Naveen Sivakumar, Head of Marketing and Business Development (Turkey, Middle East and Africa), Danfoss, vividly remembers his engineering college days. He speaks of how when in college, he hardly heard anyone talk about HVAC as a career. “They were talking of Outer Space, of how to build a rocket,” he says. “They were talking about automobile engineering.” And that’s where it stopped.

Naveen Sivakumar

There is consensus that the HVACR industry is allied to efforts at meeting socio-economic and sustainable development targets – including good health, wellbeing, resilience of mission-critical IT and industrial processes, food safety and food security – and yet it finds itself confronting the conundrum of not doing enough to attract and nurture the people that propel it forward – the vast pool of sales engineers, design engineers, on site engineers and technicians, to name a few areas of specialisation.

There could be multiple reasons for this, Sivakumar says. The HVACR industry, he says, works behind the scenes. “We are behind the ceilings, on the rooftops,” he says. “So, the exposure is missing in colleges. It is an industry that is taken for granted. We set the thermostat, and that is it.”

Nodirjon Rasulov, Business Development Manager, Camfil Middle East, seconds Sivakumar’s views. Human psychology is that invisible is indispensable, he points out. When we talk about indoor air quality, it is only about temperature – plus or minus, he says. Rasulov says the solution is to take the industry to the students. During his college days, he says, he had never been given the chance to study the industry. In that context, he says, the solution would be an education campaign targeting not only engineering students but all students in schools and universities, so people develop a feeling to be part of this industry.

Roudha Bin Bahr

Roudha Bin Bahr, Commissioning Engineer, Petrofac, perhaps would intimately know and understand what it means to be part of the education system, only relatively recently having graduated from university with a degree in chemical engineering. Recounting her university days, she speaks of how the cooling and refrigeration cycle was only 10% of her studies. “Whenever we were talking of careers,” she says, “we were always thinking of oil & gas.”

Bin Bahr recently conducted an informal survey on careers in HVACR, on social media. The outcome was quite revealing, she says. To a question, ‘If you get an offer, will you go into the HVACR industry?’, nearly 90% said, ‘yes’, she shares. To a follow up question asking to choose between oil & gas and HVAC, Bin Bahr says, 64% opted for oil & gas and 36% for HVAC. The most interesting feature of the survey, she says, was that of the 36%, almost 90% were students that had participated in competitions sponsored by Danfoss. “So, they were exposed to the industry,” she says. “So, it is only about exposure and availability of companies to go into.”

Bin Bahr says she herself benefitted from internships with Danfoss and SKM. The two companies, she says, gave her exposure to the HVACR industry and added a lot to her engineering-related understanding. “We have more companies in the region that can get more involved in the education part,” she says.

Speaking of Danfoss’ involvement, Sivakumar says the company talks to universities and donates laboratory equipment. That way, students are exposed to HVACR, he says, adding that once exposed, they love the industry.

Gap in knowledge

Nodirjon Rasulov

While exposure is welcome, there is a certain gap in knowledge between what is taught in universities and the expectations of ‘the real world’. Rasulov speaks of the gap being substantial in size. “In Camfil, we do lot of training at some universities here,” he says. “We discover that air filtration is not covered. They are spending only 10-15 minutes on air filtration. But, when we talk to them on voluntary basis, they welcome it.”

Bin Bahr feels the problem is deep-rooted. The university curricula is not changing, she says. So, it is essential these companies provide that knowledge. “I know the university is dedicated,” she says, “but inputs from companies is more than what the university is adding.”

Bin Bahr would like the government to get involved in ensuring the gap is narrowed. She speaks of how she wanted to get some more training on the vocational side but how she could not find anything. “They are starting something now, but it has not yet been implemented,” she says. “They are adding vocational education side from Grade 11 in high school, so students will have experience and then go to universities. It is a collaboration between the UAE Ministry of Education and polytechnics.”

Capacity-building

HVACR companies admit that it is a challenge to get people with the right qualifications. Purwanti Alissa Paillé, Founder & CEO, careersbay.com, speaks of how companies are always looking for that extra edge in candidates, in terms of skill and knowledge. As a head-hunter, she says, as a first level of screening, she chooses candidates that apart from a good education have an extra diploma in air conditioning or refrigeration. “Such candidates,” she says, “will always have a better chance.”

Purwanti Alissa Paillé

Rasulov speaks of how Camfil is looking at a strong educational background – be it mechanical or electrical. He adds that it is not only intellectual but also emotional capabilities. He says it is as much the responsibility of HVACR companies to give training to people they hire. So, it is about selecting the right people and nurturing them, he says. That way, he adds, the candidate as well as the company will benefit.

Sivakumar also emphasises the value of in-house training. He says he has seen mechanical engineering students struggling with Building Management Systems (BMS) and that they develop a deeper understanding only after working on site. “So, our choice is training,” he says. “We choose the right people, and then we train them. We are choosing engineers, because you need the technical aptitude to learn. My recommendation is that whoever is the person, he should not stick to one but must adapt to electrical and electronics side, as well. It is no longer just a mechanical job. We are moving to connectivity and smart systems to manage buildings.”

