The Global Energy Talent Index (GETI), a market-leading energy recruitment report reveals unique data on the global solar workforce, including favoured locations, valuable employee benefits and desirable working sectors.

The report, released by the largest energy job site globally, Energy Jobline and energy recruitment provider, Airswift shows that when provided with a choice of employee benefits, (including bonus, pension, training, overtime pay, etc) the most valued benefit to solar professionals was ‘health plan’. This was consistent among each region, as Europe (32%), North America (65%) and Asia (46%) based solar candidates all favoured a suitable health plan when considering job packages.

GETI also reveals the most common job titles among solar professionals were Project Manager (at 8%) and Consultant (at 5%), reflecting a high representation of management positions within the solar sector.

Hannah Peet, Managing Director at Energy Jobline says: “Our results show there is a significant amount of Project Managers in the solar industry, which can be both a blessing and a curse.”

“Although this reflects a potential high-earning industry, which is great for professionals, the more technical roles are not as populated. This is concerning to see, as Project Managers should have fairly large groups of professionals working under them. Does this reflect that more junior/entry level vacancies need to be filled? Perhaps.”

When asked of their salary expectations within the next 12 months, 70% of solar professionals believed that salaries within the sector are likely to increase and almost 20% thought they would stay the same. Europe-based professionals were slightly-less optimistic, with 48% of the workforce predicting salaries will increase.

Hannah Peet comments: “The renewables sector, on a more general scale, is growing rapidly, with the new developments in technology quickly advancing.”

“We believe this optimism around salary predictions will have been directly influenced by the growth of the sector. Also, when it comes to salaries, the oil and gas downturn has allowed the renewables sector to become much more competitive, something that professionals may have also noted.”

GETI asked solar professionals to list their most preferred region to work in, of which 29% of respondents favoured Europe.

“This is a really surprising revelation.” Peet continues.

“Whilst there is much opportunity to be had in Europe’s solar industry, it’s surprising to see that the larger and more thriving regions for solar power (North America and Asia) are not a preference for solar professionals.”

“Hiring Managers should be mindful of this when looking at where their companies plan to diversify into and should consider whether their region of choice will be in the best interest of their employees.”

Other key findings in the GETI report include:

• A lower cost of living matters little to solar professionals, with only 11% selecting this as a reason for favouring a particular region.
• 85% of solar professionals highlighted base salary as an important thing to consider in a new job opportunity.
• Only 8% of solar professionals considered training an important benefit in a job package.

To view the renewables specific version of the report, please click here to download your free copy today.

This is a guest post by Energy Jobline.