A strong electrotechnology industry is essential to achieving optimistic renewable energy targets set out by state and federal governments. Peter Vandenheuvel looks at how the industry can make the most of the upcoming bonanza.

Jobs & Skills Australia says that we need an additional 32,000 electricians by 2030 and more than an extra 80,000 by 2050. Safe Work Australia reports that there are just over 131,900 electricians currently employed in Australia so if my maths is correct, we need nearly double the number of sparkies by 2050.

The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) noted that electricians are among the most in-demand tradespeople in Australia. According to Hays Australia Salary Guide 2022-23, electricians are in the top five jobs that employers need to fill and future electricians won’t struggle to find work.

Also noted from the most recent Electrical Connection and worth repeating in an abbreviated way, the 2024-2025 Federal Budget recognises we must invest in much-needed skills, training and apprenticeships to help further electrify Australia and the transition to clean energy. On the apprentice front, this includes an additional 15,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places and about 5,000 places in pre-apprenticeship programs.

The forecasts by the government and various industry bodies are clear on one thing: we need electricians, and we need them as soon as possible.

This will lead to a massive flow-on effect from all the other enterprises across our entire electrotechnology industry. Forward-thinking companies are already implementing new strategies to prepare for the oncoming bonanza of workers and those contemplating starting a new business need to get ahead of the pack now.

That leads me to the title of this article, ‘Making apprentices managers’.

If you think about it, those now in most of the senior positions in your typical electrical contracting businesses started as apprentices. Not only that, but they didn’t stop there, climbing up the promotions ladder, with lots making it to the very top.

And it is undeniable proof ours is one of the few industries where even the young people starting today can still be industry leaders.

But, if your company wants to be part of this promising new windfall, not only will you have to train a lot more apprentices. You will likewise have to train those already working in the industry and wanting to forge their career paths as they will also be looking for their slice of the pie.

This Bonanza is your ideal opportunity to build your business long-term. But be forewarned, don’t wait until it is kneejerk reaction time. Start now and you can grow your sales both through extra volume, as well as adding considerable cream on the top by improving your margins.

So, what is this bonanza?

Well, if government and industry predictions are correct, there will be a huge increase in demand for competent electricians, not just over the next six years, but right out past the middle of this century and beyond.

And, even if these predictions are only half correct – as is often the case with government promises – even half is still a massive increase from now, especially as we’re also told we are already in a temporary 30-year electrician shortage.

Also, we all know electricians don’t grow on trees. After all, it takes time to get the appropriate Certificate III accreditation as well as state (or by then hopefully Australia-wide) licensing and other certifications.

In my belief, it’s high time we get ready for the boom, and with some urgency. So, the quicker we start the better.

Why? Not only do we need more electricians, but we also need others with an electrician background to take on all the additional roles typical in our industry, ranging from leading hands right up to company managers and owners.

As well of course, this also includes the need for many other support specialists, including but certainly not limited to engineers, inspectors, trainers and the like.

Our challenge

The challenge for those wanting a piece of the action in the industry for the future is to try to build up their capability, starting now.

As the chances of doubling our electrician workforce are highly unlikely to materialise, we must try to make up for at least a significant of any shortfall by improving the effectiveness (and efficiency) of our workforce. In other words, to get more bang for our wages buck. But this will of course have to be done by working smarter, not harder.

And by doing this, these switched-on employers will benefit from higher productivity as it will improve their margins, a win for the employers.

Of course, this will no doubt also result in some enterprise bargaining. But if there is a real productivity increase, sharing this in a win-win situation could be worthwhile to both. One of the best ways to achieve this could be by just focusing on additional management training as outlined here later.

Where will the extra electricians come from?

