SPE Survey Rates Employee Job Satisfaction

At the request of 2007 SPE President Abdul-Jaleel Al-Khalifa, SPE conducted a survey of Society members to gauge attitudes about happiness on the job, their employers, and other related questions. The survey was intended to help create an industry base line to gauge whether oil and gas employees are fully engaged in their work and are fully utilized by their companies. It also was meant to encourage firms throughout the industry to conduct their own surveys of this type. A total of 40,405 survey invitations were sent by email, from which 9,441 responses were received, a response rate of 23.4%. The survey has a margin of error of 1.16. Respondents included executives, managers, engineers, geologists, geophysicists, and others.

Among the findings:

Just a little more than half of respondents believe their job realizes their full potential.
Three-quarters believe they are more technically competent than they were a year ago.
Most believe their job is secure for another 5 years, and most think they will be promoted during that time. But one-third believe that job security and the chance for promotion are uncertainties.
More than half believe they have a good work/life balance and say they are happy in their jobs, but one-third are not happy. Three-quarters are content with their present employment.
More than two-thirds admire the mission of their companies and believe it promotes solid values, but almost one-third do not.

The results contained both good and bad news for an industry beginning to struggle with shortages in the workforce. The survey showed that a large portion of the workforce is not fully engaged, a critical factor in an industry facing a shortage of talent. Digging deeper into the numbers shows that a little more than half of the respondents, 57%, said that their job utilizes their full potential, while the remainder felt that their job does not (27%) or were neutral on the question. The answers were consistent across geographic locations, but not by job classification and education level. By job, 74% of executives felt that their job utilizes their full potential, while just 52–57% of the other job classes shared this belief. Only those with PhD degrees answered significantly differently from the other educational levels, with 66% of PhD holders believing that their job makes full use of their skills and expertise. By age group, 53–58% of people younger than 55 believe that their job taps their full potential, while the percentage increased to 60% for ages 55–64 and to 69% for those over 64.

On a more personal question, 60% of the respondents said they enjoy a work/life balance in their current job, while 21% do not and 19% were neutral. Geographically, the perception of work/life balance was highest in North America (63%), Africa/Middle East (61%), and South America/Caribbean (60%), and lowest in Asia/Asia Pacific at 56%. The differences by job class and education level were not significant. By age, the perception of work/life balance was highest in those over 64 and under 25.

Approximately two-thirds of respondents (68%) said they are happy in their jobs, while 20% were neutral and 12% not happy. Those in North America expressed the highest level of job happiness (71%), as did those in executive and managerial positions. Job happiness tended to increase slightly with age.

Taking everything into account, 73% of the respondents said they are satisfied with their present employment, while 16% are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and 11% are dissatisfied. By location, the most satisfied are from North America (77%), Australia/New Zealand (75%), and Europe/Russia (73%). Least satisfied are from Asia/Asia Pacific (63%). By job class, the higher the job class, the greater the satisfaction. By education, PhDs were the most satisfied. By age, after 25 the level of satisfaction increased gradually, from 70% (age 25–34) to 78% (over age 64).

Technical Competence

Overall, 73% felt that they are more qualified technically than they were a year ago. By locale, there were significant differences, with the most affirmative rankings coming from Africa/Middle East and South America/Caribbean. The higher the job class, the less the respondents rated their technical improvement from a year ago; 80% of engineers said they were more qualified, while only 60% of executives shared this opinion. And, as might be expected, younger workers were more likely to believe their technical skills had improved.

Companies received mostly favorable remarks. Overall, 71% of respondents said that they admire the mission of their company, and 70% believe that their company practices the values of fairness, trust, and integrity. The higher the job class, the more favorably the company is viewed. By geographic location, percentages were highest on the company values question in North America (79%) and Europe/Russia (72%), and lowest in Africa/Middle East (56%) and Asia/Asia Pacific (60%). A slight majority (58%) agreed that their company management is interested in the opinions and thinking of its employees.

Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Religion

Overall, 72% said they believed that advancement opportunities are not hindered by race, ethnicity, gender, or religion. But that sentiment was not uniform across geographic regions. In Australia/New Zealand, 82% of respondents agreed that job opportunities are not hindered by those factors, and, in North America and Europe/Russia, 80% and 78%, respectively, agreed. In Africa/Middle East and Asia/Asia Pacific, only 51% and 63%, respectively, agreed. The survey also showed that the higher the job class, education level, and age, the less likely those factors influence job opportunity

The survey also asked about job performance reviews. The highest percentage of employees (43%) meet with their boss for a performance review once a year, while 27% meet every 6 months and 19% meet quarterly. A total of 11% said that they never meet for a performance review. By geographic location, those meeting most frequently for review and feedback were located in Australia/New Zealand, Europe/Russia, and Asia/Asia Pacific, while those meeting less frequently included North America and Africa/Middle East. By job class, those meeting most frequently were engineers and geologists/geophysicists, and meeting less frequently were superintendents and foremen. By education level, the higher the education level, the more frequent the meetings for review and feedback. By age group, the higher the age group, the less frequent the meetings for review and feedback.