Expanding into global and new markets top strategic priority for oil and gas sector executives in the Middle East

Executives indicate critical talent shortages in the oil and gas sector in operations, information technology, risk and regulatory, and research and development

In a Deloitte report entitled the Talent Edge 2020: Redrafting talent strategies for the uneven recovery, experts focused on the oil and gas sector, to gauge the talent trends in the growing industry. Of the key findings, the majority of the surveyed oil and gas executives anticipate a looming talent shortage in all skill categories, the most pressing of which is in operations (81%).

The Deloitte report is based on the responses of 376 executives, 34% of which from Europe, Middle East and Africa, outlining key talent-related challenges across industries. Findings indicate that critical talent shortages, retention programs, and the growing reliance on discovering global talent are top concerns for oil and gas executives.

“We are witnessing a growing trend of oil and gas companies expanding into global and new markets as a top strategic priority. Moreover, talent management is no longer confined to the company’s country of operation; rather the search has gone global, to find skilled and critical talent,” commented Ghassan Turqieh, Human Capital consulting partner at Deloitte in the Middle East.

Other findings included in the Deloitte report on talent shortages in the oil and gas sector, include:

• Global talent management is front of mind. Surveyed oil and gas executives ranked finding the right people globally as their top talent priority, citing managing human capital (38%) and expanding into global and new markets (38%) as their companies’ most important strategic concerns.
• The sector is running short of critical talent. Executives find that a looming talent shortage in all skill categories exists in many fields, which include operations (81%), information technology (61%), risk and regulatory (62%), and research and development (60%).
• Surveyed oil and gas executives worry more about retention than leaders in other sectors, even though they see their retention programs as equally strong. 28% of the oil and gas respondents were very confident in the effectiveness of their retention strategies and programs, similar to the proportion in other sectors. Yet 38% of oil and gas respondents expressed a very high level of concern about retaining critical talent over the next year, versus just 25% in the other sectors.
• Surveyed oil and gas executives put a high priority on finding scarce skills and managing global talent. Talent concerns that attract “the most management attention” in the oil and gas sector include recruiting hard-to-find skill sets (38% versus 28% in other sectors), competing for talent globally and in emerging markets (30% versus 22%), and deploying critical talent around the world (28% versus 15%).
• Global talent mobility will likely continue to rise in importance. 32% of surveyed oil and gas executives believed that, in three years, deploying critical talent around the world will be even more of a top concern than it is today.
• Many surveyed executives anticipate seeing across-the-board talent shortages over the course of 2012, and are developing plans to meet the challenge. The Deloitte report finds that critical talent shortages will continue in the coming years, becoming more of a top concern for executives, than it is today.