Behind the coordinated development of general jobs: how valuable are factory skills blue-collar workers?

"Factories are not easy to recruit. What enterprises can do is to improve treatment, improve invisible benefits, help employees get their children to go to school and a series of other problems. Behind the seemingly ordinary response of Zheng Min, general manager of Zhejiang Rongtai Electrical Equipment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Rongtai Electric"), is the "high salary retention" that refreshes the public perception.

On May 1, after 26 years, the newly revised Vocational Education Law was officially implemented, which is intended to promote the "coordinated development of general employment", including clarifying that vocational education is an educational type with the same importance as general education, clarifying that the state encourages the development of vocational education at various levels and forms, focusing on improving the recognition of vocational education, and establishing and improving the vocational education system. This is also regarded by the outside world as breaking the ceiling of vocational education from the law, which will make vocational education play a stronger supporting role in economic and social development.

From a market perspective, with the increasing trend of manufacturing automation, the demand for skilled blue-collar workers has surged, and the supply of talents has a rapidly increasing momentum. To this end, while the vocational education system is perfect, more and more enterprises have begun to work with vocational schools to cultivate talents and provide "customized" technical blue-collar workers for intelligent equipment.

Skill blue collars are becoming increasingly scarce

Zheng Min told the first financial reporter that the operation and maintenance workers in the factory with working years of 5 to 8 years have an annual salary of up to 300,000 to 500,000 yuan. In addition, employees who have been working for 5 years can also receive a one-time bonus of 500,000 to 1 million yuan issued by the company.

Behind such a high salary, it is necessary to be the strength and confidence of the industry's "hidden champion", but more is the pressure of salary increase brought to the enterprise by the difficulty of recruitment - "Involving the operation of precision equipment workers, there are very few in the market, it is difficult to recruit at the same time, the cost of training a skilled technician is also very high, once lost, the loss of the enterprise is greater", Zheng Min believes that giving the best possible treatment is an inevitable choice for the enterprise to deal with the recruitment.

However, no matter how high the treatment, it can only "grab" people in the shortage of supply.

Scarcity has always been relative, and the imbalance between supply and demand and the mismatch between supply and demand are the root causes.

Recruitment difficulties have prompted the manufacturing industry to increase the speed and scale of "machine substitution", and as the scale of "machine substitution" in manufacturing has become larger, the demand for skilled blue-collar workers to maintain and operate these machines has increased significantly.

Suzhou Mingzhi Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Mingzhi Technology", 688355.SH) landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in May last year. Wu Qinfang, chairman of the company, told First Finance and Economics that it is more difficult to recruit ordinary workers now, but the challenge is to recruit higher-level skilled workers, that is, skilled blue-collar workers who can operate some automated and intelligent equipment. Most of their positions are to inspect the entire workshop and production line, can quickly respond when abnormal, solve small problems, and report big problems in a timely manner, "such skilled workers are particularly difficult to find, and supply and demand are becoming more and more tight."

According to the "2022 First-line Blue Collar Employment and Compensation Management Survey" (hereinafter referred to as the "Survey") by CIIC Consulting in the Human Capital Data Center, 83% of manufacturing enterprises have different degrees of blue-collar labor shortage problems, of which 32% of them have labor shortages and labor shortages all year round, and 42% of enterprises will encounter labor shortages (such as peak production seasons) in specific periods.

Students learn automobile repair techniques in a training room at the Cengong County Secondary Vocational School in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, on April 27. Xinhua

High-tech manufacturing, energy and chemical enterprises are more faced with the challenge of perennial labor shortage, while automobile manufacturing, machinery and equipment, consumer goods manufacturing enterprises are mainly challenged by labor shortages in specific periods such as peak production seasons.

As a technology enterprise in the field of semiconductors, Zhong Shan, CFO of InnoSEC (Suzhou) Technology Co., Ltd., told First Finance that in order to meet the gradually increasing demand for production capacity, the company's technology blue-collar workers will show a multiplier level increase, and the total number of technical blue-collar workers with full production is expected to be about 700 to 800 people.

