June
2016
HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
66
THE RECRUITMENT CHALLENGE
encouraging employees to volunteer for these programmes.
We need to work together with educators and policy makers
to cultivate the engineering employees needed to ensure
competitiveness. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, LENA has partnered
with Junior Achievement to spark interest in engineering. A
number of our engineering staff have volunteered to teach
and provide practical examples of the importance of
engineering in our everyday lives. We participate in college
fairs to build awareness of our brand, and we are involved in
the college programmes of several engineering societies, such
as AIChE. Across our North American locations, we have
established college and university internship programmes;
these have led to a number of conversions from internship to
full time employment.
“Certainly you need to be where your industry and
competitors are to access a larger pool of engineering and
technical staff. This is a major reason that LENA is expanding
its presence in Houston, with a new location in the Energy
Corridor. We are currently working to fill a number of new
positions in that market.
“With the current market slump, there are more
applicants to choose from, but you need to have a retention
plan in place to keep qualified technical staff before the
market picks up again. It is tough to keep them in the
competitive downstream market.
“Mentoring is so important to the health of a company.
Encouraging employees to take an active role in sharing
knowledge and best practices builds engagement. The
collaborative nature of mentoring develops individuals on
both sides of the equation and builds relationships. When
employees know the part they play and their relevance in
the success of the organisation, the company is stronger and
more effective. At LENA, we have a mentoring programme in
place to train mentors, identify talent that we want to
develop further and pair up those employees. A great
example of the success of this programme is the number of
mentees that have since become leaders in our organisation;
within 12 - 18 months, 75% of participants have moved into a
management role. We are now rolling out a technical
mentoring programme to really home in on the specific skills
needed for the technologies that we supply.
“Another retention tool that is vital to the company’s
success is succession planning. Succession planning is
necessary to identify the next level of management within
the organisation or show risks if no successor is identified for
a critical position. As employees are identified as successors,
this lets them know their work is being recognised and
therefore increases engagement and retention.
“We need to be attuned to generational differences and
what they value. Being part of a global organisation offers
many benefits such as cross cultural collaboration and
opportunities for employees to work/train abroad. This is
attractive to college students, as many have had the
opportunity to study abroad and are looking for employers
with that potential.
“Whether the market is up or down, there is no question
that we all need to acknowledge the need to develop the
STEM pipeline, and have programmes and plans in place to
continue to attract, develop, engage and retain in-house
talent.”
PETROPLAN
Huw Rothwell, Regional Director, and Andrew Duffy,
Senior Consultant – LNG and Downstream, examine why
the recruitment industry must plan for the inevitable
rebound in oil prices:
“The downstream oil and gas sector is often seen as benefiting
from the downturn in the oil price, thanks to the fall in the
cost of feedstock. However, when seen from a recruitment
perspective, the situation is more nuanced than it seems.
“With the US refining industry operating at around 85%
capacity, according to the US Energy Information
Administration, the outlook for recruiters appears very
positive. Planned maintenance is increasing, plant
turnarounds are increasing – and both require skilled
personnel. The situation appears even rosier for
petrochemicals companies, where more in demand
speciality products continue to get high margins – and there
is a need for a lot of new construction work.
“For the LNG industry, the current need is for engineering
hires to get new projects off the ground. This is likely to shift
in three to four years when these projects move into the
operational phase – the average LNG project in the US
requires 2000 - 6000 personnel during the construction
phase. Looking further into the future, the recruitment
situation in LNG will depend on the scale of take up of LNG
as a fuel, particularly for transport.
“So, demand for people is strong in the downstream
recruitment market – the challenge is that supply does not
match this demand. Downstream companies do not just
want an engineer with general experience; they want an
engineer with specific project experience, or specific
technology experience. This is the barrier that those trying
to re-skill and make the jump from the upstream sector are
coming up against: general experience in the oil and gas
industry is not enough.
“The demographic issue facing the industry is well
documented: a lack of graduates in relevant disciplines
coming in, combined with a generation of experienced
workers due to retire. Where we are seeing scarcity in the
downstream sector at present, however, is in mid-career
candidates – those with between 10 and 20 years' experience
in the industry. These candidates have been in the industry
long enough to build up experience, but are still young
enough in their careers to be open to a move.
“In spite of the buoyancy of the downstream sector,
salaries and day rates have been impacted by the oil price
context. For integrated companies, remuneration for those
on the downstream side has been hit by what is happening in
the upstream part of the business.
“Petroplan is best known in the upstream sector, but has
always supported projects across the entire supply chain of
oil and gas. We are currently increasing our downstream
capabilities to reflect the needs of our clients – in fact, we
ourselves are hiring in order to meet demand.
“With the uncertain geopolitical climate and supply risks
around the word, the oil price will inevitably rebound – and
we must plan for that. So, while we are investing in
downstream as a growth area, we are maintaining our
longstanding relationships and client base in upstream and
midstream too.”
