BY STEVE RANGER | EDITOR IN CHIEF
It’s often hard for people early in any career to feel like they are having much influence, or to understand how their small addition to a project or process will contribute to a larger business impact. But in chemistry that may be about to change.
Not only are early-career scientists and engineers finding their voices, but their bosses are increasingly open – and eager – to hear from them. That’s not just because executives have been on one-too-many management courses; it’s because the chemical industry needs those new ideas, and needs them fast.
Supporting early-career professionals to make a business impact is no longer a ‘nice to have’. The industry is facing a number of challenges and early career professionals might just have the answers.
First, chemical companies are being swept by waves of retirement, as around 30% of employees in the industry are 50 years of age or more and due to retire within the next decade or so, according to research from Accenture in 2024. That means companies will have many decades of experience walking out of their doors over the next few years.
Some of that knowledge can be captured in documents and maybe even in some smart artificial intelligence tools. But hands-on experience of processes, building strategy, product development or even troubleshooting are much harder to collate in a spreadsheet. Part of the challenge for the industry is therefore to deliver profound succession planning and making knowledge transfer more systematic before it is lost forever.
But it’s also about a new opportunity, to enable new entrants to the industry to have a voice and make an impact faster than before. That might mean giving early-career staff more exposure to customers and broader business issues much earlier than previously. It means making sure early-career scientists understand the bigger picture and feel they have an opportunity to make a difference.
Another problem ahead is that there are shortages at the start of the talent supply chain, as student enrolment declines in key disciplines for the chemical industry such as engineering and business in some key markets. That means companies will face challenges recruiting the skills they need and replenishing the retiring workforce unless they take a new approach. Sluggish productivity has been a problem for the chemical industry for some time and there’s evidence that it is lagging behind even closely related industries.
All of these issues were discussed at SCI America’s Innovation Day. The event, at Philadelphia’s Science History Institute, is a chance for early-career scientists and engineers to talk through the big issues facing the industry alongside senior executives. It’s clear that early-career scientists are keen to make a real impact, and the opening session was dedicated to helping them to navigate career growth in uncertain times.
So, what are industry executives looking for? Early-career workers who remain curious and focused on life-long learning will be sought by managers who are looking for new ideas and input. There’s also a need for people that can understand context and the bigger picture and then apply that to their own role and organisation. That might mean understanding the right kind of innovation that an organisation is looking for or being able to explain to a team of scientists why a particular process needs to change.
Executives also pointed to the benefits of mentoring (something SCI is very involved in). It’s worth remembering that mentoring can go both ways. Not only can early-career professionals learn from colleagues that have been in the industry for longer; there’s plenty that early-career professionals can teach their seniors.
What’s for sure is that the chemistry-related industries, or at the least the ones that want to remain relevant, will need to manage a huge changes over the next few years.
Those challenges include some of the other issues discussed at the Innovation Day, like how to manage sustainability and profitability, and the impact of new productivity tools and artificial intelligence. Throw in the challenge of finding new feedstocks and the uncertain international outlook to add even more complexity.
None of these topics have easy answers; perhaps that’s why some of the executives pointed to another useful skill for early-career scientists: the ability to embrace both success and failure when it comes to research. Even failure can teach useful lessons.
Encouraging and enabling early-career scientists and engineers to start making a real impact on projects as soon as possible is key. Not only will their innovations help fuel growth but trusting them at an early stage in their career will show them that they are working in an industry that supports innovation wherever it is found, regardless of job title or tenure. Chemistry’s most important ingredient is always going to be the smart people who want to use science to solve the big challenges facing society.
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