TRAINING Insights
THE oil and gas industry is fac- ing a bigger workforce chal- lenge than ever before. The
recent boom has resulted in a wide-
spread labor shortage, the baby boom-
er generation is near retirement, and
studies have found that the oil and
gas industry is struggling with effec-
tive leadership – with just one in 20
professionals fitting the profile of an
effective leader today.
The so-called “Big Shift Change,”
when baby boomers will retire in
droves and leave 500,000 openings
in the oil and gas industry over the
next five years, presents a major risk
for companies as they lose decades of
institutional and industry knowledge.
Compounding the issue further is
the reduced number of students applying for and completing STEM university courses, the complex nature of the
industry, rapid changes in technology and unique safety concerns, which
means that we’re at a critical point in
time for companies to have robust talent programs to identify and train
“high-potential” (HiPo) employees.
HiPos are identified by their leadership characteristics, and they are twice
as valuable as their non-HiPo peers
because they save their companies
millions through efficiency, leadership
and longer tenures.
Major U.S. corporations spend
an average of $3 million every year
on leadership and development pro-
grams for HiPo employees, often strug-
gle with keeping them with the com-
pany -- more than half of will leave
within five years. Our research shows
companies can reduce flight risk and
improve the success of their HiPo pro-
grams more than tenfold if they offer
the right kind of training that devel-
ops leaders’ ability to motivate others,
effectively communicate and support
others through change.
Here are five actions consistently taken by successful companies that
result in strong HiPo programs, low
turnover and increased savings that
the oil and gas industry should institute now:
Recognize that employees need
more than strong performance in
their current role to succeed in future
roles. The shortage of leaders in oil
and gas could be explained by the
lack of support and training provided
to those managers who worked their
Five Steps to Find the
Best Employees Before
the Big Shift Change
By Jean Martin
JEAN MARTIN is an executive director and Eugene Burke is the chief scientist and
analytics officer at CEB, the leading member-based research and advisory firm.
