Reframing the Talent Shortage in Regulated Industries Webinar

5 Signs Your Workforce Needs a Train to Deploy Strategy

You need a Train to Deploy Strategy when you find yourself: Rehiring the same roles repeatedly Staring down a retirement cliff Watching time-to-hire stall delivery Falling behind on diversity and social value Working with out of sync training providers Train to Deploy, often referred to as a Hire Train Deploy or a Recruit Train Deploy model, is a workforce transformation solution where a provider designs, delivers, and deploys role-specific training up front, helping you plug skills gaps, onboard faster, and build work-ready teams from day one. This is typically done by bringing in transferable talent from adjacent sectors, reskilling deployed contractors, or hiring and training new external candidates aligned with your business goals. Most organisations don’t always realise when they’re ready for a Train to Deploy (TTD) strategy. The signs build gradually. Recruitment pressures intensify quietly. Talent pools shrink. Skills gaps start to feel permanent. And the tools that once worked – your job boards, agencies, and graduate deployment schemes – no longer deliver the talent or speed you need. If any of this feels familiar, you're not without options. A Train to Deploy strategy can help you rebuild confidence in your workforce plan, expand your reach, and reduce the hidden costs of reactive hiring. It’s one of the most effective ways to evolve your talent pipeline strategy to build scalable, work-ready teams. Here are five signs that now might be the right time to make the shift. 1. You’re Rehiring the Same Roles Repeatedly When roles start to become revolving doors, it’s often a sign that the problem isn’t just recruitment; it’s readiness. High turnover in key positions can point to poor role fit, lack of structured development, or unclear progression pathways. It burns through recruitment budgets, disrupts project continuity, and stalls long-term growth. TTD flips the traditional model on its head. Instead of waiting for the “right” person to appear, you develop the capabilities you need within the people you hire or redeploy from day one. Rullion’s match-to-train approach directly addresses the root cause by designing role-specific training and onboarding ahead of deployment, ensuring the people coming into your organisation are better equipped, aligned, and more likely to stay. You’re building the talent you need, sustainably. 2. You’re Staring Down a Retirement Cliff In critical infrastructure sectors, retirements are accelerating. In the UK energy and utilities sectors alone, 37% of the workforce will retire by 2030 – that’s around 168,400 vacancies that will need to be filled. And with them, decades of knowledge are walking out the door. Our train and deploy solution bridges that gap before it opens. We help you upskill successors, build structured handovers, and onboard people who can shadow, learn, and grow into critical roles. We make sure that expertise isn’t lost. It’s transferred, evolved, and retained. 3. You’re Watching Time-to-Hire Stall Delivery Every week you wait for a hire to land is a week your teams aren’t delivering. In project-based environments, those delays cascade into missed milestones, overstretched teams, and lost momentum. A Hire Train Deploy strategy eliminates that lag. With custom training and onboarding ahead of deployment, candidates arrive equipped with the technical and behavioural readiness to contribute from day one. That upfront investment in preparation pays dividends in retention, and not just in performance. When new hires feel supported, skilled, and set up to succeed, they’re far more likely to stay. 4. You’re Falling Behind on Your Diversity and Social Value Goals Most organisations have diversity targets and social value commitments, but traditional hiring often reaches the same narrow pools in the same ways. Rullion’s Train to Deploy solution is built around inclusion without limits. If someone shows the right mindset, behaviours, and potential, we build the skillset, regardless of their background or circumstance. We don’t tick boxes or run generic ED&I programmes. We focus on opening doors to those with potential and create genuinely inclusive talent pipelines that reflect the communities you serve. 5. Your Training Providers Feel Out of Sync As your organisation adapts to new technologies, delivery models, and regulatory changes, you need learning partners that can evolve just as fast. But many traditional training providers are slow to respond. Courses feel outdated, generic, or disconnected from the realities your teams face day-to-day. This disconnect leads to wasted investment, delayed impact, and talent that still isn’t ready for the job. If your current provision feels out of sync, Rullion’s Train to Deploy strategy gives you control. You co-design the training journey to reflect your systems, tools, and standards, and we manage delivery, acting as the conduit between you and the training providers. We help embed learning into your operating model, whether through bespoke external programmes or scaling your own internal training. Making sure your people are learning what matters and applying it from day one. Recognising the Signs Every workforce challenge is an opportunity to rethink the way things have always been done. If any of these signs sound familiar, it may be time to reassess your approach. A Train to Deploy strategy offers a more proactive path, helping you build the skills, teams, and resilience you need to grow. Shift from reactive hiring to long-term capability building. And get ahead of change before talent gaps hold you back. Helping you get work done Visit our Train to Deploy solution page to see how a Train to Deploy strategy could work for your organisation or book a discovery call with one of our consultants.