Zhong Shan frankly said that the demand for semiconductor talents is not equal to the current supply of talents in the market, and the asymmetry here includes the size of personnel and skill requirements.

In Mingzhi Technology's smart factory, the existing operators have cut at least two-thirds of the labor compared with ordinary factories of the same size, and the rest are technical blue-collar workers who can manage multiple machines.

Wu Qinfang proposed that these technical blue-collar workers often need to make suggestions for the improvement and perfection of automated production lines and equipment, and sometimes need to do some adjustment tests of new devices, in this process, a mature technical blue-collar workers play an important role, they not only need to graduate from college and professional counterparts, but also need to have several years of practical experience in the factory.

Scarcity echoes "high value".

"Our most automated workshop, according to the per capita output, the annual output value of the operators of a workshop is as high as more than 3 million yuan. The general general manufacturing industry is estimated to be less than one-third. Wu Qinfang believes that this is not only the basis for the high salary of technical blue-collar workers, but also one of the sources of their sense of achievement.

In Mingzhi Technology's factory, technical blue-collar workers who can work independently have an average monthly salary of more than twice that of ordinary workers. High-ranking technical blue-collar workers are likely to earn more than low-level engineers.

In order to retain mature technical blue-collar workers, Rongtai Electrician has paid them a high salary. In addition to the annual salary of 300,000 to 500,000 yuan, since last year, we have made a generous commitment to give a one-time bonus of 50 to 1 million yuan to employees who have completed 5 years.

Zheng Min stressed that this is an additional bonus in addition to the normal year-end bonus, also called enterprise annuity. Up to now, nearly 30% of the company's employees have received this annuity.

This is probably the top wage in the manufacturing industry. Behind it is the profitability of this company that is much higher than that of the same industry. Most manufacturing companies with less high profits generally give technical blue-collar workers an average monthly salary of about 10,000 yuan.

ACCORDING TO CIIC's "Survey", the annual salary of ordinary blue-collar workers (general workers) in 2022 is about 80,000, and the market high level is between 90,000 and 110,000; the annual salary of skilled blue-collar workers (technicians) is more than 100,000, and the market high level is between 120,000 and 150,000. Some high-skilled enterprises with high skill requirements, such as high-tech manufacturing (integrated circuits, electronic manufacturing, new materials) or enterprises with high automation (auto parts), have annual salaries of high-skilled blue-collar workers, or even as high as 150,000-200,000.

In addition, in 2022, more than 60% of enterprises have a clear salary adjustment plan for blue-collar personnel, the average salary adjustment rate is between 6% and 7%, the trend of differentiated salary adjustment of first-line blue-collar workers is obvious, and the salary adjustment rate of some enterprises for blue-collar skilled personnel with key performance is between 10% and 15%, and a few enterprises are even as high as 20%.

Peng Silong, president of the Suzhou Research Institute of the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which specializes in developing intelligent equipment and providing automation solutions for enterprises, told First Finance and Economics that the work intensity of technical blue-collar workers is much lower than that of ordinary workers on the production line. And this is not the work of eating youth meals, not only to achieve a very old age, but also often "more and more valuable", the older is more valuable.

Bozhong Seiko Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Bozhong Seiko", 688097) listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, is a scientific and technological innovation enterprise in the field of industrial automation equipment. Hao Dachuan, director of the company's human resources center, told First Finance and Economics that in order to make the technical workers have a better sense of gain, they have carried out "naming reconstruction" and new post settings for these types of work, in which assembly technicians and transfer technicians correspond to delivery technicians, senior technicians, FAE engineers, and assistant commissioning engineers respectively, in order to improve the labor challenges faced by the manufacturing industry.

"Because this is not entirely due to reasons such as not having a high income or a good working environment, but because young people are now less willing to devote themselves to industry." Where did our 'craftsmen' come from? Hao Dachuan said.

