Mike Monaghan of vehicle sourcing company Automotivate was speaking at the event at the NAEC near Coventry, where he explained industry is going through “one of the biggest seismic challenges we have ever witnessed”, with companies struggling to recruit and retain the talent required.
He said recycling companies will need to change in order to put people at the front of operations, as the “hire and fire” days are “long, long gone”.
Mr Monaghan explained: “We are entering unchartered waters and we have to start to understand why. Both pre-Covid and post Covid, the world has changed. People’s attitudes and work-life balances have all changed, and it’s a big adjustment.
“We have an ageing workforce, we’re struggling to bring in the workforce we need and we are creating significant performance issues. We have to look at ways to adapt to a new generation who don’t want to work 49 hours a week, and don’t necessarily want to do all the heavy lifting.”
Industry
Mr Monaghan said that for the last 50 years, the recycling industry has been “driven by product, process and people.”
He noted that this will have to be reversed so people are put at the front, or staff will simply move elsewhere.
“It’s people that drive process, not the other way around. It’s people derive the product and we have to start turning this around.”
Recruitment
Recruitment challenges have been reported across the industry in recent weeks. One factor in this has been put down to the fact that many of the lower paying waste industry jobs are particularly physically challenging, so people seek roles in other sectors where there are now many vacancies.
Many councils have also been reporting that their services have been impacted in recent weeks due to staff shortages, in scenes similar to that seen during Covid.
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