International Energy Agency's Energy Employment Report: What It Means for the UK’s Next Decade

The global labour market is expanding rapidly. Employment in energy reached seventy six million people last year, growing at more than twice the rate of the wider economy. Clean technologies are now responsible for the majority of new jobs created. Solar, nuclear, grids, and storage are expanding employment at an unprecedented scale. The IEA captures this shift clearly, noting that “the electricity sector has become the world’s largest energy employer, driven by spectacular growth in clean energy investment.” Where many see constraint, the report points instead to a remarkable alignment of forces. Countries with the confidence to build training capacity, open new pathways and support people transitioning from adjacent industries are poised to capture long term economic, industrial and social value. For the United Kingdom in particular, this is not a story about scarcity. It is a story about potential. The UK has one of the most diverse industrial labour markets in the world, a deep engineering heritage, an increasingly ambitious clean energy programme and a workforce that is more mobile than ever before. With the right focus on development and reskilling, the UK can build the teams required for nuclear new build, offshore wind expansion, grid modernisation and clean transport at the pace needed. Rullion sees this opportunity clearly. Every day across nuclear, renewables, utilities and critical infrastructure, we see talented people ready to move, ready to train and ready to grow. The question is not whether the UK has the talent. It is how quickly we can build the pathways that unlock it. The Age of Electricity and the Rise of a New Workforce The headline figures of the report paint a picture of remarkable transformation. Global energy employment reached seventy six million people in 2024 and grew at more than twice the rate of the wider economy. The electricity sector has overtaken fuel supply as the largest energy employer for the first time in history. The IEA captures this shift clearly, stating that “the electricity sector has become the world’s largest energy employer, led by rapid growth in solar, grids and storage.” Solar power alone now employs five million people worldwide, while low emissions power has driven the vast majority of new roles created in the past year. The IEA calls this era the Age of Electricity. It reflects a structural shift that will define global energy systems for the next half century. As grids expand, renewables scale, and electrification replaces combustion in transport, heating and industry, human capability becomes the central currency of the transition. The technologies exist. The investments exist. The constraint is people. Yet the report also makes clear that this expansion is unevenly distributed. China dominates the manufacturing base for solar, batteries, heat pumps and other clean technologies. Emerging economies such as India and Indonesia are generating jobs at four to six percent annually. Advanced economies, including the UK, lag significantly behind. With older populations, more rigid labour markets and limited vocational throughput, they have seen energy employment grow at less than one percent. The IEA warns that “advanced economies face the slowest energy workforce growth and the most acute demographic pressures.” This imbalance exposes a strategic vulnerability. A nation that cannot produce the talent required to build and operate its own energy infrastructure becomes reliant on external supply chains and volatile global markets. It also becomes slower, more expensive and less competitive. The UK’s ambitions in nuclear new build, offshore wind, heat pumps, green transport and grid reinforcement depend on a workforce that does not yet exist at the necessary scale. A Workforce Expanding, Yet Straining at the Edges Nowhere are the tensions clearer than in the skilled trades. Electricians, welders, pipefitters, mechanical fitters and commissioning technicians represent the backbone of the energy system. These roles form more than half of the global energy workforce and are also where shortages are most acute. The report notes that “more than six in ten energy firms report persistent hiring difficulties, with applied technical roles the hardest to fill.” The construction boom across solar, wind, nuclear, grids and storage has created competition so intense that wages have risen sharply in many regions. Grid roles are especially constrained. Transmission and distribution now employ more than eight million people, yet growth is far below what electrification requires. The retirement profile is deeply concerning. The report emphasises that “between today and 2035, two out of every three new power sector hires will be needed just to replace retiring workers.” In advanced economies, the demographic imbalance is even more severe. These pressures manifest throughout the energy ecosystem. Manufacturing suffers from shortages in transformer specialists, switchgear technicians and high voltage cable jointers. Nuclear projects compete for the same welders and electricians required for offshore wind and defence. EV rollouts hinge on both digital skills and traditional trades. Even heat pumps, often discussed as a simple household retrofit technology, depend