There are at least four practical sources, these being;

1. From within: Obviously, the first place to look is within your own enterprise. There are always several people who have the aspiration, expertise, will and motivation to climb the career ladder. These are also likely to be more loyal than new starts and their attitudes, qualifications and potential are already known to you.
2. The industry: The second place to look is the industry at large. There are always people who, for one reason or another, are looking to change employers, especially if there is no opportunity for advancement where they are now.
3. Apprenticeships: With most enterprises already employing apprentices, either directly or using group schemes, a slow but steady increase in the numbers employed can over time add considerably to the company size and capability.
4. Immigration: Although currently a bit of a political hot potato, migrants from countries with similar electrical standards and certification requirements are accepted by the various jurisdictions in Australia. Of course, this may be subject to the presentation of immigration documentation and the passing of appropriate tests.

But is it just a race to add more people?

No! The focus in the above so far has been creating a reasonable future growth plan to add more capability and recruit more people. And that must certainly be a planning foundation stone because if nothing else, at least the increase in overall turnover and profit would be reasonably predictable. So, it can be a low-risk initiative.

However, the bigger the team, the more difficult is to find the right people to manage it. So, there is a real danger you may actually be increasing your risks.

This is because just adding more people comes with a much higher unpredictability in the outcome of their performance. This will at least in part be due to over-stretching management, leading to poorer management performance resulting in inferior workmanship, haphazard decision making and less owner or senior management control.

Also, the added income generated through the additional employees can ultimately be frittered away as staff start to rely on the comfort of this extra cash as a safety net, leading to more risky decision-making and less focus on retaining the newly earned margins.

Managers need to be careful adding too many people and hoping everything’s okay because piling up staff is a prime cause of overstretched management. It could very well be that by just growing the team, you’ll be no better off in the end, in fact, you could be off worse.

Your growth to success; better management

In our industry, management is often seen as just another chore, the less time, effort and wages spent on it, the better.

This is particularly so in smaller businesses, where the manager is the owner and often also the single worker bringing in the cash to survive. And, given that the owner or small business proprietor must do all the getting of the work, as well as the doing it, not to mention all the paperwork, the government red tape, the keeping up with all the other requirements, I expect managing isn’t one of their preferred activities.

They, like all the other enterprises from the small companies to the biggest end of towners, all live or die by the quality of their management.

Is promotion the ‘old way’ okay?

In the past, there used to be – and in possibly some companies still is – a belief from many in the industry that the better apprentices, once becoming tradies, would automatically be promoted to leading hands, then forepersons, project managers and so on to further senior positions.

And although that makes considerable sense, there is a major flaw. Because it was typically often without giving any thought to the additional – or even totally different – skills any step up needed the person to have. On top of this, it was also commonly expected that the person would spontaneously just pick up the extra skills or talents along the way.

Well, that might work if every handover was perfect and planned. But what about when everyone is already flat out doing other stuff, the person with the knowledge is a poor or unwilling communicator or has for one reason or another already left the building?

That’s why ad hoc knowledge transfers should be out. Because, for lots of different reasons, they don’t work. The price paid is in misunderstandings, fixing mistakes, bad habits passed on, never really getting on top of it, or even changing the new person out and starting the merry-go-round again.

To have good management requires you to be aware of and identify and record the skills needed, then invest time and effort in documenting and undertaking appropriate training to ensure the promoted person can hit the ground running and that they are running in the right direction.

It should always be your objective, especially bearing in mind that the person being promoted may become one of your enterprise’s key future leaders (and so a major investment in its future), to spend all the time and effort needed to make the handover as successful at it can possibly be.

Certainly, it is inescapable that promotions require well-thought-through training.

But we’re already training ad nauseam!

There is already much mandatory training attached to the different positions within any enterprise. Then add the routine work, company and workplace organisational policies and practices regarding human relations, work health and safety and the like. All are important for the general safety and wellbeing of those in the workplace.

In addition to these, many in our industry have undertaken other essential vocational training that has qualified them to undertake work requiring specific accreditation and or recognised certification.

But there is little, if any, reference or mention of any recommendation for their management training as they are climbing the career ladder, even though this is most critical for the person and their enterprise’s success.

