EnergeiaWorks Blog

How will the Renewable Industry Respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Will talent acquisition in clean energy change during the COVID-19 pandemic? Thus far in 2020, demand for clean energy talent has been at its peak. The first quarter of 2020 was the best quarter in EnergeiaWorks’ company history. However, Q2 could prove to be drastically different, so let’s have a look at what we’ve seen so far.

Fortunately, the EnergeiaWorks team is already a remote workforce. We span the entire continent of North America; from California to Calgary to New Jersey. Most of us work from home at least partially, and our coworking-based staff are now also working from home. We don’t need to learn new practices for telework – with the exception of balancing work with homeschool for some of our staff – and we are following the isolation guidelines. We have 18,000 subscribers to the EnergeiaWorks newsletter, and we hope that you all stay as healthy and safe as possible.

Over the last two weeks, we’ve been helping our customers transition to onboarding remote employees that recently started and would have been at a corporate office otherwise. We have also been pushing video conference interviews via Zoom, Skype, and Hangouts in lieu of in-person interviews. As a whole, our interviewing activity hasn’t slowed all too much, outside of logistical changes.

As of now, we only have a handful of customers who have put their hiring on hold during this crisis. And honestly, very few have adjusted their Q2 revenue forecasts. Some seem more worried about Q3 targets. We feel lucky if this holds true. I’ve had the experience of recruiting during two recessions and I can tell you first hand that it’s not easy to convince companies to pay a recruitment fee when the unemployment rate is high. But the clean energy industry still requires specific talent to manufacture, develop, engineer, and construct, so the majority of top clean energy specialists will not be on the unemployment lines.

I will continue to monitor the employment market in clean energy and report more industry data next month. If you’d like to have a discussion about the effects of the pandemic on your hiring strategy, please reply to this email to set up a meeting with me. If you are currently exploring a new job in your renewable energy career, please have a look at our careers portal.