Pilot project finds ways
to increase the talent
by the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada
FINDING AND IMPLEMENTING WAYS TO ATTRACT and
keep good employees is always challenging, but particularly so in rural or remote locations that may lack some of
the amenities many people expect. To help the petroleum
industry with this issue, the Petroleum Human Resources
Council of Canada developed the Increasing the Talent
toolkit in 2005. It is designed to help companies—in collaboration with their communities—identify and implement
strategies to attract and retain skilled workers. The toolkit
includes a conceptual model that provides a framework for
attraction and retention initiatives, as well as information
including best and promising practices, and an inventory of
tools and resources.
After testing the toolkit with industry throughout
2006, in 2007 the Petroleum HR Council, along with two
dedicated local working groups, completed six months of
pilot testing with volunteer organizations in Fort St. John,
B.C., and Alberta’s Peace Region. By working directly with
the toolkit, the pilot project partners in both locations
developed additional tools and resources to address their
own attraction and retention issues.
Active members of the Fort St. John working group
included the North Peace Economic Development Commission,
City of Fort St. John; Fort St. John & District Chamber of
Commerce; Treaty 8 Tribal Association; B.C. Oil and Gas
Commission; as well as Alpha Safety Ltd., Cobra/BlackHawk
Production Consulting Inc., and Locher Consulting. During
the pilot, several new tools were developed, including a
checklist for bringing new employees onboard and a tool
to help employers support employee volunteerism in the
community. Alpha Safety benefited from the development
of four additional tools, including tips on ways to brand the
company’s current retention strategies, as well as ideas
for leveraging Alpha Safety’s philanthropic activities to
strengthen employee engagement and retention.
In the Peace Region, key members of the group included the Peace Region Economic Development Alliance;
Northern Sunrise County; Grande Prairie Regional College;
Alberta Employment, Immigration and Industry; local
chambers of commerce; and Davco Solutions Inc., the local
pilot company. The group chose to focus on developing
supervisory skills as a means to improve employee retention. Two initiatives were completed: a tool designed to
help supervisors manage employee performance and a series of “Did You Know” promotional cards that educate employers about retention and the key role supervisors play in
retaining good people.
Before the pilot projects were complete, the Petroleum
HR Council received a request from Brooks, Alta., for some
help with retention of skilled workers in that area. In response, the Council developed and delivered a one-day
supervisor training workshop last November. The workshop covered such topics as how to retain workers in times
of uncertainty and the important role supervisors play in
worker retention. The success of the workshop has led the
Petroleum HR Council to investigate interest in similar
workshops for other communities this year.
The Petroleum HR Council is busy incorporating the
new tools and resources into an enhanced Increasing the
Talent toolkit. By this summer, the improved toolkit—in
an interactive format with a searchable database—will
be posted on the Council’s website ( www.petrohrsc.
ca). Users will be able to go directly to the specific
tools they know they need for attraction, retention, and
workforce development, or explore various solutions
to their HR issue if they don’t have a particular tool
in mind. The site will also invite users to contribute
their own best practices to add to the growing body of
successful ideas.
The Petroleum HR Council encourages all industry
stakeholders to make use of the best practices, tools,
and resources in the Increasing the Talent toolkit, and
to find and share additional ways of collaborating with
others to meet their local attraction, retention, and workforce development goals.•
This monthly column covers current topics, strategies,
solutions, and insights into human resources issues in
the upstream petroleum sector. For more information on
Increasing the Talent and other Petroleum HR Council
initiatives, please visit www.petrohrsc.ca.
