R & D resources competition: vehicle manufacturers compete to return to origin

Competition among vehicle manufacturers is shifting.

December 1, 2010, Ford revitalized the Lincoln brand and hired Mark Wolf from GM. The designer who joined GM in 1998 has made a lot of contributions to the design of General Motors' Cadillac and Chevrolet Cruze. Ford Motor Co. thinks he can help design the upcoming 7 products of the Lincoln brand. These products are related to whether Lincoln can revive.

In November 2010, according to U.S. media, before GM filed for bankruptcy protection, Washington had asked Renault Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn to come forward to resolve the predicament of GM. But Ghosn did not agree.

In the international automotive market, competition for talent has always been the subject of industry development. In the Chinese auto market, the pursuit of R&D talent by vehicle manufacturers has also been advancing, but the methods have not reached the level of foreign countries.

From November 30, 2010 to December 6, 2010, the Automotive Research Institute of this newspaper and the Gasgoo Institute of Automobile Research conducted an investigation on the topic of the battle for in-depth competition among automotive R&D personnel. A total of 2,342 industry participants participated throughout the investigation period. The survey results show that: 84% of the people involved in the survey believe that the shortage of R&D talent is a common phenomenon in the entire automobile industry in China; only 8% of the people hold opposing views and believe that this is only a minority phenomenon in individual companies; in addition, there are 8 % of those who did not express their position, said "can not say."

Over the years, lack of talent has been one of the severe challenges faced by Chinese vehicle manufacturers. Recently, a number of executives from domestic and international vehicle manufacturers responsible for technology research and development indicated that the problem of the loss of R&D talent has reached an extremely serious stage in the automotive industry. The competition for R&D talent among vehicle manufacturers is entering a white-hot phase.

Based on the rebound in demand in the post-economic crisis era and the huge market demand that benefited from the rapid growth of government stimulus policies last year, vehicle manufacturers rooted in China are particularly urgent in responding to the talent strategy. In the face of the huge sales volume of China's auto market in the coming years, both Chinese domestic brands and foreign brands that are currently more dominant have shown no sign of retreat in the battle for talent, and they have made every effort to expand.

The gap is over 500,000

When many senior technology R&D executives from Chinese domestic and international OEMs complained about the subordinate R&D personnel being dug, they all mentioned two common points: First, 30% of the people who were dug up to the new company. More than 50% of the salary increase rate is even more than three times the original wage level. Second, the level of the excavated person begins to gradually extend from the main high-level R&D management personnel to the high, medium and low levels. With the trend of taking-all, primary R&D personnel who have only worked for 2 years have become the target of excavation. They believe that this phenomenon is spreading in the automotive industry.

In the survey, we listed the possible factors that led to the emergence of this situation. Among them, the mainstream view that reaches 33% believes that the short-term imbalance between industry growth rate and talent cultivation is the main reason for the shortage of R&D talents at the current stage; at the same time, talent cultivation for professional institutions such as colleges and universities cannot be used as talent cultivation bases and major exporters. Satisfying the needs of enterprises has also aggravated the imbalance between supply and demand in the automotive R&D talent market. Those who recognized this factor accounted for 13% of the total number of participants in the survey.

The combination of the voting results of these two factors can basically be judged: R&D personnel training can not keep pace with the rapid development of China's auto market is a fundamental factor leading to the shortage of such talent. In addition, based on the current market conditions of the extraordinary development of the Chinese market, both local and foreign-funded enterprises have made significant investments in product development and powertrain R&D. The rapid development of R&D talent generated by these inputs has resulted in rapid development. The growing demand further exacerbates the supply of talent that was already stretched.

According to public information, the China Automotive Talent Research Association made a prediction in 2006: during the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, the total gap in R&D talent in the Chinese auto industry will reach 500,000. According to reports, this prediction is mainly based on two considerations. First, R&D personnel in mature markets in Europe and America account for about 30% of the total number of employees in the automotive industry, while the proportion in China is only 8%; 15th "The goal of the development of China's auto industry and the requirements for the development and expansion of independent brand manufacturers.

As everyone knows, in 2009 and 2010, the explosive growth of the Chinese automotive market, whether local or foreign companies, large or small private enterprises are also increasing their R & D investment, making the demand for R & D talents soared, such as Primary R&D personnel who work for 2 years are highly paid by other companies (generally, a college graduate needs to be trained as an engineer, the basic cycle is 3 to 5 years), and the industry is extremely scarce.

Loss rate exceeds 7%

Along with the rapid development of China's auto industry, foreign-funded enterprises have established R&D teams to quickly land on China, which has once again aggravated the shortage of auto R&D personnel. In addition, the research and development efforts of independent brand related companies have been continuously strengthened, and the hunger for R&D talents has only increased. This has brought a more severe test to the reserve of R&D talents.

At the same time, the series of new technological changes brought about by the development of new energy vehicles has also aggravated the serious shortage of R&D talent. The personnel director of a large-scale domestic passenger car company stated that as new energy vehicles are strongly promoted by the government and the entire industry is developing at an alarming rate, the company is suffering from difficulties in recruiting suitable R&D talent and has caused the progress of some projects to be affected. According to its disclosure, in order to recruit R&D talents, conventional recruiting channels such as headhunting, online recruitment, and talent market on-site recruitment can only be used as an aid. Really capable of attracting such talents with higher efficiency is mainly through insiders. Referred to each other, "dig" over high salary and certain positions. However, what most troubled the director of personnel is not the difficulty of recruiting people. It is that the mobility of the company’s own personnel is too fast: “The entire market is developing too fast, coupled with its own shortage of R&D talent resources, and the mobility of personnel is more conservative than in previous years. Estimates also have to double."

According to statistics, the average turnover rate of professional talents in the Chinese auto industry in recent years is 7%. Coupled with the constraints on the separation of teaching theories and practical work of professional training institutions in institutions of higher learning, the ratio of actual supply and demand imbalances in the market is Far more than some forecast figures. Therefore, the company’s own talent pool is particularly urgent. According to industry insiders, the students who have been formally educated in universities and colleges are not yet qualified as true talents. At best, they are still semi-finished products. Accumulation of R&D experience in the actual work in the later period is the reason for their success. The essential.

However, for the R&D talent wars that frequently appear at this stage, more than half of the industry’s participants in the survey are optimistic about the impact of this flow of talent. Fifty-five percent of the respondents believe that this competition for talent among vehicle manufacturers indicates that the auto industry is setting off an upsurge of R&D investment, which can effectively stimulate the development of the entire automobile industry. Overall, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. However, 31% of people expressed concern about this phenomenon and believe that the frequent flow of R&D talent will create an impetuous attitude in the industry and bring negative effects to the healthy long-term development of the auto industry.

If China's auto industry wants to achieve greater success in the future, it must rely on the development of high value-added, and this has gradually begun to form a trend. The entire vehicle manufacturer, whether it is a local company or a foreign-funded enterprise, will upgrade its products and technology. During this period, it will undoubtedly further increase the demand for R&D talent. While strengthening personnel training, we should also actively and actively combine R&D with the market to cultivate more market-recognized R&D talents, top talents with international perspectives, market insights, commercial awareness, and R&D experience. Only fundamentally solve the problem.