Tag Archive for: Workforce Diversity

Case Study - Oil Company

Client Problem: An employer in Turkmenistan worries about receiving complaints of subtle discrimination incidents among female oil employees to various project sites

  • Female employees from various oil fields complain of alleged discrimination in the workplace from men co-workers and even branch managers.
  • Discrimination incidents already caused the filing of resignation from some female employees from across many branches.

Rensol’s Solution: Disciplinary Action; Equality Policies; Prioritize Deployment of Highly-Skilled Female Workers to Boost Women Participation

  • As a consultant, Rensol recommends that complaints should all be taken seriously. Disciplinary action against workers involved should be imposed accordingly.
  • Impose equality policies among workers.
  • Rensol advises priority on the deployment of women to increase the diversity of workers and to promote gender equality.

It was tackled in a previous blog post that the oil and gas industry has a bad reputation as a workplace for women. The male-dominated industry was home to cases of discrimination and sexism that make attraction and retention of female workers difficult for human resource managers.

Case in Point: A Greasy Situation in an Oil Company

The senior management of an oil company in Turkmenistan worries upon receiving bulk complaints of alleged discrimination and sexism among women employees. Cases vary from inequality, favoritism, and even cat-calling.

Apparently, in every oil kiosk they have, there was only one female employee at most, in a minimum of 8 female employees per branch. The employers were doubting if they can still retain women employees as reprimanding discrimination would hurt most of their manpower, but ignoring it would surely affect their reputation.

The oil company consults Rensol Recruitment & Consulting on how they can eradicate discrimination in all their job sites.

Rensol Intervention: Responsible Reprimand and Women Empowerment

With the established expertise in the industry of talent management, Rensol can solve the gender imbalance in the oil company.

Rensol recommends imposing disciplinary action to workers concerned as addressing each incident will signify their ethical commitment that discrimination must have no room in their organization. Forgiving men and firing women will never solve the gender discrimination issue in their company but will even make them vicariously liable for the actions of their employees. Every complaint should be taken seriously. Disciplining employees by imposing reprimand will position their company to an image of integrity, that is important to keep their reputation good and sound for talent attraction and for customer satisfaction, as well.

Policy on equal opportunities should also be imposed and every employee should have read and understood that policy. Strict implementation and supervision should be set to monitor that every demand of both genders is met.

To further empower women in the workplace, Rensol advised that recruitment of female employees be a part of their priority to equalize diversity in every branch. Even with low career attractiveness, Rensol was able to source female candidates whose level of technical capabilities and qualification is at par with their male counterparts.

Recruitment of female workers has been proactive and had generated good feedbacks from job seekers from the Philippines who are seemingly attracted to the brave effort of the company to prioritize women as workers for the job ruled by men.

ABOUT THE COMPANY: Rensol Recruitment and Consulting, Inc. is the fastest growing recruitment agency in The Philippines. A career consultant that aims to go above and beyond the level of expectations of both the aspirations of the candidates and the dream team standards of employers through providing exceptional opportunities and unparalleled quality-driven recruitment services.

 

Women in Oil & Gas Industry

The oil and gas industry is undoubtedly a male-dominated arena. About 85% of its global workforce are males. This industry is known to be notorious for women to establish a stable career path.

It was only when crude prices began to crash when oil and energy executives realized the profitability of hiring and retaining women in the industry.  Globalization has been reshaping gender diversity in the workplace. The focus on female workers is in the works to escalate gender balance and under-representation.

Challenges

Workforce in Oil & Gas Industry Challenged

More than the diversity problem, this is an industry where racism and sexism have been norms, making recruitment of women a tough job and a challenging work for recruitment agencies.

Gender-related challenges build wide gaps in perception between men and women. When technical and field roles started to open doors for women, scarcity of comfort rooms for ladies arise.  Some women who were sent to gas stations have reported cases being doubted and discriminated by their men counterparts. Women with children exhibited inefficiency in delivering their jobs.

Men and women start equally in this industry, however, it is rare for women to reach the top echelons because of gender barriers that are still existing with companies where gender diversity is not yet a high strategic priority.

In a report by the World Petroleum Council (WPC), only a few women were offered with technical and operating roles that are crucial for them to advance to senior management roles. Their limited presence in technical roles does not account for their lack of ambition to climb the ladder higher but with existing policies that prohibit their career advancement.

Diversity

Workforce Diversity in Oil & Gas Industry

Yuri Inoue, head of Showa Shell’s legal division, said that it would be difficult for companies to differentiate themselves in the oil industry without emphasizing women’s participation. Diversity is vital for survival. Attracting, retaining, and empowering more women in the industry is relevant to be done.

The future’s demand for shared energy is not attainable by discovering all types of energy source available but by nurturing “diversity of thought,” said Eileen Wilkinson, Vice President for Exploration in MENA at Shell. She added that a company’s longevity could be assured by inspiring more women to enter the industry.

In a survey by Ernst & Young Global Ltd, 615  of 1000 oil and gas professionals agree that gender diversity impacts the financial performance of a company. Gender diversity helps an industry to attain broader perspective which later drives a company’s growth. The industry should start imagining the number of innovative solutions that the joint efforts of male and female oil and gas employees can come up to.

The modern women are very much open to working for the oil and gas industry. Especially in the Philippines, competitive women are at par on the level of technical workers.  Women workforce from third world countries can do the toughest of jobs –  they can multitask, they can think through complex problems, as much as men can do.

The attractiveness of the oil and gas industry could be promoted by making career paths more accommodating to a wider range of jobs up to senior roles.  Work-life balance policies should also be made available and be applied equally to both genders. This effort looks forward to breaking down gender barriers in the status quo. The small percentage of women participating from this sector suggests that there is an evidently big population that are not maximized to make decisions that could create real positive impact on the oil, gas, chemical, and energy industry.

Seasoned recruiters will always have an eye for star performers. Learn more of our best practices in talent acquisition and let us collaborate to achieve your business goals.

ABOUT THE COMPANY: Rensol Recruitment and Consulting, Inc. is the fastest growing recruitment agency in The Philippines. A career consultant that aims to go above and beyond the level of expectations of both the aspirations of the candidates and the dream team standards of employers through providing exceptional opportunities and unparalleled quality-driven recruitment services.