Energy consumption will increase by about 50% by 2050, according to the US Energy Information Administration,  while renewable energy production will increase by nearly 150%.

Worldwide pressure is leading to fossil fuel companies taking steps to improve their availability of renewable energy. Most recently, the US' Joe Biden administration claims the Inflation Reduction Act will enable the US to reduce carbon emissions in 2030 by 40% below 2005 levels.

This worldwide spotlight on energy transition to renewables requires a forward-looking strategy for innovation, cultivating culture, and transforming talent.

According to the World Economic Forum, the clean energy transition could generate 10.3 million net new jobs worldwide by 2030.

To understand what’s next for talent in oil and gas, an analysis by AI-powered talent intelligence platform Eightfold AI of the most common roles and skills across oil and gas – and renewable energy – companies found that of the top renewable energy skills outside of the energy sector (oil and gas, utilities, coal), the highest concentration of talent currently works for manufacturers (22%), followed by construction (12%), renewable energy (11%), technology (6%), real estate (5%), and government (4%).

The report, The Great Energy Transition: What's Next for Talent in Oil and Gas, notes that 68% of today’s most common oil and gas roles are either stable or declining in demand. For example, the need for a drilling engineer, a highly penetrated role in the industry, is declining. On the other hand, there is rising scope for chemical and mechanical engineers.

Further 86% of the most common skills in oil and gas are declining in demand. By seeking talent with adjacent skills for a wind power role, such as electrical or mechanical engineering, a company could expand its potential candidate pool by approximately 59 times.

“Given that the roles to meet energy demands do not necessarily exist yet, limiting our talent searches only to those with particular knowledge sets no longer makes sense. Recruitment tactics that include individuals with skills from adjacent industries are more prepared to build a future-ready workforce,” says Kamal Ahluwalia, president of Eightfold AI.

“By shifting our mindsets, we can boost our access to more qualified people – and reach lofty goals – when hiring for potential based on their ability to upskill themselves.”

The report highlights that to meet energy consumption and carbon emissions demands, energy organisations must consider talent from adjacent industries that boast forward-looking skills.

It further outlines how energy companies can develop talent strategies, calibrate future roles, and hire for potential to expand the available talent pool, such as:

Upskill and reskill the current workforce to bridge the gap between declining and rising skills. Oil and gas companies can target areas of the workforce with declining skills like drilling. Through strategic upskilling, individuals with adjacent skills like hydraulics and preventative maintenance can pursue future roles such as wind turbine technicians.

Calibrate roles with emerging skills to benchmark the organisation against leaders and competitors to source the most current and relevant skills within that domain. For example, chemical engineers can add biofuels and carbon capture to their skill sets.

Hire for potential to understand transferable adjacent skills and tap into a significantly larger pool of qualified talent. For example, organisations seeking talent with biofuel skills can expand the talent pool nearly four times when biorefinery and chemical engineering skills are used in their search.

The report leveraged Eightfold’s global dataset and considered publicly available profiles from leading oil and gas companies, in addition to renewable energy companies.