By way of elaborating, Sivakumar points to the example of South Africa, where students can learn from a simple system to a complicated CO2 system in evening schools. The HVACR industry should pick a cue from the South African system and offer evening schools for technicians, he says. “People here, they get a job, because they know somebody, they agree to a low salary, and they learn on the job and get an intuitive understanding of how the system works,” he says. “They know the practical side, but if we tell them the theory, then we get an amazing technician.”

Bin Bahr vouches for the usefulness of training. She says she believes it would help if companies became involved in training their employees, and advocates for an inhouse graduate programme. “In Petrofac, we have a graduate programme,” she says. “Now, two years and six months after joining, I really see the benefit of getting training.”

Remuneration and quality

While HVACR companies need to look into training, the consensus is that they also need to pay close attention to how they remunerate their employees. A key point of consideration is the need to avoid disparities in pay.

There are multiple factors that determine the disparity. One such factor is the profile of work. Paillé points out to the big difference in pay between sales and technical jobs. A sales manager could draw AED 20,000-25,000 a month, whereas a technical person could earn a mere AED 5,000 a month, she says.

Sivakumar agrees there is a disparity in pay between salespeople and technicians but is quick to point out the need to make a distinction between a technician who services an air conditioning system and one who installs a CO2 or ammonia system, in which case the latter draws a good salary. Largely speaking, though, Sivakumar echoes Paillé words. He points to the specific instance of a top technical person – someone he calls one of the best – who was disappointed with the salary he was drawing and his workload. The person in question, reasoning that he could double his salary by moving into sales, decided to make the switch. While he was selected for the role, it soon became obvious he was not a great sales guy. “We lost a great technician to a mediocre sales guy,” Naveen says in a wistful tone. “If you have knowhow of CO2 and ammonia systems, you are in demand, but to reach to the salary is a journey, but people are losing their heart earlier.”

Another factor that determines disparity, Paillé says, has to do with the extras people bring to the job – or the lack of it. While the market is aflush with technicians, she says, companies often find it difficult to find the ones that meet their specific needs. They are looking for technicians with good skills and proficiency in language, she says. And if candidates have a driving licence, companies are willing to pay a good salary. “But for candidates that come here on visit, that’s the problem,” she says. “The time they have is most probably three months, and in that period, they are able to attend only few interviews, and they will take whatever they have. So they don’t have much of a choice.”

Yet another factor that determines disparity is nationality. “I think it is a clear disgrace,” Sivakumar says. The strategy of companies is to take people from developing companies, from Pakistan, India, The Philippines and Egypt, he says, adding that they bring the currency conversion factor into the decision-making. “It is probably a good salary there,” he says. “I have seen this happening here, and it is not fair. When you look into an AC technician, the loser really is the industry. If you are trying to hire a design engineer with five years of experience at AED 6,000, you are not going to get the right people. We have to note that 50-70% of the compressor mistakes are due to application mistakes at site.”

Sivakumar advocates a system of treating all technician jobs as the same. He points to the example of South Africa, where the authorities require technicians to hold a licence to take up a refrigeration assignment. “Here, in the region, all you need is a screwdriver,” he says. “Where is the legislation supporting the system? It should start with legislation. It should start with certification of the technician. And if certified, the salary of the technician should be higher. And if it is a beautiful installation, the end user is satisfied. So it is a cycle.”

Paillé says different companies have different policies and that she always encourages them to take a few candidates on board on an extra salary. “If you pay well, the employee is loyal,” she says. “So, I tell them if you pay AED 6,000, you will get a so-so candidate, but if you pay an extra AED 3,000, you will get a better candidate.”

Gender Equality

Equally as important as eliminating, or minimising, disparity in pay is proper gender representation at the workplace. Paillé says there is a distinct lack of women in senior positions. Bin Bahr says the issue of lack of gender parity can be addressed if companies would follow a system of attracting talent, no matter what. “I don’t think it is about attracting women, but attracting talent,” she says. “They (women) are coming and seeing that it is not impossible.”

Rasulov believes the trend is changing, especially when companies take the initiative of addressing the issue in a forthright manner. He speaks of how Camfil has ensured to get a GEEIS certification globally and that it is now looking to get the same certification for Middle East and Africa. As of now, he reveals, women make 40% of the Camfil workforce in the region.

Speaking of Danfoss, Naveen says the company has set a target that 30% of its leadership positions should be women by 2025. “We have women in Danfoss at different levels, including sales and service, but unfortunately, the challenge we have seen in the Middle East is owing to an expat population,” he says. In Turkey, the contrast could not be sharper, he says. He says that women in the workforce in Turkey have a support system when they are travelling or are delayed on site. “In the GCC region, that support is missing,” he says. “Also, as an industry, we have to improve the image – that AC technicians are not always in overalls covered in grease and hard hats and that they are also in trouble-shooting, involving controls [and remote monitoring].”

Speaking of the oil & gas industry, Bin Bahr says that women may not yet be on site on offshore plants, but they are certainly in high management places. She says women are getting opportunities. “If I want to do something, I will just go and ask,” she says. “We now have the confidence to go forward.