Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)
Author | Juice
Edited by | Xiaohan
"Undergraduates without any work experience can be paid up to 250,000 yuan a year. If it is a master's degree, the guaranteed annual salary can get more than 400,000 yuan, and even get company options or stocks. ”
A headhunter from Chongqing revealed another truth about the power battery industry in an interview with the media.
In addition to the price increase of power battery raw materials due to shortages, power battery related talents are also facing a shortage. Judging from public data, whether it is campus recruitment or social recruitment, power battery-related talents are very popular. Some headhunters said that some battery talents have 7 or 8 offers in their hands at the same time.
In order to attract talents to join, high salaries have become the only means, and battery companies will offer high salaries to recruit people. Some engineers said that the salary given by the headhunter can basically rise by 50%, and in some cases, it can even rise by 100%, directly doubling.
Some battery companies will pay high salaries to tap talent, while on the other hand, the original battery companies will also sign strict non-compete agreements to prevent talent outflow. Previously, CATL sued Hive Energy for unfair competition and claimed 1 million yuan from 9 former employees of Hive Energy-related companies.
At present, the talent grab war between power battery companies is far from over, and Liu Jincheng, chairman of Yiwei Lithium Energy, also said in an interview with Che Dong that the phenomenon of high-paying digging or high-paying recruitment will continue to exist for a long time.
So how serious is the shortage of talents in the field of power batteries? What are the main talents missing? What is the reason behind this?
First, headhunters work overtime to recruit people Undergraduate students directly offer high salaries
Judging from public information, at present, power battery companies are recruiting talents through a variety of channels.
Helping themselves find the right talent through headhunting companies is a method that most companies prefer to use, and from public reports, we can also see the description of many headhunting company employees for talent grabbing in the field of power batteries.
Multiple headhunters said in interviews that in recent times, there have been frequent overtime hours until about 10 p.m., and they may have to make telephone contact with 100 potential objects a day, while before, making 50 calls a day was already a full load.
What's more, in the early morning, the candidates for the previous day's interview were still checked and interviewed. The headhunter directly said that working overtime until the middle of the night and interviewing people in the early morning has become the norm in recent times.
Engineers at some battery companies have also demonstrated a phenomenon. It is understood that some companies are not in place in the protection of employee information, and almost all employees' phones are mastered by headhunters.
This also leads to almost all the engineers in the process in addition to the production end have been contacted by headhunting. Not only that, the salary conditions given by the headhunter are also very favorable, and if some engineers choose to jump ship, the salary can be increased by 50%, and even the salary of some engineers can be directly doubled.
At the same time, power battery companies will also directly recruit on the recruitment software, and the car thing has also found a number of power battery-related positions on some recruitment software.
▲Power battery-related occupations on the photo website (screenshot from Kanzhun Network)
In order to obtain more fair data, Che Dongxi searched according to work experience and academic qualifications, and obtained the following results:
If the work experience is set to one year, a lithium battery structure technician who graduated from secondary school/ secondary school can get a monthly salary of about 6 to 10K, with an annual salary of about 80,000 to 120,000; a lithium battery PACK engineer who graduated from college can get a monthly salary of about 9 to 14K, and the annual salary is at least 100,000 to 180,000.
The annual salary of a bachelor's degree power battery module test engineer is about 100,000 to 200,000 yuan; while the monthly salary of a master's degree solid-state battery development engineer is 12K to 20K, and the annual salary can reach 150,000 to 240,000 yuan.
If the work experience is set to more than 10 years, a bachelor's degree of power battery system design engineers can get a monthly salary of 25 to 50K, the annual salary is 300,000 yuan to start; a doctoral degree in the battery thermal management development economy can be opened to 50 ~ 55K, the annual salary is 600,000 yuan to start, research and development of the doctor can get 40 ~ 70k monthly salary, the highest annual salary is close to one million.
The company has counted 1049 samples in the latest year and found that the salary range of employees in the power battery field is 4.5 to 50K, and the average salary of the industry is 11.9K, and in the industry competitiveness analysis ranking done by the company, the entire new energy industry can rank second, second only to the financial industry. It can also be glimpsed from the thirst for talents in the field of power batteries.
▲Salary competitiveness in the new energy industry (screenshot of self-employment friend set)
In addition, school recruitment and internal promotion are also one of the important ways for enterprises to obtain talents. A headhunter said that an undergraduate student without any work experience can be given an annual salary of 250,000 yuan, while a master's degree can get more than 400,000 yuan, and it is even possible to get company options or stocks.
And the commission of internal push is also very impressive. According to the internal information of a power battery company, the internal push bonus of the R&D chief engineer in the fields of materials and systems is 15,000 yuan, while the internal push bonus of the deputy general-level talent of the power plate is 20,000 yuan.
▲Sunwoda internal push reward situation (source network)
From all of the above, it is not difficult to find that the entire industry's desire for power battery talents is still happening.
Second, CATL sued Hive Energy to dig one person to claim millions
In addition to the above recruitment methods, there are also cases of mutual poaching between enterprises.
But at present, many companies are relatively strict about their talent protection, and even sign high non-compete agreements, once an employee violates, it may trigger litigation events, and such a thing has happened recently.
In mid-February, CATL filed a lawsuit against Hive Energy, saying it was unfair competition. It is reported that between 2018 and 2019, 9 employees of CATL joined Wuxi Tianhong and Baoding Yixin respectively after leaving their jobs, and Wuxi Tianhong and Baoding Yixin are related parties of Hive Energy.
▲ Ningde era honeycomb energy involves personnel
CATL believes that the nine employees have violated the Confidentiality and Non-Compete Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the Non-Compete Agreement) signed with them. According to the non-compete agreement, after the departure of these 9 employees in THE NINGDE era, they are not allowed to join the competitor's company for 3 months to 2 years, otherwise they need to compensate 1 million yuan for the NINGDE era. However, all nine employees have joined the new company within the non-compete restriction.