The importance of management

Therefore, it’s critical that management, regardless of what level, is treated as a key business driver, not as just a pain in the butt. Without control over it at all levels, you are relying on all those people to do the right thing. But this will at best be what that person thinks it to be. And when you can have five or more levels of management, even if four get it right and one doesn’t it can all be undone.

Everyone’s a manager of their own activity. Everyone from a leading hand, foreperson, project manager, supervisor, estimator, business unit manager and company owner, they are all responsible for at least their own work and it’s important that despite this, they all sing from the same songbook.

Ask yourself, do you do all the required training when promoting someone at the moment? It might be simple to just learn on the job but for the amount of growth the electrical industry will be facing in the coming years, we need to do it right.

Only by doing that can you guarantee the right outcome. Also, as an inevitable fact, part of getting the growth right, will involve promotions, and like it or not, promotions will involve training to prepare the person for their new management role.

So, will apprentices make good managers?

Well, history has shown many sparkie apprentices have gone on to do great things in forming and or running great companies, large and small, even though – through poor or almost no training – they have often had to fly by the seat of their pants to get there.

And I’m sure if they, and those around them, had been aware of and offered timely and appropriate training, there would have been much less heartache and problems along the way and a much more profitable outcome.

This is because, in many organisations, the need for both in-house and formal training has been disregarded, overlooked or underestimated for one reason or another. It could just have been because it was seen as not needed or another unnecessary expense or waste of time. Who knows?

Also, there can be a push-back by the incumbent seeing training of “underlings” as a possible threat to their position, when ironically the opposite is true, by resisting it they are preventing themselves from being considered for promotion.

But what about small businesses?

Of course, sole proprietors, small and even medium-sized businesses can’t have dedicated individuals allocated to these positions. However, like it or not, even though they may not have separate resources available, if the person and their company wants to be successful (even the one-person one), they must find a way to plan to regularly allocate some specifically dedicated time commensurate with the size of the organisation to address all the issues raised here.

What’s my view?

There are three ways to deal with the electrician shortage bonanza:

1. Keep plodding along as is and let the competition make hay while the sun shines.
2. Take the opportunity to grow the business but just focus on the added numbers.
3. Grow the business but also sharpen up the training for those moving up the ladder.

My suggestion: to not only the get benefit from growing your workforce but at the same time also sharpen up the training, as the growth may or may not happen, but the increase in profitability from the extra training will stay with the company forever.

So, for me, it would be option three every time!

[Peter Vandenheuvel sign off]

BOX-OUT TABLE:

Sam, up to you how you want to lay this out. Maybe you create a little diagram of a tree going up the ranks or you just want to list them, up to you.

Recommended typical training

There are several skills and training subjects mentioned in this chart requiring additional training at various levels and these can often be best outsourced to recognised specialists. Also, the routine trade, safe work, etc. training is taken as a prerequisite and not listed here.

A list of typically suggested desired skills and training for key electrical contracting positions would include, but not be limited to, the following:

Leading hand: This career step can be best described as a “soft conversion” from being a tradesperson to a person managing others (for example, a foreperson). The additional skills needed would include widening of all-round technical knowledge, ability to communicate with their team and any customers, ability to support and assist their team and a focus on work progress targets.

The focus of training here is on broadening technical skills (especially for situations not previously encountered), encouraging teamwork, guiding and measuring work progress, working with teams, communication (verbal and written), supervision and human relations.

Foreperson: For most tradies and leading hands, this is quite a considerable step up the ladder as this is very much a people-managing, planning and performance role. It is a massive first change from doing the work to managing others to do it.

The additional skills needed include all those noted for the leading hand above but with a higher emphasis on communication (especially with other trades), teamwork and work progress. In addition, any work-related training, work planning, work monitoring, influencing team performance and communication with other trades, unions, suppliers and so on.

