Executive Viewpoint

Vol. 233 No. 9

The true value of training

There’s a change taking place in the oil and gas industry. Thousands of geoscientists, petroleum engineers and oilfield workers, who were hired before the 1980s oil bust and recruitment freeze, are now reaching the retirement age. As these professionals leave the industry, they’re taking important knowledge and experience with them, and the current upswing in recruitment isn’t enough to slow the drain. This exodus from the industry is creating a challenging labor and knowledge gap.

Oil and gas companies must increase their new employees’ speed to proficiency and quickly transform them into workers, who are as reliable as those who’ve been in the field for 20 years. To accomplish this, oil and gas companies need to put in place training programs that allow them to adapt quickly to new spikes in employment. Adding to the challenge is the oil and gas industry’s globally dispersed employee base and the ever-changing regulatory landscape, which can lead to a complex training system with layers of costs that aren’t easily calculated.

The time for a new way to train has come, and operators, who aren’t adapting and upgrading their training programs, put themselves at risk. In the current climate, and especially in the Gulf of Mexico, operators are finding it hard to fill open positions with seasoned employees, but they are getting thousands of resumés from new graduates, or those seeking to change industries. In this environment, a company’s learning plan has to accomplish things that it’s never had to before. Not only does it need to improve training for an increasingly high-tech oil field, it must ramp up training for people who are new to the industry. Oil and gas companies can’t take on additional risk and put workers who are unqualified on a platform. If they do, disaster is inevitable.

And yet, despite the oil and gas industry’s hyper-focus on quality and reliability, learning still seems to fall down the Pareto chart. Operators want to transform their learning organizations, but need to make decisions to do so more quickly.

We often see the birth of new training after a disaster, because regulators and companies impose new rules and tighten the permitting processes. Companies also go through risk-management practices, and evaluate partners and third-party vendors in search of ways to avoid another disaster. Everyone is focused on safety and compliance.

Since Macondo, we have noticed that more oil and gas companies are looking to external training experts, who understand high stakes and high-compliance environments for help, which is a positive indication that operators are looking for ways to improve their learning strategies, and reduce inefficiencies and redundancies. The major operators see that they must learn from people, who are not traditionally focused on oil and gas, but who are experts in training.

Oil and gas companies often need training to include a range of basic skills and individualized technical knowledge, which is where blended learning solutions truly shine. By bringing the learning to the learner in creative ways, both large and small companies are able to manage their global learning programs.

New training technology and tools that blend web-based simulation and instructor-led training can be valuable for the industry. Because of the global nature of the industry, employees often speak different languages and have very different educational backgrounds. The right learning technology can address such challenges.

In a rapidly-changing environment with greater demands and fewer resources, finding more efficient ways to deliver training, such as increasing web-based training, can be a game changer. By bringing the learning delivery system to the learner, it’s possible to accelerate proficiency while simultaneously making learning more effective.

With the push to recruit more talent, not only must companies source talent from other geographies, but they also must accurately judge the quality of the talent. There is a constant need to ensure that graduates have basic foundational skills, so that companies don’t have to go back and teach skills, such as math and science, again.

To quickly and effectively extend the right skills, tools and knowledge across the enterprise, today’s dispersed organizations must overcome a host of constraints, from geographic challenges to cultural nuances to technological limitations. Using blended and distance learning solutions, companies are able to develop and execute training programs that can be deployed around the world, and also target specific regions.

The benefit of blended learning is that it overcomes the gaps in individuals’ learning; therefore, improving the overall effectiveness productivity and decision-making of the individual. Blended and distance learning solutions provide an integrated approach to learning that removes the typical constraints and addresses an organization’s cultural and budget challenges, as well as its goals to meet the needs of the learner at the right time, using the right technology to deliver the right training.

The industry has long battled negative perceptions and bad publicity. The fact that the industry will have an influx of talent to handle rising demand of oil and gas, and an outflow of seasoned employees, makes it more pertinent for the industry to ensure perceived safety concerns are not a barrier to recruitment and retention.

The training community is working to ensure that we don’t fail the oil and gas industry, because we know even the smallest mistakes can cost lives.