No need to worry about when the Big Crew Change is going to happen—it’s already here. Staffing issues are among the key challenges facing operators and contractors. Many companies are relying on recruitment firms to help them find talented and qualified employees.

One such company is NES Global Talent, a U.K. company with offices worldwide. NES has been operating an office in Houston for 15 years and has medium-term plans to open offices in other U.S. hotspots such as Pittsburgh, Pa., and Midland, Texas. Andrew Carr, lead search consultant for NES, attended the recent American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) annual meeting in Houston and talked about his company’s approach to finding the best person for the job.

Increasing market presence

Carr said that NES tries to differentiate itself by getting its name out there. It had a presence at AAPG to find what he calls “passive candidates,” people who aren’t actively looking for a job but are interested in learning what opportunities are available.

It also has a very discipline-specific group of consultants. Carr’s team, for instance, only covers subsurface jobs. Other disciplines include drilling, completions and petroleum engineering. “We like to think our consultants are real specialists in their given markets and are increasing their knowledge of what candidates are in the market and what specific projects are happening that we can make them aware of,” he said. “I think a lot of companies are having to get a little bit creative in what they’re offering and what opportunities they are creating.”

For instance, he added, many companies are becoming a little more diverse by including more women in the workplace. A recent NES report titled “Attracting and retaining women in oil and gas engineering” noted that the engineering sector is facing “a crippling skills shortage.”

“The industry needs to find creative ways to attract women, not just at primary and secondary school level but at an undergraduate and graduate level,” wrote Neil Tregarthen, CEO of NES. “It must also continue to work to attract women working in other industries to oil and gas engineering, shining a spotlight on what a welcoming and rewarding career it can be and highlighting the opportunities.”

Beyond that, Carr said, it boils down to demographics. “I think one of the biggest changes we’re seeing is that companies are realizing that they just aren’t bringing in employees with eight to 20 years of experience,” he said. “Essentially they will be the next generation of leaders in the business. They’re really going all out to get those individuals on board, whether it be changes in position, going from purely technical roles into leadership opportunities, or almost creating roles for specific individuals to at least get them into the business.”

Another differentiator is the fact that the company is trying to get away from being perceived as just a staffing firm. Carr said that NES wants to provide more of a consultancy service to its clients.

“We now offer what we call our five permanent solutions,” he said. “We have your standard contingent recruitment, but we can offer a full retained service as well. We cover multinational deployment, and we can deploy NES staff on site with clients.”

He added that several NES employees work onsite with a major engineering company and have helped it recruit 150 new hires in just a few months. “We take the recruitment process off their hands and outsource it to ourselves, running it as an entire project,” he said. “When you’re going through that kind of growth, it really takes the strain off of the internal recruitment teams, especially in these kinds of niche disciplines.”

Going back for seconds

Carr’s subsurface area covers geoscience, reservoir engineering and petrophysics, and within those disciplines retirements are already having a profound effect. But not all of them stay retired.

“A lot of people who did retire are coming back to the industry because of the salaries they can now command,” he said. “The day rates on a consultancy basis for candidates with 30 to 35 years of experience have really gone through the roof in the last few years, so they can come back to the industry for one to three years on a contract basis and set themselves up for retirement again.”

Looking for work?
Companies are not the only ones benefiting from these types of services. Carr said that NES offers “the full life-cycle service” to employees looking for work. Candidates are advised on curriculum vitae preparation and interview preparation as well as knowledge about the industry in general.

“A lot of people who have been working within a company for their entire career have absolutely no experience at going to an interview and really showing their skills,” he said. “From a permanent perspective, we manage the entire process, from presentation to the client through to salary negotiation to ensure the smoothest process and transition we can.”

Mindful of the fact that not all oil and gas jobs are permanent, the company also works with contractors from contract generation to onsite support for staff during their tenure with a company.

Global perspective

Countries such as the U.S. are actively seeking employees from around the world, and NES helps these companies in that search. Carr said that U.S. companies are embracing the concept of bringing in people from other countries, and the main issue is the difficulty in procuring work visas.

“A lot of companies are increasing their reliance on intercompany transfers,” he said. “Businesses like BP, Anadarko, ExxonMobil and Hess that have international offices are transferring staff from there to the U.S. to pick up the workload in their Houston hubs. A lot of these people are staying here and going down the green card route and looking to remain here longer term, which hopefully should address some of the issues with the skills shortage and the demographic change as well.”

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