Small Business Today Magazine OCT 2014 THE EFFORT COMPANIES | Page 38

EDITORIALFEATURE

Addressing the Oil and Gas Human Capital Shortage

with Workforce Optimization Innovative Solutions
By Laquitta DeMerchant

W

orkforce optimization is pertinent to
operations, human resources, and information technology vertical teams across
chemical facilities, gas plants, petroleum refineries, pipeline, terminals, and power plants.  Oil
and Gas HR departments lose staff skill set visibility during the first quarter, if not, within six months
of an employee being hired.  Once an employee’srésumé is on file, it is rarely updated.  When
large oil and gas companies create new projects
or post jobs, the company has no business unit
nor cross-departmental insight into the real-time
skill set of employees that may be a viable fit.  HR
can only compare the new position to the last
résumé submitted by an employee.  This can be
5, 10, or 15 year old résumés.  Business Unit (BU)
managers face the same challenges.   Managers
with large engineering teams consisting of 75+
employees use manual tools, like Microsoft Excel
spreadsheets, to document the expansion of employee skill sets.  To solidify a sustainable competitive advantage, companies need a way to resolve
this problem.
Companies spend $2.2 billion globally on staff
development and retention.  Despite the continued growth of women earning advanced degrees
and entering the work place, companies have yet
to find a way to consistently and easily identify
talent within its own ranks that can fill open positions, especially leadership positions.  After surveying 272 women in the oil and gas industry, a key
finding of a global talent agency discovered 75%
of women felt welcome working in the oil and
gas industry yet 45% didn’t feel they got the same
recognition as their male colleagues.  To attract
more women to the industry, companies should
give their existing women employees a chance to
take more challenging offshore roles and provide
equal benefits and leadership opportunities.
A viable workforce optimization solution must
provide a way for BU and cross-departmental
leadership to have a real-time view into the skill
set and accomplishments of all employees.  Exec-

36 SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE [ OCTOBER 2014 ]

Companies spend $2.2
billion globally on staff
development and retention. 
Despite the continued growth
of women earning advanced
degrees and entering
the work place,
companies have yet to find
a way to consistently and
easily identify talent within
its own ranks that can
fill open positions, especially
leadership positions.  
utive leadership needs a way to validate their financial investment into training and development
program leads to domestic (including offshore)
and international opportunities.

In regards to staff development, there is a plethora of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)