Energy is one of the most powerful sectors in the world’s economy – six out of the top ten biggest companies in the world fall into the oil and gas sectors. However, as shortfalls of high and low-skilled workers continue to fuel the war for talent within industry across Asia and the Middle East, never has there been a more important time for HR practitioners to focus on recruiting, retaining and developing tomorrow’s talent to ensure the continued flow of adequately skilled professionals.
This year’s People in Energy East Summit brought together some of the region’s most senior HR management executives to tackle real world workforce issues that are impacting the bottom line of organisations within the oil and gas industry across the globe. Offering insight and practical sessions, the two-day event addressed the latest strategies in recruitment, leadership development, learning, organisational capability, engagement and retention that aim to drive increased productivity and business excellence in the energy markets in Asia and the Middle East.
Puan Raiha Azni Abdul Rahman, Vice President Human Resource Management Division, Petronas
Topic: Building Own Timber—A Shared Future
Opening the two day summit, Rahman shared insight into the human capital philosophy of PETRONAS and how it translates into recruitment, capability and succession planning. Overcoming the global talent war was at the heart of Rahman’s presentation, as she explained the strategic steps the company has taken to build its ‘own timber’ since 1974, including boosting the number of young executive hires, establishing the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) in 1997 and sponsoring 400 local school children in an attempt to nurture the next generation of talent. Rahman also tackled issues relating to the attraction, retention and development of Generation Y and the importance of long-term growth and development, concluding, “If you’re looking for dollars and cents we may not be the choice for you, but if you’re looking for growth and development then we’re the place for you”.
Kenneth Rediker Ph.D, Former Director, Management Development, Saudi Aramco
Topic: Accelerating the Development of High Potentials—The Needs and Challenges for Leaders and Organisations
How do you identify high potential talent? Who are they? Where are they and why do you need them now? These were the questions posed by Rediker, who explored the challenges of what attributes matter most when it comes to identifying high potential leaders. Is the most important thing experience, past performance, education, forma assessment results or senior management judgements? Forbes Asia’s feature on Asia's Women In The Mix, 2013: The Year's Top 50 for Achievement In Business, ranked energy, ideas, charisma and clout as the most desirable qualities in it’s ‘twelve women to watch’. Identifying what matters most in candidates is an educated guess when looking 7 or 8 years ahead and whether to fix the low performers and low potentials, or focus energy on HiPos is a dilemma. Rediker shared Saudi Aramco’s strategies on how to identify and develop them, summarizing that, “Identifying HiPos alone isn’t adequate, if we want to demonstrate ROI on HiPos then development of them is critical.”
Joe Chalouhi, Senior HR Director Middle East North Africa, Turkey & Pakistan, GE Energy
Topic: Coaching & Mentoring—Driving a culture for superior performance
”People are different and one style of management does not fit all” was at the heart of Chalouhi’s presentation, which addressed the importance of catering for the demands and needs of a multinational, multigenerational pool of talent within the oil and gas industry. As workforces become more transient, more transnational, and more ‘Gen Y’, the challenge to attract, retain and develop top talent is becoming ever more challenging for HR. “Get to know your teams, get to know their diverse culture and backgrounds and get to know what they really want”, was Chalouhi’s advice. He stressed the importance of building trustful relationships and investing in modern and effective coaching and mentoring to ensure talent is nurtured in the long-term, whether that is for the baby-boomers or the Gen Ys of an organisation.
Dave Reed, VP Business Efficiency, Senergy International Sdn Bhd
Gary Miles, Director of International Operations and Associate Relations, Roffey Park Institute LTD
Topic: Leadership Development in a Technical Organisation—The Partnership Between Senergy and Roffey Park
“Managers are often so busy cutting down the trees they can’t see the forest, leaders climb the tallest tree and shout down. ‘We’re in the wrong forest,’ was the powerful analogy used by Reed to convey the importance of aligning leadership style with an organisation’s long-term objectives. He explained that companies and people development programmes are built on an element of predictions about the market, but in fact the future cannot be predicted. Therefore, the process of dealing with people and getting the best out of them is an organic process almost like farming where you need to nurture them. “When it comes to innovation and building good pioneering solutions and integrity, honesty and openness, real leadership is about walking the talk and living the values”, he explained. A leadership programme must mirror the core values of a business and companies not only need to know what they have delivered to their teams, they also need to look at how they have delivered it. A 360 degree analysis is important in order to obtain sufficient data and for leadership training to work—a strong framework is key.
Dinesh Chelvathurai, Chief Learning Officer, Scomi Group
Topic: Developing a Talent Management Programme Within Your Organisation—How Scomi Group Did It
”By 2020, leaders will have to cope with the tantrums of five generations and it’s not going to be easy.” This was the core message of Chelvathurai’s presentation. He went on to explain that by this date more than 50% of the working population will be Gen Yers and how to deal with the challenges of this demanding generation, when it comes to gaining rewards, achieving a healthy work-life balance and maintaining engagement, are all things business leaders will need to consider. Times have changed and whereas for those working within the industry were once happy to up their lives and be posted abroad with their partner in tail, there is now the “dual career” issue where men and women alike are committed to their jobs and not as flexible as they once were. Building relationships with employees is fundamental to be an effective leader, Chelvathurai advised, as he stressed the importance of tailoring a talent management programme to fit the cultural needs of a country and aligning HR strategies with the business needs of the company, something that the Scomi Group is striving to achieve.