The main focus for training here is similar but at a much higher level than for the leading hand in work planning, work monitoring and maintaining progress as well as communication and working with other trades, day-to-day dealing with unions and dealing with customers and suppliers.

Also, if training in communication supervision and human relations has not already been undertaken at this time, it is now an almost essential pre-requisite. In addition, training in planning, negotiation and performance measuring would be most highly recommended.

Project manager: the skills needed here are a bridge between the foreperson and the supervisor positions with the skillset being some of each. It is very good grounding for the next step, that being a supervisor.

This is almost a total change from all things technical to managing through others, with the responsibility for the project (or projects) resting almost entirely on the project manager’s shoulders.

The main focus here is to ensure all the training as outlined for the foreperson above has been undertaken and that further training in works planning, negotiation, supplier and supplier delivery dealings, and performance measuring, as well as self-reliance and delegation, should be considered as essential.

Supervisor: the skills here include all the above but now with only a very low emphasis on technical details and a recognition that the most important should now be overseeing and supporting project managers on work progress on multiple projects.

The key skills needed here are associated with the managing of the managers. Also, on the monitoring, reporting, managing and expediting progress across all the areas of responsibility as well as the work and worker resources, overall planning, performance measuring, multiple project delivery, suppliers, managing support, including high-level dealing with unions, etc.

The main focus here is to ensure all the training as outlined for the project manager above has been undertaken and that further training in supervision and managing of the project managers.

Division manager: once in a business unit management role, a divisional manager must focus not only on delivering but also on the other two essential business activities; marketing and administration.

This is again a very large jump from that of the supervisor just doing and controlling the work. It is not like before, just keeping the ship going. The task now (at the division level) is to set the ship in the right direction and then ensure it remains on course, at the right speed and at the same time looking out for any icebergs.

The key skills here have little to do with those technical issues taught in TAFEs for the Certificate III course and are much more like those taught in business colleges and management institutes. But that’s not to say the TAFE learning isn’t helpful, because if the person has some backgrounding in the electrical contracting field trade skills, they are much less likely to have the wool pulled over their eyes.

The monitoring, reporting and managing progress as well as work resources and overall planning, performance, delivery, suppliers, managing support and delegation, including high-level dealing with unions will remain key tasks.

Hence the main focus here is still for overall supervision of all the earlier activities such as additional and overall training in work planning, work monitoring and maintaining progress to support the supervisors and project managers, delegation, as well as communicating and working with other trades, unions and customers and detailed reporting to upper management.

In addition, however, the responsibility of the marketing of the business unit will also be important and because of this, the business unit manager needs to have a considerable understanding of their role in marketing the business unit. In fact, some serious training equal to an MBA in both marketing and management as well as financial training should be seriously considered.

General manager: this is again a major change from managing a business unit to completely managing the entire enterprise, with the managing delegated mainly through others.

Here marketing and financial knowledge are very important as it is the general manager’s responsibility to ultimately decide where the enterprise will be placed in the market, how it will be financed and what its income will need to be.

This is, of course, in addition to all the above-mentioned administrative functions and so there will be considerably less (if any) emphasis on technical skills. However, it certainly is again helpful if the person has some background in the electrical contracting field.

This is a total paradigm shift from most of the other positions above. It is an even larger step than that of a division manager. At the same time, it must also include the monitoring of reporting and managing progress as well as work resources, overall planning, performance, delivery, suppliers, managing and support, including the highest level dealing with unions, where and when required.

The main focus here is still confirming all functions as work planning, work monitoring and maintaining progress to support the division managers, that delegation and communication are continuing. Also, if applicable, the detailed reporting to a managing director and/or board of directors.

In addition, the responsibility for ensuring the overall marketing, finances and administration of the entire business is under control.

As the responsibility of the entire enterprise is under the general manager’s direct control, that person needs to have a considerable understanding of all three areas. Because of this, it’s most desirable they have training equal to an MBA, majoring in business management and marketing.