Recommendation 83

A further challenge relates to retaining existing staff. Witnesses told us that uncertainty about future workloads could lead to staff leaving their roles. John Howie of Babcock said: “There are inherent inefficiencies in ordering a batch of ships and then not ordering anything for four, five or six years. It is hard to retain workforces.”134 Richard Powell of the Society of Maritime Industries (SMI) explained that “[i]f you have that uncertainty because you have been four years on a contract or six years on a Type 45 and so on, and there is no prospect of future work, they will go.”135 Professor John Louth 127 Q42; Q95; Q101; Qq148–149 128 Professor Trevor Taylor, RUSI (DIS0033) 129 Q38 130 City of Glasgow College (DIS0035) 131 Q62 132 Q75 133 Q77 134 Q83 135 Q44 Defence in Scotland: military shipbuilding 31 suggested a further factor that might make retaining talented staff difficult: […] there is a suggestion that many young professionals take advantage of excellent corporate graduate schemes to hone their engineering and scientific skills, then leave at an early opportunity to explore more entrepreneurial leanings rather than being trapped in conventional, non-cutting-edge design, build and maintenance bureaucracies.136 He pointed to research showing that around 80 per cent of individuals who leave the defence sector before the normal retirement date do not return to the sector.137