Rare earth battery metals may be easier to find than rare battery talent

The opportunities presented by the growing battery sector is huge. With the ever-increasing number of new gigafactories being announced, enormous opportunities will emerge during the transition to electric mobility. But significant challenges are unfolding now in this bold transition. The risks include production delays, escalating start-up and production costs that could be caused by material and talent shortages.

Eli Leland, CTO and Co-Founder at Voltaiq writes articles on these topics. Recently, he published an in-depth study of the challenges ahead in an article titled So you want to build a battery factory. It's worth a read by those who are interested in the economics, science, engineering and human factors involved in the emerging battery manufacturing industry.

The wave of investment in batteries is like a modern-day gold rush. Eli cites some of the amazing figures associated with this emerging energy rush stating that:

Car makers have pledged well over $100Bn in investments to transform their product lines to battery power

Like many battery expert commentators, Eli is both fascinated and concerned by the pace of growth in the battery industry. His analysis predicts that the industry is headed for a major battery squeeze. He says this for several reasons but there are two that caught my attention. Firstly, there will be a lack of production capacity because these factories are exceedingly difficult to set up and run. Secondly, demand for batteries will exceed supply as carmakers have announced plans to introduce somewhere between 450 and 500 new electric vehicle models in the next few years.

Eli goes on to unpack and describe all of the contributing factors that make the task of building a battery factory so challenging. For me, reading his insights has been really useful to appreciate the complexity of building and operating battery factories. My former experience as a materials scientist and cleanroom engineer in the semiconductor industry brought back memories of how precise and challenging this type of manufacturing can be.

One topic that he covers and which really interests me as a search specialist is that of a talent vacuum in the battery sector.

In the EU, how many people will need to be employed?

I have written about this topic previously in relation to the plans for building 15 EU Gigafactories. I calculated that these factories will likely employ some 50,000 people by 2025 and beyond. So where will these 50,000 battery factory employees come from across Europe?

What kind of skills will be needed? 

To fill these 50,000 jobs, we anticipate that the required workforce will be made up of university graduates, skilled professionals and industry-trained operators. In a recent study (1) to determine the skills needed within each phase of battery production, approximately 30% of jobs throughout the battery value chain will require a university-educated professional, eg engineers, industrial metallurgists and electrochemists.

In the upstream segment of producing and refining the metals used in batteries, highly-trained workers will design and facilitate processes related to effective mineral extraction, refining and processing. In the downstream segment, the cell and battery production stages, the workers required will be a mix between degree holders and skilled professionals in battery material production and cell and battery pack manufacturing. Other skills required will be robotics technicians, software engineers, mechanical and electrical engineers.

Where will these workers be found?

In my next article, I will discuss:

• Which industrial markets can be used to serve as donor talent pools?
• How to successfully design and deliver a talent acquisition program in a market where there is high competition for passive talent?
• How to de-risk strategic recruitment plans by being creative in your talent strategies:
• By using a bootcamp model to train, reskill and upskill related talent pools
• By knowing what motivates and engages the talent that you are seeking

References: (1) Accenture. Future Charge-Building Australia’s Battery Industries

Arvensis is a search firm that specialises in recruiting senior battery talent across the entire materials supply chain from extraction, refining, manufacturing and recycling.

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