Engineering sector ‘over-confident’ in coping with change

Engineering companies have a misplaced confidence about their ability to cope with change – and are doing little to address key challenges. A survey from the Chartered Management Institute revealed that one-third of respondents accept that ‘skills development’ is urgent – though twice that number admitted that low skills is the biggest challenge they face. At the same time, only 38% believed that managing risk was important. The survey also shows that innovation is a low priority in the sector. One-fifth (21%) believe that creativity and inventiveness is a top challenge, and 20% argue that it is important in today’s working environment. Jo Causon, director of marketing and corporate affairs at the Chartered Management Institute, said that employers in the sector were taking too many risks. “Questions need to be asked about how UK organisations will be able to manage in the future, if they fail to address key operational issues,” she said. But there is some encouraging news, with 70% believing their organisation monitored the opposition effectively. For individuals, 87% said they ‘can’t wait to get up in the morning’, 81% claimed it was easy to ‘keep positive’ and 61% suggested that, despite heavy workloads ‘taking time for lunch is no longer a challenge’.