Reacting to a Changing Market

An Executive Interview with AC Engineering

Christopher Wood, Managing Director, AC Engineering, reveals his thoughts on the current challenges of recruitment and retention in the oil and gas industry.

“In the present market it is vital that management has up-to-date information about what is happening in the marketplace now to enable them to make informed strategic decisions”
-Christopher Wood, AC Engineering

O&G. In your opinion, what needs to be done to address the serious lack of skilled and qualified workers in the oil and gas industry today?
CW. For the individual companies in North Europe, USA and Canada they need to be willing to accept the skilled labor from India, China, Philippines and south East Asia.

At the same time develop the skills of the local workforce into lead and supervisory positions. With an initial strict selection process of new candidates from abroad training and cultural learning can be kept to a minimum, this will fix a short-term problem.

O&G. What are the main recruitment and retention challenges in the oil and gas industry and how can companies ensure they are attracting, developing and managing the right talent?
CW. The main problems to be addressed here is job security, job satisfaction and plain old boredom. This is a worry for many skilled professionals thinking of entering into the oil and gas industry. What can you do about this? Firstly, invest some time training in key areas, such as in-house software and standards, and develop the candidate’s skills in all areas, so the candidate can be attractive to other departments within the same company.

Boredom and loneliness is an issue that many companies brush under the carpet or just don’t understand. I have had so many candidates wanting to leave main cities and large companies to come and work for AC Engineering because we have a cricket team, monthly quiz nights and bowling league. To create a fun and friendly social network within the foreign non-local workforce is crucial to retaining your workforce. A good agency will spend many hours devoted to keeping their employees happy and socially stimulated. This can be as much fun for the agency staff as it is for the candidate, and the agency will benefit from this more than they can imagine. The time and money spent on this will be well worth it, and the agency will gain loyalty from its employees and appreciation and respect from the clients. If a candidate leaves to join a new company because of a few more penny’s an hour, this person will probably do the same to his next employer.

O&G. Given that recruitment is not necessarily a core competency for oil and gas companies, how can they benefit from bringing in specialist recruitment professionals?
CW. There are so many areas in which specialist recruitment professionals can help.

The few obvious ones are fresh new pools of skilled candidates from around the world. They are also more experienced at dealing with different cultures and addressing the individual needs that the culture demands, saving time on advertising, filtering of CV’s, and in some cases gaining a new professional project partner, supplying skilled labor from project conception to commission.

O&G. How do you see the future outlook for recruitment and retention in the oil and gas industry? What trends/developments do you think will have the greatest influence on the recruitment sector over the next 12-18 months?
CW. With the large number of redundancies in the financial and banking markets coupled with predictions that unemployment will soar next year, recruiters need to react to changing market conditions. There is little that can be done now but those companies that planned and built their businesses on strong foundations are more likely to be the winners.

Recruiters operating in niche markets such as parts of the public sector, medical, energy and utilities will be well positioned. Some niche operators will get stronger, particularly if they operate in markets where there are candidate shortages and high barriers to entry.

Agencies with a strong client-service and ethic are more likely to maintain client relationships under pressure from other recruiters chasing a diminishing pool of vacancies.

In the present market it is vital that management has up-to-date information about what is happening in the marketplace now to enable them to make informed strategic decisions.