After more than 35 years recruiting across Power & Energy, I’ve seen this industry go through plenty of cycles. Booms, slowdowns, policy U-turns, new technologies arriving faster than the skills to deliver them. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a moment quite like this one.
As I start my new role leading Energy & Power at JAM, I wanted my first blog to be an honest look at where I think we are as an industry, and two things I believe we have to get right if we’re going to deliver what’s being asked of us.
An industry with more work than people
Demand across our sector is extraordinary. Grid reinforcement and transmission upgrades, substations, offshore and onshore renewables, interconnectors, battery storage, and now the rapid rise of data centre power infrastructure are all competing for the same pool of engineers, project managers, commissioning specialists and commercial professionals.
Across the UK, Ireland, Europe and the US, the conversations I’m having with clients sound remarkably similar. The pipeline of work is strong. The funding is there. The constraint is people. That makes recruitment a strategic issue, not an administrative one. The organisations that win the next decade won’t just be the ones with the best order books. They’ll be the ones that can attract, secure and keep the right people. And right now, too many are losing them before they ever walk through the door.
We are losing great people to slow processes
I’ll be direct about this: lengthy recruitment processes are costing businesses in our sector good people every single week. I regularly see strong candidates, the kind clients tell me they’ve been searching for for months, drop out of processes because:
- weeks pass between interview stages with little or no feedback
- there are three, four or even five rounds of interviews for a single role
- decision makers aren’t aligned on what they actually need
- offers take too long to approve and arrive after a competitor has already moved
In a candidate-short market, the best people are rarely on the market for long. They often have two or three conversations running at once. When one business takes six weeks to decide and another takes ten days, the outcome is predictable, and it usually has very little to do with salary.
A slow process also sends a message. Candidates read it as a sign of how decisions get made inside the business. If it takes a month to get feedback after an interview, what will it be like trying to get a project decision signed off?
None of this means cutting corners on quality. It means being clear on the brief from the outset, agreeing who needs to be involved, booking interview slots in advance, giving feedback within days rather than weeks, and being ready to move when the right person appears. Speed and rigour aren’t opposites. The best clients I work with have both.
The talent we keep overlooking: experienced professionals and returners
The second issue is one I feel very strongly about.
At a time when we say we can’t find enough experienced people, we are still too often overlooking two groups who bring exactly the experience we need: professionals aged 50+, and people returning to work after a career break.
Experienced professionals in their 50s and 60s have often spent decades delivering the very type of infrastructure we’re now trying to build at scale. They’ve commissioned substations, run complex HV projects, managed contractors, navigated outages, and mentored the people who are now senior leaders themselves. Yet I still hear the unspoken assumptions: that they’ll be too expensive, won’t stay long, won’t adapt to new technology, or are “overqualified”.
In my experience, the opposite is usually true. Many are looking for meaningful work and are highly loyal when they find it. They bring judgement that can’t be taught quickly, and they can do something our industry urgently needs: pass on knowledge to the next generation before it’s lost.
Returners are the same story. Whether someone has stepped away to raise a family, care for a relative, manage their health or simply take time out, a gap on a CV is not a gap in capability. Technical knowledge and professional judgement don’t disappear. With a little flexibility, a sensible onboarding plan and in some cases some upskilling (including in digital and AI tools, which are easier to learn than ever), returners can add value quickly.
If we’re serious about closing the skills gap, we can’t afford to filter people out on age or career breaks. We need to widen the net, not narrow it.
What I want to build at JAM
My ambition for the Energy & Power business at JAM is simple: to be a recruitment partner that genuinely moves the dial for clients and candidates, not just one that sends CVs.
That means:
- Pace with purpose. Working with clients to shape faster, clearer processes so they don’t lose the people they need.
- Wider talent pools. Actively championing experienced professionals, returners and people from under-represented backgrounds, and helping clients see the value they bring.
- Specialist knowledge. Deep understanding of T&D, HV/EHV, substations, protection and control, renewables, commissioning and data centre power, across contract and permanent roles.
- A global reach. Supporting projects across the UK, Ireland, Europe, the US and beyond.
- Honest advice. Telling clients what the market is really saying, even when it isn’t what they hoped to hear.
Let’s start the conversation
The energy transition will only be delivered by people. The question for every employer in our sector is whether their hiring approach is helping them find those people, or quietly pushing them away.
If you’re hiring in Power & Energy and want a fresh look at how you attract and secure talent, or you’re an experienced professional or returner wondering where you fit in this market, I’d love to hear from you.
Helen Charteris
Global Business Director | Energy & Power, JAM
+44 7948 470159
h.charteris@jam-talent.com
