Godfrey Marema | Plant Manager | Eaton South Africa | mail me |
Attracting, developing, and engaging a diverse pipeline of young talent is vital to the future of any organisation. This involves building a team with a wide spectrum of skills and professional backgrounds who can come up with more creative solutions to the everyday challenges faced in the workplace.
According to the World Economic Forum, ‘complex problem solving’, ‘critical thinking and analysis’, and ‘creativity, originality and initiative’ top the list of skills that employers around the globe believe will be required by the year 2025.
The STE[a]M approach
It’s for this reason that employers are increasingly looking beyond traditional science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills when it comes to new hires, to include candidates with an arts background and education in their talent recruitment processes.
We call this the STE[a]M approach with the ‘a’ standing for Arts. STEM skills in the traditional sense are, of course, hugely important and should be encouraged.
However, the beauty of the STE[a]M approach is that it matches the direction the world is headed. From artificial intelligence and machine learning changing the way we ideate and manufacture products in the engineering space, to automation and the Internet of Things (IoT) becoming a requirement in our homes, workplaces and cities, it makes sense that new hires have an educational background geared for the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR).
Architectural design, for example, is a great example of STE[a]M in action, as licensed professionals are trained in both the science and design of how a building must meet the practical needs of occupants, the environment and the public.
We need architects with a creative, problem-solving mindset to help with solutions to challenges such as overcrowding, health and safety in high rise residential and commercial buildings, and reducing environmental impact with innovative power management solutions.
The role of aesthetics in product or service development
What’s more, as South Africa attempts to reduce its coal usage amid a power crisis that has resulted in increased load shedding and disruption to people’s lives, there is a huge need for young talent who can come up with, build and manage effective solutions in the renewable and alternative energy spectrum.
The same applies to our organisation across our many divisions, from power management to mining solutions – when we’re developing new products or services, we don’t just want products that work efficiently for our customers; we need them to go above and beyond in terms of user experience too.
Furthermore, aesthetics play a huge part in product or service development for exactly this reason, which is why we actively recruit people from art and design backgrounds.
However, as an industry, much more needs to be done to ensure we’re recruiting from a wider pool of talent. As is often the case, this work needs to start early. School and university students are too often taught that a STEM career involves them studying ‘technical’ subjects, when this is increasingly not the case.
Our experience has taught us that if you build a team with a diverse range of personal and professional backgrounds you see a rapid transformation in solutions to problems. For managers in search of these kind of innovative thinkers, it’s crucial to also think outside of the box when it comes to recruitment.
