Personnel shortage negative impact compensation methods in the design organizations activities

Abstract

Introduction. The relevance of the study is explained by the urgent need to improve the efficiency of engineering and design activities to solve the problems of accelerated technological development of the country. The purpose of the article is to determine ways to minimize the negative consequences of staffing shortages in the activities of design organizations in the mechanical engineering industry.

Materials and methods. The study was conducted in seven design and engineering organizations using the methods of participant observation, written and oral expert surveys. The role of experts was played by experienced design engineers and heads of design organizations. The expert assessment was carried out using ipsative questionnaires; the characteristics of the operating conditions of design organizations were ranked.

Results. Recording the problem of design personnel shortage, the authors identify its negative consequences for the activities of design organizations: management is forced to reduce the requirements for the level of qualification of employees; the intensity and multitasking in the work of personnel increases many times. An inevitable consequence is an increase in the risk of errors and additional costs for project development. In order to improve the efficiency of design bureaus and engineering centers in the context of a chronic shortage of engineering personnel, it is necessary, according to the authors, to make maximum use of the corporate organizational and methodological resource.

The article presents the author's methodology of three-act development of a design organization, which allows compensating for the negative impact of the shortage of qualified personnel. The methodology includes diagnostics of bottlenecks in the organization's work by a team of innovators and development of proposals for their minimization; development of programs for involving new employees in the process of organizational changes. Creation of a corporate «error database» and its use by a team of innovators - mentors, coaches in training new personnel will also improve the efficiency of design organizations.

Discussion and conclusions. Understanding that solving the problem of shortage of qualified personnel requires a whole range of long-term measures, the authors propose a proven methodology that will minimize the negative consequences of personnel shortage in the activities of design organizations by reducing the conditions of multitasking and the number of design errors in the current realities and in the future. The methodology proposed by the authors can be scaled for other engineering organizations.