"It's easy for a technical blue-collar worker to sit in a factory, and there's a sense of accomplishment and the ability to keep the equipment up and running." Peng Silong said that young people do not like to be called "workers", so now they are more called "operation and maintenance technicians", "listening to it is also tall".

Enterprises and vocational schools join hands to "raise people"

According to the "Skills China Action" Implementation Plan, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the mainland will add more than 40 million skilled talents, and the proportion of skilled talents in employment will reach 30%.

The above-mentioned CIIC's "Survey" shows that after the introduction of automated/intelligent production, the demand for front-line blue-collar workers has changed, and about 40% of enterprises have said that the demand for general workers has decreased, while the demand for technicians has increased, the increase is generally around 10%-20%, and the demand for technicians in a small number of enterprises has increased by 30%. At present, the multiplication rate of high-skilled talents in the market (the ratio of job vacancies and the number of job seekers) has remained above 2 for a long time, and the multiplier rate of some shortage of skilled positions related to automation and intelligence is even above 10, and the supply of composite skills blue-collar workers that meet the requirements of enterprises is in short supply, and the cultivation and development of skilled talents is imminent.

While the vocational education system is perfect, it is natural for manufacturing enterprises to cooperate with major vocational schools.

Peng Silong mentioned such a phenomenon: in order to help customers cultivate high-end blue-collar workers who can maintain these equipment, their talent training with local vocational schools has become more and more intense, so that "the machines sold to vocational schools to provide practical training for teachers and students have formed a small market of tens of millions."

In Peng Silong's view, the vocational and technical college itself needs to be closely linked with the market, and as the demand for talents in the market changes, the content of the training must also be adjusted accordingly and in a timely manner.

And Hao Dachuan," their most important channel, is the pre-job training, through cooperation with universities to establish a targeted talent training mechanism, "only in this way, can form a steady supply of talents, the company will form a talent echelon, in order to sustainable development." Bozhong Seiko alone, there will be 2,000 "technical skills" every year to participate in induction training. This is not only to cultivate the enterprise itself, but also to form a spillover effect, so that new technical skills workers can flow throughout the industry and benefit the high-end equipment manufacturing industry.

According to Zheng Min, Rongtai Electrician will add 100 to 200 technical blue-collar workers every year. The usual way to cultivate talents is to connect with colleges and universities and provide internships for the corresponding talents, "from the beginning of contact with the factory can be used, the time span is a total of two years." In the middle of the final year or semester, the company will provide students with internship bases and practical projects, and receive the corresponding basic income.

Innosec has established cooperation mechanisms with local and provincial vocational schools, and has set up a special semiconductor college. Zhong Shan said that the combination of enterprise technology training and campus theoretical knowledge not only shortens the training time of enterprises, but also increases the practical operation and hands-on ability of students, which is conducive to promoting semiconductor talent training and achieving a win-win situation.

Since last year, Lenovo Group has proposed a plan to upgrade "blue-collar" to "purple collar", aiming to form a collaborative cooperation between Lenovo Education, Lenovo Supply Chain and Lenovo Public Welfare Foundation, running through all stages of the growth of vocational skills talents, so as to form composite talents who meet the requirements of intelligent manufacturing, are familiar with the actual manufacturing process and understand the corresponding technical theories, and have both hands-on operation ability and management innovation ability, that is, "purple collar" talents.

"It's the equivalent of giving young workers a chance to go to college." Qian Li, director of public affairs of Lianbao Technology, the world's largest PC R&D and manufacturing base in Hefei, Anhui Province, previously told First Finance and Economics that from academic upgrading, to vocational qualification certification, to skill competitions, navigation programs, thousands of craftsmen programs, etc., Lenovo has carried out a series of learning and development projects to support and promote the growth and talent of young employees.

In addition to the spontaneous efforts of enterprises, Zhong Shan also proposed that he hoped that government departments would play a guiding role, introduce more policies to encourage front-line technology blue-collar workers, and increase the sense of honor and gain of technical blue-collar workers. At the same time, the positioning of skilled personnel is more empowered to the market and enterprises, and the flexibility of technical blue-collar certification is increased.