on retraining thousands of heating and HVAC engineers. When labour markets are this tight, delays become systemic. Project timelines lengthen. Costs rise. Productivity suffers. And the credibility of national energy strategies is placed at risk. Nuclear: A Sector Defined by Expertise and Threatened by Succession Among all energy subsectors, nuclear is the most exposed to demographic decline. Globally, the nuclear workforce is expanding, yet it remains one of the oldest and most specialised segments of the energy labour market. The report highlights the scale of the challenge, noting that “nuclear has the most severe ageing imbalance, with 1.7 workers nearing retirement for every young entrant.” For the UK, where nuclear new build is both a national priority and a cornerstone of future energy security, the implications are serious. Hinkley Point C has already demonstrated the scale of the workforce required for a gigawatt scale plant. Sizewell C will demand a similar or larger effort. Small modular reactors will require engineers with advanced competencies across digital control systems, materials science, reactor physics and high integrity construction. Defence nuclear and the emerging fusion sector compete for many of the same people, creating a labour congestion risk that the country cannot afford to ignore. The IEA points to France as an example of what can happen when maintenance capability and specialist expertise diminish, observing that “skill shortages have contributed to increased outages and reduced output in several advanced nuclear fleets.” This is a warning that the UK should take note of. Nuclear is a sector built on experience, precision and long cycles of talent development. Once expertise erodes, it cannot be regenerated quickly. If the UK is to deliver its nuclear ambitions, it must prioritise workforce planning with the same seriousness it applies to finance, regulation and site readiness. Electrification and the Emergence of New Talent Pathways Despite the severity of the challenges, the report contains a reason for optimism. Electrification does not only consume labour. It also generates new mobility across the wider economy. Manufacturing offers one of the clearest examples. Almost seventeen and a half million people in global vehicle manufacturing now work on electric vehicle technology. That shift has opened opportunities for workers with expertise in precision assembly, power electronics, automation and quality assurance. These skills transfer naturally into battery lines, grid equipment, robotics and advanced nuclear manufacturing. Heating engineers are moving into heat pump installation at growing rates. Aerospace and defence engineers are entering grid digitalisation, energy storage and fusion. Technicians and fitters from oil and gas are retraining into offshore wind, subsea cabling, hydrogen and large scale electrical integration. The IEA captures this shift succinctly, observing that “reskilling and cross sector mobility are now essential features of the energy labour market, driving new supply where traditional pipelines cannot keep pace.” This is one of the most encouraging findings of the report, because it demonstrates that the UK does not have a shortage of underlying talent. Instead, it has a shortage of structured, supported and scalable pathways that help people transition into energy roles. Pathways, not people, are the true constraint. The UK’s Workforce Challenge and Opportunity While the report groups the UK within the broader advanced economies category, its situation is distinctive. It is a mature energy system undergoing significant transformation. Nuclear new build, offshore wind expansion, grid modernisation, electric transport, solar growth and home retrofit programmes all overlap. They draw from overlapping labour pools, yet operate to different timetables and across different suppliers, contractors and regions. The UK’s workforce demographics compound the problem. The report notes that in advanced economies, “the number of workers approaching retirement is more than double the number of workers under 25.” That ratio is reflected across much of the British energy system. Vocational education output remains too low. And the occupations most vital to national delivery are the very ones most undersupplied: electricians, welders, commissioning engineers, cable jointers, plant operators and advanced technicians. Yet the UK also possesses one of the most diverse industrial bases of any advanced economy. Defence, aerospace, rail, automotive, manufacturing, construction and telecoms all hold talent that can transition into energy with the right support. These sectors form an untapped reservoir of capability, waiting to be unlocked. Building the Pathways: A Call to Action The IEA report offers a quantitative foundation for what UK employers already know. Labour is becoming the defining constraint of the energy transition. But this constraint is not inevitable. A nation can invest in vocational capacity, or it can accept undersupply. It can create mechanisms that promote reskilling, or it can allow other sectors to outcompete energy for talent. It can coordinate workforce planning across nuclear, renewables, utilities and transport, or it can allow programmes to clash and cannibalise one another. These choices will shape the next decade of