The second wave of robbery wars
At a new model communication meeting last year, designer Wang Fan (pseudonym) held an iPad and sat in the crowd. It was the first time he had communicated face-to-face with dozens of media outlets.
After jumping from a traditional joint venture to a Chinese brand car company, in just one and a half years, he led a new car designed by exterior design to go public in 2022, something he had not thought about in the joint venture.
When chatting privately, he revealed some of his thoughts - in the period when "Wei Xiaoli" was just launched, he had the opportunity to join the new forces, but at that time, he had too many concerns and missed the opportunity. "I refused before, but then I wanted to go, but I couldn't get in." There was some regret between the words.
Among Wang Fan's previous colleagues, many people went to "Wei Xiaoli", almost all in 2017. "Some people are for pay, some people are for freedom." He said, "There are too many frameworks for joint venture car companies, especially the exterior design, which is basically dominated by foreign parties." ”
Whether it is to achieve self-worth or simply for high salaries, it is an indisputable fact that auto talents have poured into new forces from traditional car companies.
As soon as the conversation turned, Wang Fan told Bangning Studio that in fact, he began to have new choices in 2021. "It's like it's back in 2017."
In 2021, the "robbery war" in the automotive industry has escalated again, even more than in 2017.
This year, the cumulative sales volume of "Wei Xiaoli" exceeded 100,000 vehicles, and the monthly sales volume gradually exceeded 20,000 vehicles, and the development speed was amazing. For these new forces to be further developed, a large number of talents are needed to join, especially research and development talents.
From Internet cross-border car manufacturing to technology and real estate car manufacturing, there are still new players pouring in in China's auto market, and the new car manufacturing boom is intensifying. At the same time, the traditional car companies that were gradually hollowed out by the new car-making forces began to increase the number of reverse digging people.
On various job search and workplace social software, you can see the recruitment information released by automobile companies - whether it is the number of people recruited by enterprises or the popularity of job seekers, they are constantly rising.
But under this boom, there are many hidden problems.
01.
Supply and demand do not match
The automotive industry is in the midst of major changes unprecedented in a century.
In 2021, production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 3.545 million units and 3.521 million units, respectively, an increase of 1.6 times year-on-year. The data intuitively shows that the car has gradually shifted from the era of internal combustion engines to the era of electrification and intelligence.
Especially with the addition of the second wave of new car players, this round of "robbery war" not only covers the original traditional OEMs and new energy vehicles, but also the Internet, computer software, semiconductors and other fields, spanning multiple industries.
This means that in the new stage of comprehensive electrification and intelligence in the automotive industry, there is a greater need for professionals related to electrification and intelligence.
But the reality is harsh.
From the statistics of the "New Energy Vehicle Talent Revelation" released by the Pulse Data Research Institute in June 2021, it can be seen that the talent demand and supply of the automotive industry do not match.
According to the report, the hottest demand positions in the automotive industry in the first half of last year were perception algorithm experts, AI platform technology experts, deep learning engine framework research and development engineers, AI system development experts, sensor algorithm engineers, data algorithm engineers, mass production autonomous driving engineers, etc.
The most popular delivery positions are project management, HR, senior business development, APP external operation, product manager, service product, regional coaching manager, business audit, etc., which are almost unrelated to the demand position.
According to incomplete statistics from relevant institutions, the current market demand for automotive software talents is 100, and the supply is even less than 10.
Zhu Mingrong, chairman of the Automotive Talent Professional Committee of the Chinese Talents Research Association, believes that the complete automotive products in the future are the organic combination of the hardware drive body created by the physical factory and the software soul created by the digital factory, and the talents and knowledge capabilities required by the automobile industry will also change.
But this change is difficult to put in place for a while.
The automotive industry needs talents in the field of Internet, information and communication professionals, but this does not mean that these cross-disciplinary people can directly meet the requirements of the development of new cars. Moreover, the composite talents needed by the automotive industry are difficult to cultivate overnight.
