Jack-of-all-trades wanted!

In order to make production more efficient, the first industrial revolution used water and steam, the second electricity and the third saw the rise of electronics and IT. Now, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, driven by digitisation, is ensuring a transformation in almost every industrial sector. “The Internet of Things, smart factories, ‘big data’, robotics, and advanced automation are bringing great changes to the way we are going to work in the future,” says Martin Krill.

Rapid innovation
“The speed with which breakthroughs are currently being achieved is unprecedented. Compared to previous industrial revolutions, the fourth is unfolding exponentially and not at a linear pace,” said Klaus Schwab, Head of the World Economic Forum, last year in Davos. More and more production and logistics processes are being interlinked to make production even more efficient and flexible. Intelligent and digitally networked systems could make a largely self-organized production a reality. People, machines, plants, logistics and products will all communicate directly with one another.
Opportunities and challenges for specialists and executives
Industry 4.0 presents new challenges for employees. Interdisciplinary and cross-company cooperation, more responsibility of the individual and special IT know-how will determine the shape of working world. This creates fantastic career opportunities for highly trained specialists and managers.
“Industry 4.0 means the demands on the candidates people are looking for have increased. At the same time, the candidate market has become tighter, so that an executive search in this area is often like looking for a needle in a haystack,” says Martin Krill, Managing Director of Hager Unternehmensberatung. Hager Unternehmensberatung has been successfully occupying specialist and management positions in the IT environment as well as in the economically strongest industrial sectors for more than 20 years and is also specialised in the topic of digitization.

Important features of the new working world
In Industry 4.0, the areas of responsibility for employees are expanding. They will no longer be responsible only for a particular production section or machine, but for the entire production process, which includes the interfaces to customers and suppliers. For these extended tasks, employees and engineers need greater knowledge, especially software knowledge and, above all, more competencies than ever before, explains Martin Krill. In particular, employees are needed who can understand and control the complex networking of machines beyond the factory limits.

New qualifications for Industry 4.0 jobs
“Specialists and managers must have a pronounced digital competency in order to be able to contribute to the possibilities and innovations that come with Industry 4.0,” explains Martin Krill.
According to Martin Krill, among the most important abilities and characteristics are:
• Digital competency and IT know-how
• In-depth specialist and process knowledge
• An even greater willingness to learn current technologies and trends independently and continuously
• A good understanding of all security-relevant IT issues and related legal security questions
“We are seeing that new jobs and job profiles are constantly being created through digitisation. A good example is the professional profile of the CDO – Chief Digital Officer,” adds Martin Krill.
The enormous need for experts, the increased demands on candidates and the general lack of skills are making it increasingly difficult for companies to occupy their vacant positions.

Headhunters help
Here, the use of experienced executive search companies can help. Their extensive networks and expertise can be a major bonus when it comes to filling these posts. The key criteria, when it comes to selecting the right headhunters, according to Martin Krill, is that they are in constant communication with the most important decision-makers in the industry and are always up to date with the latest trends and developments.

Authors:
Martin Krill has been working for Hager Unternehmensberatung for more than fifteen years and was made a managing partner in 2004. He fills top sales and management positions in the technology industry as well as a number of other sectors.