UK industrial competitiveness. For employers, the conversation must shift from talent scarcity to talent creation. Experience and competence can be developed, but only when companies invest in structured training, early careers, cross sector transition and a change in hiring habits. For policymakers, investment in colleges, apprenticeships and regional clusters is no longer optional. For the UK, the costs of inaction will be measured not only in megawatts delayed or cost overruns absorbed, but also in lost strategic advantage. Rullion’s Perspective: Talent Is Not the Problem. Pathways Are. At Rullion, we see the reality of this challenge every day. Across energy and critical infrastructure, employers consistently report difficulty finding people. Yet when we look at the broader labour market, the potential talent is everywhere. It sits in sectors with transferable skills, in early careers populations who have never been exposed to energy as an option, in mid career workers seeking change and in communities eager for long term, well paid employment. This belief guides our models such as Train to Deploy. Instead of competing endlessly for the same small pool of candidates, we create the capability required for the sector, equipping people with the technical and practical skills needed to enter high demand roles. Our Early Careers teams bring young people into industries they might never have considered. Our cross sector programmes help workers transition from oil and gas, defence, aerospace, automotive and manufacturing into clean energy. We call this approach the Abundance Mindset. It is the belief that talent is plentiful when organisations are prepared to develop it, support it and welcome it. The IEA report reinforces this philosophy. The world is not short of electricians, fitters, technicians or engineers. It is short of ways to turn people into those professions. The Decade Ahead The World Energy Employment Report makes one conclusion unmistakable. The race for clean energy is rapidly becoming a race for talent. Capital will not be the limiting factor. Technology will not be the limiting factor. Workforce will be. For the UK, this is both a challenge and a remarkable opportunity. If we can change how we hire into roles, reform vocational education, scale reskilling, coordinate workforce planning and create genuine industrial clusters, it can not only deliver its energy transition but lead it. And if it builds the pathways, the people will come.

Building a Business Case for a Train to Deploy Workforce Strategy

What is a Train to Deploy Workforce Strategy? Train to Deploy is a scalable, future-focused workforce solution. It replaces legacy recruitment with a sustainable approach that combines behaviour-first hiring with bespoke, role-specific training, enabling you to deploy work-ready people aligned with your business from day one. Here’s how to position a Train to Deploy workforce strategy as the strategic answer your business needs now. Step 1: Define the Problem Clearly Before you pitch a solution, your first job is to make the cost of doing nothing impossible to ignore. Here are 5 signs your workforce needs a Train to Deploy strategy to get you started. Use hard data to show where your current hiring model is falling short and what that’s costing you. Start by asking questions your leaders will care about: Skills gaps Are the same roles being readvertised month after month? Are niche capabilities slowing or stalling project delivery? Is critical knowledge walking out the door as retirements rise? Project risk Are high vacancy rates impacting timelines and team cohesion? Do long onboarding periods stall delivery and productivity? Can your team scale quickly enough for upcoming project peaks? If time-to-hire is 45+ days and onboarding takes another 30+ days, how much delivery time are you losing? Diversity gaps Are legacy hiring filters limiting access to diverse, high-potential candidates? Are you falling short on DEI or ESG bid requirements in public sector or regulated tenders? Do you lack scalable, measurable programmes to attract, develop, and retain under-represented talent? Step 2: Quantify the Cost of Inaction Your goal is to then articulate the long-term risks of continuing with business as usual. To get stakeholder buy-in, you need to frame the commercial impact of inaction. Make sure you define both direct costs and knock-on consequences of not addressing your current approach. Recruitment costs Add up your full cost per hire: agency fees, internal resource time, readvertising, interview panels, onboarding, and early attrition. The average cost per hire in the UK is £3,000–£5,000. For 30 hires per year, that’s £90K - £150K before you account for the cost of replacing those who leave early. Then factor in: First-year attrition Contractor spend to plug gaps Time-to-productivity lag with ramp-up times resulting in value not being delivered Productivity loss and project delays Every week a role remains unfilled, you lose delivery hours. Every month a new hire is onboarding, and your project velocity drops. Delayed milestones = missed SLAs or penalty clauses Lost momentum = increased risk of burnout in stretched teams Lower team efficiency = knock-on delays in other workstreams Even a 10-day hiring delay across 5 projects can equate to hundreds of lost delivery hours or