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C
o
mment
EDITOR
Elizabeth Corner
MANAGING EDITOR
James Little
ADVERTISEMENT DIRECTOR
Rod Hardy
ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER
Chris Lethbridge
ADVERTISEMENT SALES EXECUTIVE
Will Pownall
PRODUCTION
Stephen North
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Laura Cowell
CIRCULATION MANAGER
Victoria McConnell
OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR
Jo Repton
WEBSITE MANAGER
Tom Fullerton
WEBSITE EDITOR
Callum O’Reilly
DIGITAL EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Joseph Green
PUBLISHER
Nigel Hardy
TALKING ‘BOUT MY GENERATION
T
o which generation do you belong?
It’s likely that a majority of readers of
this column will be Baby Boomers
(born between 1946 and 1964), along
with a smaller portion of Gen X-ers (born
between 1965 and 1980). The two groups have
their differences but, broadly, as a member of
either denomination you’ll be experienced,
long-term members of the oil and gas industry,
reasonably advanced in your careers and you’ll
have had a long slog to get where you are
today, having worked up the ranks, seen off
decades of boom and bust and paid your dues.
The group I want to focus on today is very
different. I’m talking
about Millennials (a
group that has
previously been
referred to as Gen Y).
Millennials (born
between 1980 and
2000) are the future of
the oil and gas pipeline
industry and represent
quite a challenge for it,
being widely touted as
the ‘selfie’ generation
(and I’m not just talking
about the propensity to
take smart-phone photos of themselves).
At the Pipeline Technology Conference
(ptc) in Berlin last month, one of the running
themes was how best to retain knowledge
within your company and, in a wider sense,
how best to retain and record accumulated
knowledge within the pipeline industry. This is
especially important given the ‘the great crew
change’ that looms: that’s you Boomers –
you’re off to enjoy retirement soon and the
rest of us need to learn to cope without you.
So, in the interest of future staffing and
recruitment challenges, we should give some
thought to the characteristics of this new
generation and, crucially, what they are looking
for when it comes to employment. How can
we make young professionals excited about
the pipeline industry? How can we inspire
them to work in this sector and take on the
huge challenges it holds for the next 50 years?
Conventional wisdom has it that
Millennials are about ‘hearts and minds’ rather
than ‘salaries or perks’: as a group looking for
employment they value experiences and
opportunities for advancement over the
traditional lure of cold hard cash and benefits
(although I’m sure renumeration is somewhat
important too). Experts agree that Millennials
care about the ‘why’ of a job: they want to
know why they are doing their job, who
benefits from it and where they fit in the
bigger picture. They want to be valued and
trusted and, importantly, they expect to be
included in decisions. They want opportunities
for movement within a company. They need
to feel a part of the bigger machine in order to
stay interested. Millennials have grown up with
technology at their fingertips; they likely were
educated within a much more fair and caring
school system where
the winning team
wasn’t the only team
to get medals; they are
also more likely to
have grown up in
single parent families
where family decisions
were discussed and
decided as a
committee; and they
have been exposed to
the most far reaching,
24 hour global news
coverage ever
experienced.
So what does this mean for recruiters in
the pipeline industry?
There’s a perception amongst Millennials
that the oil and gas sector is not a desirable
place to work: the old story rears its head –
we’re polluting, old fashioned, a relic in a world
that should be moving towards other forms of
energy. We need to re-evaluate what compels
recruits: the shale gas boom in the US has
attracted a slew of young entrepreneurs with
its frontier appeal, because shale is particularly
suited to tech-savvy generation Y-ers, who
want to be at the forefront of an exciting new
industry. Why not make the pipeline industry a
similar draw? Reframe the industry, set
challenges, make it exciting: encourage
mentoring, job swaps and opportunities for
young employees to prove themselves.
I’d also urge employers to consider the
new realities of: dual career couples and what
this means for travel demands and relocation
requests; the retention of female staff; and the
importance of creating and maintaining a
company brand. I’d welcome your thoughts at
EXPERTS
AGREE THAT
MILLENNIALS
CARE ABOUT
THE ‘WHY’
OF A JOB
