The oil and gas skills shortage could be reduced if..
This opinion is shared by consultants at several energy-focused recruitment agencies. They believe that the major reason that many companies are struggling to employ the contract and permanent staff they need can be attributed to their time-consuming recruitment processes.
Seventy per cent of the UK-based oil and gas field operators and contractors that took part in the ninth Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber Oil and Gas Survey said that they found it difficult to recruit enough skilled staff. This can have a knock-on effect and cause delays to major North Sea projects.
One company that has seen this situation first hand is Huxley Associates, a recruitment consultancy that specialises in the oil and gas market. They currently have more than 140 contractors working on North Sea projects.
Erik Hansen, who heads up the consultancy’s oil and gas division, believes that this skills shortage could be “significantly” reduced if hiring managers would reconsider their “cumbersome” recruitment processes.
He said: “Many companies show no urgency in their recruitment processes whatsoever - as a result, skilled candidates will find other work. Recruitment agencies like ours should be there to consult with the client and provide advice, not just supply them with CV’s and expect them to control their own processes.”
The contracts manager said that some of the bigger organisations successfully use low-margin, high-volume recruitment agencies to hire the people they need en masse. However, he explained that the multi-stage recruitment processes adopted by others can take several weeks, meaning that the talented contractors they need are snapped up before they can employ them.
Mr Hansen continued: “If you need a lot of people with general skills then using a high volume agency is fine. However, if you are looking for in-demand people with niche skills, then you shouldn’t use agencies that are set up to supply high volumes any more than you should use a low-volume recruiter to provide you with a lot of people.”
Recruiters like Huxley Associates believe that the best way to combat the skills shortage in Aberdeen would be to split the recruitment market in two. They claim that, when determining which supplier to use, it is not always wise to base your decision purely on cost alone and have called on companies to adopt separate preferred supplier lists for general and niche roles.
Source: Huxley Associates