Adele Bernard, Head of Cloud Marketing for Asia Pacific and Japan, SuccessFactors, an SAP Company
Topic: Shortage of Skilled Labour – McKinsey Predicts The War For Talent Will Go Nuts By 2020
Lack of critical competency creates capacity bottlenecks and prevents organisations from performing crucial tasks and the war for talent will “go nuts” by 2020, according to Bernard. The shortfalls of high and low-skilled workers will have a huge effect on how HR practitioners will go about their recruiting. Taking Malaysia as an example, she explained that the oil and gas industry would require over 40,000 skilled workers by 2015, a tall order for HR teams in the region. Recruitment has become complex and with 300 million job seekers every day beginning their hunt using a search engine, and 90% of candidates not applying for jobs they see on job boards the first time, companies must move from reactive to proactive mode in order to ensure supply and demand are met and they adopt engaging, online strategies to entice top talent.
Jatinder Peters, Former Head Delhi Office and GGM (HR) – Chief Corporate Affairs, Oil & Natural Gas Corporate Ltd, Secretary of Petrotech & Vice Chairman at National Institute of Personnel Management
Topic: Bridging the Gender Gap – Attracting and Engaging Women Professionals
”A women is like a teabag: you cannot tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water”, Peters claimed as she shared insight into the proportion of women on Boards across the globe. She believes that the oil and gas industry as a whole has not been highlighting career prospects and the linkage between the industry and academia is largely missing. Today, integration is the name of the game and she explained the need to not just recruit and retain staff, but also to reequip them with skills required for the industry. She explored issues such as the necessity of keeping women in touch with technical advances while they are on paternity leave, of assigning mentors, facilitating and evolving existing gender roles and overcome practical problems in order to accelerate women to the top and raise their professional status.
Sarah Bass, Head of HR Asia Pacific, GL Noble Denton
Topic: The Business Case for Employee Engagement and Monitoring its Effectiveness
‘’What is employee engagement?” Bass asked, “It means something different to each company, but it isn’t about spending huge amounts of money, it’s about engaging employees and getting them to stay, as simple as that.” Most organisations now invest time in finding out what their employees think about the business and the direction it is growing as part of its strategy to engage staff within an organisation, as engaged employees understand the business. She explained that having employees and the organisation working in tandem is good for business and for people. Using case studies to bring theory to life, Bass explored the key steps to the employee engagement cycle, whilst stressing the importance of instilling credibility, respect, and camaraderie among employees.
Sanjay Singh, Director Human Resources, Cairn India
Topic: Making the Difference – Constructing a Solid Employer Brand
A brand should be true to itself from whatever perspective you see it, explained Singh, as he shared his insight into the fundamental elements of successful employer branding. A new recruit will decide whether they will stay or leave an organisation within the first two days of their employment, therefore the essence of an organisation should be genuine from the inside out as much as the outside in. Organisations must be distinctive in order to attract and retain the best talent in times of shortage and this does not have to be complicated. Building a brand around a core set of values and objectives is the best place to start and if these are solid and true and established from day one of employment, a company stands a far better chance of developing its people and growing its business.
Madhusudanan Balan, Chief Talent Officer (Vice President Human Resources), Bumi Armada
Topic: Navigating Towards Rapid Growth through Talent Management
“Employer branding and employer promise is vital,” explained Balan. “When people come from different backgrounds it’s important to know if the company is what they expected it to be.” He explained the steps the company has adopted to reach its goal of doubling the business in the next 3 to 5 years and what needs to happen with talent management in order to achieve this. Among its 2,000 employees from 25 different nationalities, the organisation has several offerings to meet the need of a multicultural workforce, spanning from mentoring and on-boarding programmes, e-learning on environmental awareness and office safety, lunch sharing sessions, employee internet accessible from around the world, employee stock options schemes (ESOS), seafarers blogs and complaint channels to name a few. Balan summarised, “We don’t hire based on cost, we hire for talent we hire for skills and these strategies allow us to empower our people.”
Rohit Zutshi, Head of Human Resources Asia, Gazprom Marketing & Trading
Topic: Leveraging Experienced Professionals for Training Initiatives – The Development of Formal Knowledge Transfer Programs
The oil and gas industry depends on experience and how mature, experienced professionals are used by HR within an organisation in order to coach and mentor new talent is vital, explained Zutshi. Transferring knowledge and learning from experience from generation to generation is core to Gazprom’s talent development strategy and putting an expert from the business at the head of L&D can encourage this. Filling the talent gap is another tall order for HR and overcoming the war for talent poses several challenges for businesses in the sector, especially with economic, political and environmental issues thrown into the mix. Engagement, talent development and career progression is what employees are looking for and with competition rising within the limited talent pool, management mantras must align to these desires in order for companies to retain their people.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