In addition, CATL believes that Wuxi Tianhong and Baoding Yixin are related to Hive Energy, so the 9 employees joined Wuxi Tianhong and Baoding Yixin only as a cover, in order to circumvent the non-compete agreement and provide services for Hive Energy at the same time.
▲Baoding Yixin is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Great Wall Motor
In September 2019, CATL applied to the local labor and personnel dispute arbitration commission for these employees' violation of the non-compete agreement, and the latter gave the arbitration result in support of CATL's claim of 1 million yuan from the employees.
The employees have since appealed to the court but have not been upheld.
After the arbitration failed, CATL also formally filed a lawsuit with Hive Energy. In response, Hive Energy said that it has paid attention to the relevant media reports on the unfair competition sued by the Ningde era against our company, and the company has been actively preparing to respond to the lawsuit, believing that the Ningde court will have a fair judgment.
The lawsuit was originally scheduled to go to trial at the end of February, but it was postponed for various reasons.
This case also reflects the fierce situation of mutual poaching between power battery companies, although the non-compete agreement formulated by enterprises seems to be not very close, but in essence, it is to protect their talents from being poached by peer companies, thus affecting their own operations. But from the most fundamental point of view, the reason for this situation is the lack of talent.
Third, the supply of high-end talents is insufficient, and the expansion tide has led to a shortage of talents
After watching so many robbery wars, what talents are missing in the current power battery industry? Why is there such a serious shortage of talent?
The power battery industry is still in a stage of rapid growth, new technologies and new products for the core competitiveness of various enterprises, which requires enterprises to have strong research and development capabilities.
Therefore, R & D talents have become the key talents that each company competes for.
But this does not mean that there is no shortage of personnel in other aspects, in order to ensure the consistency of products, skilled engineers are also very tight, and even the talents to open up the market, the talents of factory preparation, etc. are the targets of power battery companies.
Overall, the demand for talents in the power battery industry is mainly high-level. Due to the relatively high degree of mechanization of power battery production, the demand for general workers is not much.
The reasons for the talent gap of this scale are manifold.
At present, the new energy automobile industry is in an upward period, and the most core product power battery is also at a critical moment of factory expansion. According to public data, by 2025, the planned production capacity of the CATL era will be 800GWh; BYD's planned production capacity will be 450GWh; the planned capacity of AVIC Innovation will be 500GWh; the planned capacity of Hive Energy will be 600GWh; and the planned capacity of Guoxuan Hi-Tech will be 300GWh.
▲Ningde era Yibin new factory
It is not difficult to find that the cumulative planned production capacity of several leading enterprises in the domestic power battery field has exceeded 2000GWh. Behind these production capacities, in addition to the support of a large number of power battery raw materials, it also needs the support of a large number of talents in the field of power batteries.
So is the current training path for talents in the field of power batteries perfect?
The answer is no, the most relevant disciplines in the field of power batteries are mainly materials science and chemistry, and graduates of these majors are more difficult to find jobs for a long time, which also leads to candidates' reluctance to apply for related majors.
On the other hand, the talents in the field of power batteries are not plug-and-play, and most graduates cannot directly operate after they take up their posts, and they also need to follow the master to learn, and the training process is relatively slow.
Overall, the power battery industry is experiencing rapid development, but the supply of talent has not caught up in time.
More importantly, this phenomenon will continue. According to the "Guidelines for the Development of Manufacturing Talents" jointly issued by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by 2025, the demand for talents in the energy-saving and new energy automobile industry will reach 1.2 million, and the talent gap will reach 1.03 million.
In addition, there is another reason that is also very important. At this stage, the enterprises that continue to exert efforts in the field of power batteries are not only battery companies, but also many car companies have begun the path of self-developed batteries, such as Geely has built its own power battery company, and GUANGZHOU AUTOMOBILE Group has also begun to build its own power battery production line.
▲GAC New Energy is building its own power battery property insurance
These car companies will also have a certain demand for talents in the field of power batteries, and the power battery companies constitute a state of competition. On the other hand, car companies in the process of new energy vehicle transformation, but also inseparable from the power battery related talents.
Therefore, the car thing is seen on the recruitment software, Tesla is currently recruiting a purchasing manager for power batteries; Extreme Kr Automobile is recruiting battery test engineers; Geely Commercial Vehicles is recruiting new energy power system experts; Jinconcelis is also recruiting new energy power system experts...
The entry of car companies has further faced a shortage of power battery talents.
In addition, there are also some two-wheeled electric vehicle companies and technology companies that are hungry for talents in the battery field, and technology companies such as Baidu are also looking for power battery-related engineers for their unmanned vehicles.
It is not difficult to find that due to the special training system, there are not many power battery talents, but on the other hand, power battery companies, car companies, technology companies and other forces have strong needs, which has led to the emergence of a situation of more monks and less porridge, and has also directly led to a robbery war.
Conclusion: The power battery talent battle will continue to heat up
In the transformation process of the automotive industry, power batteries are crucial components, so in the long-term development process, it will also occupy a very core position.
Due to the relatively high threshold for the development of power batteries, the position of power battery companies is becoming more and more important, and almost every car company chooses to form alliances with power battery companies.
In order to better meet the needs of car companies, power battery companies need to continuously improve their production capacity performance, technical strength, and even production capacity scale. This also requires that enterprises must have very strong technical strength reserves and talent reserves.
However, the current power battery talent scale is still relatively small, unable to meet the requirements of battery companies. Even so, power battery companies will strive to hold these talents in their own hands, so that the battle for talents between them will continue to heat up.