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Three trends our team is currently seeing in the industrial space

by Bryce Koonts and Taylor Rouse

As our firm continues to place executive-level talent across the engineering, operations and supply chain spaces, we’ve become cognizant of emerging trends across the industrial landscape. As we come to the close of Q3, here are three major findings that may help you prepare for the remainder of 2022.

Hiring is on track despite recession concerns. While leaders across industries have speculated over a possible recession, we’re not seeing any notable indications of one to date. Hiring among industrial organizations has continued to be quite robust, and while we have seen a few sectors stabilize to some degree, we haven’t experienced any hiring freezes, which would historically indicate the beginning of a recession.

Supply chain continues to pose challenges, but organizations have learned to adapt. Many organizations continue to face issues that were exposed at the height of the pandemic, but these problems are no longer dominating the landscape. This is largely due to adaptations within organizations themselves, where leaders have gotten a better handle on managing expectations. Informing customers and clients of the higher cost of production and potential shipping delays has reduced sensationalism around these issues by giving everyone a realistic idea of the cost and time behind shipping and importation.

Organizations are demonstrating flexibility when hiring. While the experience required to fill top engineering, operations and supply chain roles is generally uncompromising, having a background in a relevant industry has become secondary to exceptional adaptability and/or process improvement skills. Organizations aren’t necessarily interested in candidates from completely opposite industries, but someone with the ability to evaluate operations and adapt to dynamic industry changes is becoming a more valuable asset than someone with experience in a specific industry.

The takeaway: We haven’t witnessed any transformative changes like we saw in the last two years taking place in 2022, but we have seen the industrial space begin to stabilize. Overall, hiring is staying steady, organizations are better equipped to deal with supply chain issues and our team remains optimistic about the immediate future.

Want to learn more about our Engineering, Operations & Supply Chain Practice? Contact Greg Harper at (336) 217-9123 / greg.harper@charlesaris.com or Bryce Koonts at (336) 217-9137 / bryce.koonts@charlesaris.com