Rullion & SAP Fieldglass: Renewable Energy Workforce Transformation

As governments and industries commit to ambitious climate targets, the energy sector is undergoing the biggest renewable energy workforce transformation in a generation. But the promise of solar, wind, and nuclear energy won’t be realised without one critical resource: people. And right now, the demand for skilled talent far exceeds supply.

In a recent conversation between Alistair Haigh, Commercial Solutions Director at Rullion, and Vicky Revis, EMEA Lead at SAP Fieldglass, they explored how workforce management must evolve to support the energy transition.

The growing talent demand in renewable energy

This big push is seeing the renewable energy sector scaling at a rapid pace. And with this comes a growing urgency for skilled talent to plan, build and operate energy infrastructure across solar, offshore wind, hydrogen, and nuclear.

Hiring has been brought into sharp focus. Organisations are working harder to engage directly with talent, align with universities, and sell purpose-driven missions. They're also turning to consultancies like Rullion and SAP to streamline their workforce planning processes and ensure they have the right people in place to meet their goals.

Workforce challenges in renewable energy

One of the major challenges is the reliance on external talent. Because external contractors, consultants, and service providers account for approximately 50% of the energy sector's workforce, visibility and control over how they are brought into your organisation must be swift, reliable, and process effective. And if you’re still reliant on emails and CVs buried in inboxes, that’s not a sustainable way forward. 

The energy sector also brings added complexity: health and safety onboarding, fluctuating project needs, and high compliance risk. Margins are tighter than in traditional energy. That makes it vital to strike a balance between accessing the right skills and maintaining cost control, especially when nearly half of the workforce is external. 

How technology enables workforce agility

In the renewable energy sector, workforce needs shift rapidly depending on the stage of a project. Managing this dynamic demand calls for a system that provides full visibility and control across the external workforce lifecycle.

That’s where platforms like SAP Fieldglass come in. They enable organisations to standardise and streamline how they manage contingent talent, covering everything from sourcing and onboarding to compliance and invoicing. Managers aren’t buried in admin, and processes become repeatable, scalable, and aligned across suppliers. 

As Vicky Revis put it, “Technology is not a silver bullet, but when it's supported by strong policy and processes, it creates a sustainable and repeatable system for engaging talent.” 

Flexibility throughout the project lifecycle

Every energy project moves through distinct phases, from early design and planning through to construction, commissioning and operation. Each phase requires a different set of skills and workforce demand. For instance, the build phase may require large-scale contractor mobilisation, while the operational phase focuses more on maintenance and repeatable tasks. 

There will be different commercial setups, contracting models, and recruitment flows depending on the work required at each phase.

Fieldglass helps organisations build those variations into their processes by providing visibility on the best way to engage talent for each stage, benchmarking and setting appropriate rate cards to avoid overpaying for in-demand skills, and automating workflows so managers aren’t expected to become procurement experts overnight.

Utilising data for strategic workforce planning 

As energy infrastructure evolves, so too must the way organisations plan and manage talent. And at the centre of this shift is data.

Access to historical data allows hiring teams to understand what happened on previous projects: how much was spent on contingent labour, what caused budget overruns, and how talent mixes impacted delivery timelines. It gives you the opportunity to question what you can learn for new and upcoming projects.

Rather than relying on retrospective reporting alone, businesses can now use this data to make more confident decisions in real-time. AI and large language models can identify patterns across workforce trends, project data, and other external factors to help forecast the skills and resources needed for upcoming work. 

But for AI to work, it needs fuel. The output is only as good as the data you put in. That means ensuring all valuable data, such as timesheets and onboarding notes, change requests, and delivery timelines, are captured in a structured, accessible way. If your data lives in inboxes or is buried on someone’s desktop, it can’t be analysed. The more accurate and complete your data is, the more powerful your insights will be.

Reskilling and transitioning talent into renewables

With an ageing workforce and growing demand for talent, there’s a huge question around where talent is going to come from and whether there’s a skills shortage. That all depends on how you look at it.

For years, adjacent industries have been developing skilled professionals who already have the qualities and transferable skills or knowledge we value in the renewables space. For example, moving rotating mechanical engineers from oil rigs into wind farms is just a matter of reskilling.

Data and AI can come in real handy here, too. Instead of reviewing thousands of CVs, organisations can use AI to scan databases, detect patterns in career paths, and surface candidates with the potential to seamlessly pivot into renewables. These tools make it easier to understand which skill sets are adaptable and which individuals could be trained quickly and effectively.

Once a shortlist is created, the human element is still needed, especially when it comes to assessing cultural fit, motivation, and readiness to retrain. But AI helps teams get to that point faster, with more confidence and less manual effort.

Future trends with new skills and new tools

As energy systems modernise and evolve, so will the nature of work. Where engineers once climbed turbines, drones now capture images. And instead of needing just engineers, we now need drone pilots, data analysts, and AI modellers to process the imagery. 

However, this shift doesn’t replace humans; it redefines where their value lies. You still need people, but now you need data at the heart of your workforce strategy to plan intelligently and act with confidence to make informed strategic decisions. 

Building a future-ready workforce

The renewable energy transformation depends on new approaches to workforce management, one that’s agile, data-driven, and widens the scope of traditional methods.

Explore how SAP Fieldglass helps organisations manage external talent with greater control, visibility, and speed.

Talk to Rullion for expert support in attracting, engaging, and retaining the skilled renewable energy professionals you need to help you get work done. Book a discovery session or explore our full-suite of workforce solutions.

Watch the full interview between Alistair and Vicky.