tens of thousands in opportunity cost. Missed ESG & social value metrics For public sector frameworks and many regulated sectors, bids require proof of community investment and inclusive hiring. If you’re failing to demonstrate social value or provide measurable DEI outcomes, you could be missing out on commercial opportunities. Step 3: Train to Deploy Proposition Once you’ve demonstrated the cost of inaction, you’ll need to demonstrate how a Train to Deploy workforce strategy can address the real problem. Your workforce model no longer fits today’s reality. Behaviour-first sourcing Instead of relying on CVs and past job titles, Train to Deploy starts with what really matters: mindset, adaptability, learning agility, and culture fit. How it solves the problem: Increases retention by hiring based on long-term fit; when people align with your values and environment from day one, they’re more likely to stay long term. Helps de-risk hiring by aligning people to your ways of working before they start TTD solutions remove traditional hiring barriers, opening doors to all those able to demonstrate the right behaviours and potential, regardless of their background or circumstances. We call this “inclusion without limits”: if someone has the right behaviours, we build the skillset. Bespoke, role-aligned training A Train to Deploy programme delivers tailored technical development, embedding the systems, standards, and compliance frameworks your teams use day-to-day. How it solves the problem: It simplifies procurement with one contract and one partner, with complete visibility. Shortens onboarding time as readiness is built into the training Increases long-term capability with all hires being trained to the same standards and expectations as your existing teams. Meaning less need for post-hire correction, shadowing, or retraining. New hires start work with the right frameworks, protocols, and requirements, improving compliance and operational risk. We co-design the training with you and act as a conduit between your business and training providers while managing the heavy lifting of sourcing, screening, training, deployment, and mentoring. Deploying work-ready talent After training, talent is deployed directly into your team, already aligned with your culture, systems, and technical needs. The transition is seamless because we’ve already embedded your systems, culture, and team dynamics into their preparation. We also offer mentoring and coaching during deployment to support success. The benefits: Enables faster productivity and better collaboration Builds confidence and cohesion in high-stakes environments Supports smoother team integration and day-one impact Scalable, predictable talent pipelines With TTD, rather than reacting to workforce gaps, you’re building capability in anticipation of future need. Whether for seasonal peaks, project launches, or expansion into new capabilities, you can scale talent development in line with strategic goals. The benefits: Reduces contractor reliance by developing permanent, aligned talent Smooths hiring cycles with a predictable, flexible pipeline Helps you respond faster to new project requirements or capability shifts Step 4: Anticipate Stakeholder Priorities Your case needs to work across commercial, operational, and organisational priorities. Read our quick rundown of the ROI of building talent internally. Here’s how to tailor your message to what matters most to each stakeholder: Finance Long-term cost avoidance with fewer agency fees, less attrition/higher retention, fewer cycles of rehiring, and reduced onboarding lag Reduced dependency on costly contractors with internal pipeline Long-term cost predictability and spend control through a single all-in solution “We can reduce agency costs by 30–50% and improve first-year retention by 40% with a Train to Deploy workforce strategy.” Procurement Ability to consolidate vendor management with one trusted supplier managing sourcing, training, and deployment Alignment with existing workforce, training frameworks, and compliance with industry and safety regulations Commercial flexibility to scale up or down based on needs Operations Highlight reduced time-to-productivity and onboarding lag with bespoke training embedding tools and systems into learning Readiness in safety-critical and regulated environments through training Demonstrate retaining institutional knowledge through structured training, shadowing, and handovers Highlight reduced dependency on external contractors with an aligned, trained internal pipeline CSR / DEI Leads Inclusion with real impact on career switchers, returners, veterans, and under-represented communities Measurable progress on social value targets through inclusive pathways Position TTD as truly inclusive hiring. Rullion’s model focuses on “inclusion without limits”; the door is open to all those who have the right behaviours and potential. Step 5: Building a Clear Case for Change Reframe the narrative from patching your hiring process to building capability for the future. This can help shift the conversation from “Why would we?” to “Why wouldn’t we?” Current Approach Train to Deploy Plugging gaps Building long-term capability Spending reactively Investing in readiness Chasing CVs Developing aligned, inclusive talent Onboarding after hiring Delivery work-ready teams from day one