging technical problems? Do you employ the latest technologies? Do you give employees freedom or autonomy? These distinctions must be emphasized early on in your employer brand and your hiring materials.

Ensuring Competitive Compensation

Next, ensure that your compensation package is at market levels. Engineer salaries have increased significantly in the past several years, and companies that underpay relative to the market will lose talent regardless of other benefits. Regular compensation benchmarking is required to remain competitive.

Highlighting Technical Career Paths

Finally, highlight technical career paths for technical professionals. Many engineers prefer to develop along technical rather than managerial paths. Offering career paths that allow for advancement without requiring a transition to management can make your firm more attractive to engineering candidates.

Improving the Hiring Process

The typical hiring process falls apart when trying to recruit engineers. Top technical talent is available for days, not weeks, and won’t wait for slow, prolonged processes. Companies must streamline their process without compromising on assessment quality to be competitive.

Streamlining Steps and Timelines

We start this process by minimizing additional steps and shortening timelines. Effective engineering staffing firms have refined the process to just 2-3 steps, with final decision points at the end of each step. This is a time-saver for applicants and enables proper assessment to occur.

Rethinking Technical Interviews

Rethink technical interviews to identify relevant, real-world problems rather than esoteric brain teasers or algorithmic trivia. Perfect technical interviews mirror actual work the candidate will be responsible for doing at work, providing you with an indication of technical skill and a problem-solving approach.

Involving the Engineering Team

Involve your existing engineering team appropriately in the recruitment process. Peer review works best with engineers; your existing team can assess technical fit and company culture to your advantage. Be mindful, however, of the time involved and ensure you train them sufficiently to assess consistently, objectively, and fairly.

Creating Internal Talent Pipelines

Instead of exclusive external recruitment, forward-thinking companies invest in creating internal engineering talent. This saves money on hiring costs while building company loyalty and proficiency.

Implementing Internship and Apprenticeship Programs

Consider implementing formal internship or apprenticeship programs to identify top talent early. When combined with local universities or technical schools, these can prove particularly effective, ensuring a steady pipeline of starting talent.

Developing Career Paths for Existing Employees

Implement well-developed career paths for existing employees that include the opportunity to advance in technical areas. This can be facilitated through formal training, mentoring, rotation assignments, or time off to pursue new skills and individual projects.

Cross-Training for Versatility

Cross-training will also boost your internal talent pool, as workers can learn complementary technical skills. IT professionals, for instance, can be cross-trained in software development, or mechanical engineers can be cross-trained in the fundamentals of electrical engineering to become extremely versatile team members.

Creating an Environment Where Engineers Thrive

Work environments significantly impact the attraction to and retention of the engineer workforce. Engineers typically enjoy settings with technical challenges, opportunities to acquire knowledge, and appropriate independence.

Providing Meaningful Work and Tools

Give engineers real problems to solve and the tools to solve them effectively. Nothing loses sound engineers quicker than assigning them to work on unimportant projects or failing to give them the tools, equipment, and support needed to get the job done.

Fostering Ongoing Learning

Foster an attitude of ongoing learning through professional development, conferences, and activities at technical communities. Like many top employers of engineers, they offer time off to work on side projects or study, since this has been shown to benefit innovation and motivation.

Reducing Bureaucracy

Eliminate bureaucracy and procedural waste that annoys technologically capable professionals. Engineers prefer to work in an environment where professionals can focus more on solving problems than on company politics or paperwork mandates.

Retention Strategies for Engineering Teams

In today’s competitive marketplace, the retention of engineering talent is just as crucial as its attraction. Successful retention starts with knowing why engineers leave and proactively managing those issues.

Monitoring Turnover Risk

Regular engagement surveys targeting technical employees can give you an idea of the turnover risk. Watch closely for technical challenges, learning opportunities, and work-life balance, which are common causes of engineering turnover.

Recognizing Technical Achievements

Awards programs that recognize technical achievements can contribute significantly to retention. Engineers welcome accolades for what they accomplish technologically, preferably from peers and technical leaders who grasp the complexity of the work.

Ongoing Career Discussions

Career discussions should be ongoing, not limited to the time of the yearly review period. These discussions should include opportunities to develop technical skills and map individual interests to organizational needs.

Maximizing Partnerships and Technology

Where appropriately implemented, technology can enhance engineer talent management. Technical candidate tracking systems, skill-testing platforms, and talent pipeline management systems can improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Leveraging Technical Recruiters

Most companies also benefit from using technical engineer recruiters. These companies have strong networks with technical communities, knowledge of technical competency assessment, and experience with filling engineering jobs. When selecting your recruitment partner, look for experienced companies in your target technical niche.

Collaborating with Educational Institutions

Collaborations with universities, vocational schools, and coding bootcamps can further strengthen your talent pipeline. These collaborations can be through internship programs, curricular advice, guest speaker programs, or funded research, which can help you identify talent early.

Assessing Success and Continuing Improvement

Effective talent management requires constant monitoring and improvement. Some of the primary metrics to track include:

• Time-to-hire for engineering roles
• Quality of hire (based on performance rating and retention)
• Rates of internal promotions to technical positions
• Engineering-specific engagement scores
• Development of technical skills across the organization

Use these metrics to identify potential improvement areas and track the impact of talent initiatives in the future. Longitudinal benchmarking versus best-in-class can further help frame the context to measure your performance.

Looking Ahead

Creating an elite talent pool of engineers requires an ambitious, multi-faceted approach that resonates with technical professionals’ interests, motivations, and concerns. 

This requires creating a sincere value proposition, simplifying the hiring processes, investing in internal talent sources, creating an appropriate infrastructure to support engineers, using targeted retention strategies, and embracing the proper technologies and partnerships to drive sustainable competitive value through world-class engineering capabilities.

The companies that will succeed in this challenging talent landscape treat engineering talent as a strategic imperative and invest appropriately. The returns on this investment—in the form of innovation, efficiency, and differentiation—are paramount among the most essential priorities for forward-thinking companies today.

Work with Hunter Recruiting

Hunter Recruiting has been connecting employers with top engineering talent for decades, building a vast network of technical professionals ready to strengthen your team. Our specialized recruiters understand the unique challenges of engineering staffing and deliver results when you need them most.

Ready to solve your engineering recruitment challenges? Request talent or schedule a free consultation at Hunter Recruiting today!