Four thousand and growing – that's the current count of Halliburton employees working in the Middle East, the Company's fastest growing market. That number is expected to climb considerably. Unlike some regions where personnel growth will be driven largely by the impending retirements of many oil and gas industry professionals, much of the growth in Middle East personnel is expected as a result of the industry's increased focus on Eastern Hemisphere operations.
Several years ago, in anticipation of a demand for skilled workers, Halliburton began developing a focused people strategy of aggressive recruiting, vigorous retention and accelerated development.
This strategy has been critical to helping us meet our recruitment and retention targets in the Middle East, where, due to sustained growth over the past several years, there is tremendous competition for qualified candidates – both experienced professionals and fresh graduates. Not only must Halliburton compete for talent with oil and gas majors, national oil companies and our competitors, we also face significant competition from the government, finance, marketing, construction and real estate sectors in the region.
MEETING THE DEMAND
We actively recruit experienced professionals to meet the anticipated demand for knowledge workers, but we also place a great deal of emphasis on attracting university graduates. This often means educating potential employees not only on the benefits of working for Halliburton, but also on the benefits of working for the industry as a whole.
Many young people know little about the energy industry, the role it plays in our everyday life, and the numerous, diverse high-tech career opportunities that are available. We work hard to create or expand mindshare at every opportunity possible.
We're also creating mindshare about what makes Halliburton a great company to work for, including our global diversity, technical leadership and innovation, state-of-the art technology, and second-to-none training programmes.
Through programmes like our Strategic Educational and Research Partnership, we foster long-term relationships with selected universities around the world. At the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia, for example, students can take short courses from Halliburton employees on topics including drilling and production engineering. Our partnerships with these universities will help build a talent pipeline of highly-trained engineers who are already well-versed on Halliburton and our technologies.
This strategy has paid off significantly in the Middle East. The number of people Halliburton employs in the region has grown by more than 40 per cent since 2005, and more than 50 per cent of the region's workforce has joined the Middle East team within the last three years.
ATTRACTING LOCAL TALENT
Halliburton's workforce has long reflected the diversity of the communities in which we operate. Globally, our workforce represents 121 different nationalities and is approximately 92 per cent nationalised.
We're also making significant strides in increasing our nationalisation rates in the Middle East. At a time when many companies rely heavily on expatriate personnel, more than half of Halliburton's new employees are local hires. This can again be tied, in part, to our work with universities.
For example, when we started a programme to increase the number of locally hired employees in Kuwait, we began building close relationships with the universities, colleges and technical institutes there. As a result of our efforts, the number of Kuwaiti national employees quadrupled from 2005 to 2007, with many holding critical roles in the organisation or being developed for future roles in leadership.
PROTECTING OUR MOST VALUED ASSET
As companies aggressively compete for technical talent, Halliburton believes retaining our people is just as important as recruiting them. Some of the important elements of our retention strategy include:
- Identifying and developing employees with leadership capabilities to assume critical roles in the foreseeable future. Having a robust succession management plan has enabled Halliburton and our employees to prepare for long-term growth.
- Offering our employees the tools they need to develop the career path that works best for them. METTRO, our online career-mapping solution allows employees to take ownership of their career development by enabling them to see the competencies and development requirements they need to reach each level associated with their desired career path.
- Providing our employees with a competitive total compensation package that offers a strong combination of financial and non-financial benefits.
MAKING THE BEST EVEN BETTER
A crucial component of both our recruitment and retention initiatives is our demonstrated commitment to learning and growth for our employees. Much of the training we offer is focused on accelerating the development of our newest employees.
Our field engineer training programme, for example, is recognised as one of the best-structured training programmes in the industry. It includes a combination of classroom training, on-the-job training, real-time training, mentoring and online learning. After completing their first year of training, our engineers have the knowledge, skills and competencies to take on immediate job responsibilities and perform at the highest standards.
Halliburton employees worldwide received more than three million hours of training in 2007, an average of about 66 hours per employee. In the Middle East, employee training hours increased by 15 per cent in 2007.
Recruiting in the Middle East has been a challenge, and it will only get more challenging. It's a highly competitive environment that offers many opportunities.
But we're prepared. Our strategy to attract and retain people with fresh perspectives, unique ideas and a commitment to excellence is necessary to support Halliburton's sustainable growth as well as our vision of being the preferred upstream service company for the development of global oil and gas assets.