Brookson Legal: Don’t get left behind in the competition for flexible talent

Brookson Legal: Don’t get left behind in the competition for flexible talent

The energy industry has traditionally relied on skilled contractors for project delivery, offering an attractive route for flexible work long before many other sectors realised its benefits. But it now risks being left behind in the post-pandemic competition for talent.

This predicament is the result of a perfect storm between changing expectations of workers, the industry’s transition towards cleaner, greener energy sources, the current UK national skills shortage and the new off-payroll working rules implemented by the government this April.

With lucrative contract rates for specialist expertise, the oil and gas industry was traditionally insulated from disruption in the wider jobs market. However, even prior to the pandemic a number of data points warned that a skills crisis was looming.