All for one and one for all
By Erika Campbell, HR director, PwC in Aberdeen
Collaboration has been a much repeated buzz word across the oil and gas industry in recent months.
The Wood Review called for a regulator that would promote co-operation and remove barriers to improve recovery levels across the UK continental shelf as well as greater collaboration within the industry. While in our latest Northern Lights report, we highlight how lacklustre collaboration, lack of investment and fragmented supply-chain management could impact the industry’s ability to survive and thrive in the North Sea in the long term.
But collaboration isn’t just about how we interact with other organisations – or indeed government, academia or our local communities. It’s also vital that this ethos of partnership and teamwork is embedded within an organisation.
Faced with multiple open vacancies, an increasing reliance upon contractors and an ageing workforce, many across the industry have already ruminated on the challenges of recruiting and bringing in new sources of talent to the sector with transferable skills. But could there be another way to address this talent shortage – by focusing within?
Embracing more innovative and collaborative employee models could help firms not only attract, but retain and enhance the productivity of their workforce and in turn the longevity of the industry in the North Sea.
Solving the talent equation is complex and, if we are to effectively re-balance it, new areas need to be explored in addition to the supply side. A greater understanding of existing skills and mapping these to current and future needs, investment in programmes designed to accelerate the growth of existing talent and discipline in transferring skills internally are all required as part of closing or easing the skills gap.
Organisations will need to place greater emphasis and investment on personal development of its more junior workforce, identifying future managers and leaders and equipping them with the skill sets needed to meet current and future demands.
Business leaders must also make better use of the wealth of deeply skilled, technical experts within their own organisations. Cultivating a coaching and mentoring programme can help to bridge what is too often a chasm between experienced veterans of the industry and the new crop of front-line leaders.
Unlike other industries such as retail and financial services, where learning and development coaching programmes – not including areas such as mandatory regulatory risk and skills training – have long been embedded within organisations, the oil and gas industry has been slower to adopt this model.
It may be down to the pressured industry environment, particularly on the frontline in the North Sea, or the established workforce not being too willing or able to let down its defences and share their tactics and experiences with the new generation. Whatever the reason, this reluctance to pass on skills is undoubtedly hindering the industry’s campaign in the war for talent.
Adopting a forward thinking approach can have a number of benefits. Fishing from your own talent pool can significantly reduce reliance on poaching new people from the local talent supply chain, which as we know can artificially drive up salaries and reward packages. Focusing internally on a strong employee proposition that includes clear career direction and progression options and distinctive reward packages will help ensure employees recognise their critical role in the organisation. This can significantly improve loyalty, engagement, output and productivity.
And finally, this sustainable approach to nurturing talent would most certainly help to break down the public’s perceptions of Aberdeen’s oil and gas industry as archaic and outdated.
Failure to do things differently will only perpetuate the skills shortage, destabilise the North Sea as a whole, drive unsustainable reward spirals and accelerate the risk of future leaders and niche talent flying to what may become more attractive global oil and gas hubs.
There’s a lot to play for but if organisations embrace an ‘all for one and one for all’ mindset, perhaps we can win not only this ongoing skills campaign in the war for talent, but also play our part in sustaining the long-term future of the North Sea from a talent perspective.