Global energy growth over the next 20 years is expected to be dominated by emerging economies, with primary energy use growing by nearly 40%. As a result, the exploration and production (E&P) industry will be tasked with accessing hydrocarbons in new, more challenging frontiers. This challenge will require increased skills, capabilities, and technologies across the world, and meeting it starts with a disciplined, methodical, and long-term learning and development plan.
Along with steadily increasing global energy demand and fierce competition for talent among oil and gas industry sector employers, there are three additional factors driving the demand for progressive learning and development programs:
- The aging workforce and corresponding skills gap. Experienced professionals are retiring and being replaced by younger, less experienced hires.
- The complexity of the resource plays being explored and the vast, rapidly changing portfolio of technology required to enable production.
- Forging long-term partnerships with national oil companies (NOCs) in disparate global regions necessitates a new orientation to how the oil and gas industry engages and develops employees.
Bridging the Talent Gap
There is a sense of urgency across the energy industry—one that stems from the need to attract, retain, train, and develop top talent that will see us through the challenges to come. A recent BP-sponsored SPE survey of more than 750 participants from 24 countries revealed an industrywide desire for training.
Three-quarters (74.6%) of the survey’s participants stated that access to training and development programs is important in their choice of position, and more than half (53.3%) said that a lack of opportunities would be enough for them to consider leaving their employer. Whether leaving a particular employer or the oil and gas industry altogether, this statistic cannot be ignored. It is imperative to position E&P as the industry of choice among scientists and engineers seeking fulfilling and challenging careers.
The SPE survey also sheds light on some noteworthy differences in preferences for the mode of training, with younger respondents expecting their employer to be the primary facilitator, providing almost all training, whereas more experienced professionals were more self-reliant in procuring training. Fortunately, the industry is taking deliberate steps to close the talent gap while aligning and accelerating all areas of development with overarching business objectives.
Embracing New Ways of Learning
E&P becomes more complex each day, and technology used by petrotechnical experts continues to evolve at an unprecedented rate. To keep pace, employers are using state-of-the-art facilities to host accelerated E&P learning programs around the world.
In addition to investing in experiential learning technology, the industry is also keen to invest in career paths and programs that support the employee’s development throughout the spectrum of his or her career. The first step is adopting a “hire through retire” mentality that provides employees with training and development that is holistic, hands-on, and relevant.
One such early career example is BP’s Upstream Challenge Program, a development program for technical and professional disciplines. It is aimed at postgraduates and melds practical experience with formal learning while building discipline foundations within the E&P segment by mapping out the first 3 years of an individual’s career.
Considering that 86% of all respondents said starting a career in oil and gas requires training, such development programs address a pressing need to cultivate deep geoscience and engineering capabilities.
However, the respondents see a dual need to develop their technical skills while learning how to effectively deploy them in the work environment. The survey data noted business skills, including leadership, communication, and management, are critical factors for development and advancement. A truly holistic training and development program will enhance not just the way employees do their jobs, but also improve the ways in which they work together to achieve common business objectives.
Performance-Based Development
The complexity of work also creates the need to change the way we define “success” in learning and development. Gone are the traditional “transactional” means of measuring the number of classroom attendees or passing grades on a course. At BP, we measure learning and development in terms of business impact and performance metrics. Were processes improved? Are employees now working more efficiently and safely?
This shift to performance-based learning enables a more rapid translation of training into measurable business impact and behavior changes in the field. It is achieved by focusing on the performance gap and then making learning more contextual, through highly immersive teaching environments that simulate real-world field conditions. As a result, employees safely push personal and professional boundaries, resulting in better performance. For example, we have seen sharp associations between targeted “learning interventions” and the execution of faster and safer turnarounds. The role of technology is twofold: enabling the simulations where weak signals of problems can be seen and delivering some basic content locally, reducing time away from the job.
Related to the latter, providing innovative, technology-enabled learning is crucial for reaching a global audience and meeting the needs for nationalization agendas. Standard fare e-learning programs have been replaced by virtual learning environments and fit-for-purpose distance learning classrooms that use highly interactive blends of learning technologies. In short, technology enables an employee in a distant region to receive the same attention and quality learning experience as the employee at a flagship learning center.
Unlocking employee potential re-quires a blend of formal classroom training led by world-class faculty, on-the-job training, experiential learning and purposeful mentoring. Bearing in mind that 25% of respondents felt a lack of training is detrimental to their career, it is time to facilitate the creation of uniform standards that center on a holistic and performance-based approach to learning and development across companies, industry organizations, universities, and borders. The result will be increased capabilities for the sector.
Building Global Capability
Every year, the E&P segment expands its geographic reach with new resource holders. As the scope of work expands in both complexity and geography, private companies seek to develop high-performing national employees through partnerships with NOCs.
For example, major oil companies (majors) have historically partnered with in-country universities to better equip them with the knowledge, technology, and expat expertise that are required for today’s workforce. Yet inconsistency remains in the quality and depth of the education at universities in various emerging regions. We should seek more uniform standards and tighter collaboration with universities to support focused, regional learning and development programs. This is precisely why part of our company’s approach has been the establishment and funding of a coordinated program of research activities in premier universities around the world in an effort to build capability among nationals.
This broad collaboration with governments, resource holders, and universities not only stimulates the local economy, but also demonstrates a commitment to the areas in which the majors operate. Together, we are better able to foster and encourage diversity of thought and workforce within the industry. However, we cannot do this without a long-term, global learning and development framework.
Conclusion
Nurturing talent and having an engaged workforce goes right to the heart of our industry’s competitive advantage in the battle for talent. Maintaining the talent pipeline is particularly important today as the energy industry faces an impending shortage of and increased competition for many of its professional disciplines. To compete with other market participants for access to the talent required to operate, the industry must respond to the learning and development demands of its employees. We either adapt to these new requirements or it is clear that employees will seek better alternatives—perhaps even choosing a career outside the oil and gas industry.
The challenge is to position E&P as the industry of choice by maximizing capability in established and emerging regions, increasing diversity and creating compelling long-term career paths built on lifelong learning. Applying a long-term approach to employee development helps to ensure continuity in the competencies, skills, and, most importantly, performance needed for the industry to not just endure, but to thrive. JPT
To download the complete BP-sponsored SPE learning and development survey, visit http://www.spe.org/career/docs/12Training-and-Development-Study.pdf
About the Author
Don Shoultz is head of Upstream Learning and Development at BP. He is responsible for leading a team of learning professionals in developing and managing business-focused learning interventions for the segment’s petrotechnical employees. His background includes more than 25 years in leadership positions in learning and leadership development, human resources, organizational effectiveness, and talent acquisition in the automotive and aerospace industries.
Before joining BP, Shoultz directed all aspects of learning and development for Ford Motor’s central learning organization. Some of his key accomplishments include developing people strategies to improve cross-functional synergy and teamwork during the early phases of new product development. He holds a master’s degree in learning and development from Kent State University and a PhD degree in leadership and organizational development from the University of South Florida.