Building Technical Talent through a Global Competency Program to Facilitate Sustainable Growth and Support Superior Business Results
Authors: Leuro Jorge , Kruger Todd 
Published: May 2016

The oil and gas industry is constantly evolving. As technological innovations allow companies to explore and produce from energy reserves previously considered uneconomic, companies must grow in ways to deliver against their latest thinking forecast.

This dynamic growth means that companies should also have an innovative methodology to build and sustain technical talent that aligns with the business needs, both presently and in the future. Sustainable growth of workforce capability in a changing business landscape is challenging. It is like assembling the pieces of a complex puzzle without knowing how the final product should appear.

This paper provides insight into the elements (pieces of the puzzle) that a global oil and gas service company has incorporated into their business-driven competency and employee development program, designed and implemented around a simple, but robust, framework used to support development. This framework has proven to remain aligned with evolving business needs, enabling its thirteen product service lines (PSLs) and ten support functions, in nine regions, to achieve record levels of adoption by its 65,000 employees with competencies defined.

This paper also highlights how clear objectives supported by a corporate strategy helps enable individuals to exercise accountability for their own development and the development of others; how a strong, but flexible, program that satisfies the organization, customer, industry, and government requirements can systematically sustain the development of a growing organization; how the elements can be put together to help ensure necessary adoption of the program by responsible parties; and how proactive demonstration of the competence of the workforce can build confidence in the workforce capability.

The purpose of this information is to share lessons learned and help other organizations develop competent employees to deliver quality products and services in a safe and environmentally acceptable manner.

Introduction

This paper discusses the link between business and workforce growth and how effectively building technical talent is instrumental in ensuring that workforce growth does not hamper the business by lagging behind.

Building technical talent using a flexible, yet robust, competency program, based on simple and basic employee development principles, is essential in systematically sustaining growth expectations. This relies on a successfully implemented program as well as engaged and competent employees who are willing to contribute to the development of the workforce.

Workforce growth occurs in a variety of ways. The preferred methods are organic growth and global mobility. This is where organizations develop employees from within. Employees develop the required technical capability needed for their job titles, promoted based on their demonstrated competence, and/or transferred to other locations based on their demonstrated competence and potential.

The organization relies on the existing competency program to be flexible enough to support both of these methods, as well as the assurance that if there is a shortage of internal technical talent, that an external mid-career hire will be introduced in a timely fashion.