RECRUITMENT: SIMPSON BOOTH
Russell Stewart
Russell Stewart is the Managing Director of Simpson Booth Limited, a specialist subsea personnel and HR consultancy business focused on providing highly skilled individuals, specifically in the areas of Project Management, Engineering, HSE, Quality and Commercial, as well as Executive Search services.
Russell has over 25 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, the last 15 years of which have been in senior HR roles for large international businesses. During that time he has been involved in large-scale change projects, including restructurings, mergers, acquisitions and divestments. He has led the development and implementation of a number of HR reward programmes and functional improvement changes, including the deployment and application of various software tools and processes.
Since 2002, Russell has worked exclusively in the subsea sector, where he developed an interest and in-depth understanding of the resourcing challenges facing companies working in the industry. He has created a large network of subsea personnel globally and has a detailed knowledge of the types of specialists required in the sector.
48 Oil&GasCONNECT Words: Russell Stewart M
uch has been discussed about the UK oil and gas industry getting older, and the latest flurry of headlines following the
PwC Report, Northern Lights: One Year On, continued on this theme. This report claims that just under half the UK’s upstream and OFS workforce is 45 years old or over, and in order to address this issue, the industry has to recruit and train over 120,000 people over the next 10-15 years.
For many years, I have been fortunate enough to work in a number of large contractor organisations in a senior HR capacity. All the analysis I did, particularly during the last decade, has indicated that the average age of the offshore worker has only gone up by 1 year to 41 years old, with the average age of the onshore worker being 39 years old; so I find it hard to understand where the data is coming from which shows an average age of 45.
Indeed, my experience is backed up by the 2012 UKCS Workforce Demographic report, which was recently produced by Oil & Gas UK. This report stated that the average age of the 52,300 personnel working offshore in the UKCS was recorded as 41.4. The graph (Figure 1) was included in that report, and shows the age profile of the offshore workforce between 2010 and 2011.
Examining average age profi les and looking at the demographics of the workforce in the UK oil & gas industry is all very interesting, but does it really get to the heart of what we need to focus on?
This demonstrates there are still significantly more individuals offshore between the ages of 23 and 33, than there are exiting the industry. However, it is also important to remember that merely looking at ‘averages’ doesn’t give you the true picture; there are pockets of disciplines offshore where the average age is alarmingly high – for example, marine crew, riggers and divers. The issue of the ageing profile in these functions needs to be dealt with separately.
Examining average age profiles and looking at the demographics of the workforce in the UK oil & gas industry is all very interesting,
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