Zhu Mingrong once said: "In the field of intelligent networked vehicles, the inflow of college graduates is seriously insufficient, and in terms of quality and quantity, it is difficult to meet the actual needs of the current enterprise development.
According to the "Intelligent Connected Automobile Industry Talent Demand Forecast Report", the proportion of undergraduate graduates in China's intelligent networked vehicle-related majors entering the field of intelligent networked automobiles is only 0.82%.
Zhu Mingrong
He once pointed out that the shortage of talents in the automotive industry is, in the final analysis, the problem of insufficient overall "talent pool". On the one hand, industrial change has put forward new requirements for the knowledge and ability of automotive talents, and existing talents cannot meet the needs of industrial transformation. On the other hand, the cultivation of talents in colleges and universities is lagging behind, and the supply of incremental talents is insufficient.
02.
It's hard and it's hard
The talent gap has triggered talent anxiety.
In the face of a huge talent gap, the new car-making forces and traditional car companies have frequently opened a robbery war. Various car companies began to compete for financial resources and high salaries to recruit people, which made the flow of talents in the automotive industry turbulent.
"This year, I feel that the biggest challenge is to recruit and retain people - can't recruit people who want, can't keep people who should stay." A traditional car company HR told Bangning Studio.
In fact, the salary level and structure of traditional car companies are inelastic, while the salaries of new car manufacturers are generally higher. In addition, the culture of new car manufacturers is younger, the organizational structure is flatter, and it is more able to attract outstanding talents, especially young talents.
It has become a trend for talents from traditional car companies to flock to new car-making forces. Taking Xiaomi Automobile as an example, the core car-making team mostly recruits talents from traditional car companies, such as Yu Liguo, former president of Jihu Automobile, Hu Zhengnan, the former relevant person in charge of Geely Automobile Research Institute, and Li Tianyuan, the original appearance designer of bmw i brand.
On the one hand, new people cannot be recruited, on the other hand, the loss of the elderly, traditional enterprises have begun to dig people from new forces, and they have also retained talents and absorbed new people through equity incentives. According to statistics, the total amount of equity incentives of sachine automobile companies alone, such as SAIC Motor, Geely Automobile and Great Wall Motor, has reached about 25 billion yuan.
Previously, Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal, as the head enterprises of the new domestic car-making forces, distributed part of the equity to a large number of middle and high-level personnel of the company through several phases of equity incentive plans. Xiaomi also announced that its equity incentive plan has been approved by the special general meeting of shareholders, and the future maximum of 1 billion shares will be used in incentive projects for internal employees.
In 2021, the competition for talents by car companies is like a price war, and whoever bids high will follow whomever goes.
Zhu Mingrong has pointed out many times that "grabbing talent" into "digging the foot of the wall" is not a long-term solution. To solve the problem of talent shortage, in the short term, we must be good at revitalizing the existing stock of talents and helping them to transform and upgrade. In the long run, it is necessary to accelerate the reform of the education system.
In response to the robbery war, he also proposed a variety of countermeasures. In addition to the salary incentive innovation model, in the case of domestic talent shortage, you can go overseas to find high-end talents to join, or set up branches in overseas software talent gathering places to recruit local talents.
In terms of talent training, it is necessary to accelerate the transformation of traditional automotive talents from "hard" to "soft". He believes that it will be relatively easy for talents with automotive backgrounds to transform cross-border learning, and they also have a strong willingness to transform.
He proposed that universities should make adjustments to vehicle engineering majors and curriculum systems, or adopt "one-stop" solutions to directly open intelligent and connected vehicle-related majors. In particular, in the face of the new situation of technological change, colleges and universities need to implement deep integration of industry and education and cross-border collaboration in terms of teacher strength, professional knowledge and practical ability.
In the future, with the increase of R & D investment in the whole industry and the intensification of market competition, talents will increasingly become the key to the sustainable development of major car companies.
The battle to rob people is obstructive and difficult.
Source: Bangning Studio
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