HR Discussion - Chevron’s Eve Sprunt and Susan Howes discuss results of the December 2011 Talent Council Survey The full manuscript of SPE 160928, ’Factors Impacting Dual Career Couples, Results of December 2011 Talent Council Survey,’ is available as a supplement to this article.
Talent & Technology The global nature of the workplace in the petroleum industry has introduced a new challenge to our competitive business landscape: the development of soft competencies as a critically important element in driving productivity. Soft skills as an element of sustainability brings success to individuals and organizations in a variety of workplace activities, such as forging alliances, creating a team harmony that produces collaboration and innovation, and managing and using the human and system components to influence outcomes and achieve business goals. As the nature of workplace engagement shifts, soft competencies provide individuals with the ability to manage the social, cultural, technical, and environmental expectations of both the individuals and their organizations. In an October 2013 JPT article, the Soft Skills Committee of SPE introduced the Soft Competency Matrix, which is governed by attributes stemming from progression in people capabilities and actions; growth and augmentation of human capabilities with age and experience; and socioeconomic, cultural, and traditional dimensions (Figs. 1 and 2). The authors noted that while the first two elements were governed by a continuing journey through time and personal maturity dimensions, the changes in the third element could be abrupt depending on the attributes needed for the new work assignment. Global Challenge for SPE The use of the matrix allows individuals to measure their soft competency level against the expectation to identify current gaps and chart an improvement path. This is obviously a starting point for engagement to better manage and prepare for the ongoing changes and to save time to autonomy for our industry professionals. Moving from a world primarily defined by the location business needs and technical capabilities to one that also emphasizes soft competency as a requirement for success allows the employers to assess the competency gaps in their employees’ soft skills.
Talent & Technology One of the growing issues facing companies is managing employees who are part of a dual career couple. Traditionally, corporate policies were based on the assumption that even if one spouse worked, that person’s income would make up a relatively small fraction of the total household income. The spouse was assumed to be available to handle numerous house-hold responsibilities so the employee could focus on work. Much of the workforce is now juggling more complex personal logistics because both spouses are employed outside the home. One of the objectives of the SPE Talent Council is conducting surveys and statistical analysis to highlight potential capability/expertise gaps and to identify possible solutions. To obtain information on the prevalence of dual career couples and the challenges facing them, SPE emailed a survey in May to 46,777 professional members, of which 5,570 responded. The results showed that dual career couples make up about half the workforce. Dual career couples will probably form a larger proportion in the near future, because those in such relationships are younger than those who are not. This article is a summary of the survey results, which are available in SPE-151971-MS at www.onepetro.org. The largest number of survey responses, with similar percentages, came from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, where SPE has the largest number of members. Members in 93 countries responded. Of the total number of responses, 47% reported they were part of a dual career couple, 11% said they were previously part of a dual career couple, and 42% considered themselves to be single career. We also examined the results for two other groups. The first group was those in which the respondent said he or she is contributing between 33% and 67% of the household income, so that each partner is contributing at least a third. The second group was made up of those who reported contributing between 40% and 60% of household income. Of those who identified themselves as “dual career,” 47% said the lower-paid partner provides at least a third of the household income and 37% said that each partner provides nearly equal portions of the household income. Of all the survey responses, 22% came from couples where the minimum income contribution is a third and 17% came from those where the contribution is nearly equal. The days when the spouse’s salary could be viewed as providing an insignificant fraction of the household income that could easily be covered by a relocation bonus are gone.
Talent & Technology Lower oil prices have evoked a level of stress in the industry not only for those involved in a slowdown or cancellations of projects, and potential staff reductions, but also for those who may be buffered from the business cycle swings. These times of scarcity of operating cash flow and capital resources can create substantial anxiety because of an internal conflict among employment needs, a company’s survival needs, and corporate and professional conduct. In such times, the human tendency is to hunker down so as not to lose ground and to survive. When we do that, we often lose sight of what ensures resilience for the individuals and their organizations. Humans under stress do not always do what is intuitive or logical, and in times of high stress, the engagement of the larger community, namely the value chain teams within and outside of our workplace, is essential. We need to maintain a balanced focus on the long term while managing short-term demands. This obviously is not an easy task, but self-awareness of our internal conflicts is an excellent starting point. To maintain a focus on the long term, our capacity to engage others and enable their mutual needs to be met, while maintaining the viability of the systems in which we operate, is indispensable. Stress management, resilience, self-awareness, and engagement are all important competencies for surviving challenging times, and these skills are grouped under the general category called “soft skills.” Having realized the importance of soft skills to SPE as a professional society, in 2011, a group of SPE volunteers created the Soft Skills Committee (SSC), proposing that SPE could be the catalyst for the improvement of soft skills within the petroleum industry to enhance the quality and the quantity of technical results (Fattahi et al. 2012, 2013, and 2014).
Talent & Technology A recent SPE Talent Council survey of SPE members under the age of 45 unveiled an important generation gap. Most SPE members under the age of 45 are part of a dual career couple and most of them believe that the careers of both partners are equally important. However, managers who rose through the ranks as part of a couple with a single dominant breadwinner consider the concept of equally important careers to be unrealistic. We believe that management needs a better understanding of how the evolution of domestic relationships has changed the constraints and motivations of the workforce. More women worldwide are working for compensation that has reached greater parity with compensation for men in the past few decades. Many women now contribute as much or more income to the household than their partner does. Of the SPE members in the survey, 76% consider themselves to be part of a dual career couple, with 53% of the women, and 35% of the men in a relationship in which each partner contributes between 40% and 60% of the household income. Employers use a human resources career development model that is based on the outdated assumption that there is a single breadwinner. As part of their career management process, they ask employees who are known to be part of a dual career couple, “Whose career is more important?” In a separate December 2011 Talent Council survey on corporate policies for the management of dual career couples, we received the following responses from managers as to why they asked this question: “This is an appropriate question so that we know the couple’s desire.” “Always, one career has to lead and the other follows.” “It is a must for one of them to accept being the second one or relegated employee.” The responses indicate that many managers do not believe that both careers of a dual career couple are equal-ly important.
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