Short-Term HR Trends

Short-term Labour Market Information (LMI) provides a snapshot of current labour market conditions and trends within the Canadian upstream petroleum industry. Short-term workforce trends and issues are captured and updated quarterly through a web survey that is qualitative in nature, due to the small industry sample size. Developed in consultation with industry, the survey was piloted for three quarters, Q4 2009, Q1 2010 and Q2 2010. The following are the latest survey findings:

Increased industry activities particularly in unconventional reserves and oil sands projects have brought about a renewed focus on attraction, retention and workforce issues and strategies within the petroleum industry.

• The most pressing workforce issues facing companies today are: attracting workers to hard-to-recruit locations; aging workforce; employee turnover and retention; and compensation and benefits expectations.
• The majority of companies are currently recruiting for expansion and/or replacement demand.
• The majority of respondents indicated the need to either increase or maintain their current staffing levels.
• General labour surpluses have impacted the types of recruitment activities companies are employing. While some companies have diversified their recruitment strategies, traditional recruitment methods are still widely used within industry.
• Aside from conducting recruitment activities to meet their labour and skills requirements, employers are also looking into increased training and improved productivity of their current workforce.
• Several companies reported an increase in employee training requirements such as safety, technical, job specific, advanced certification, supervisory and leadership, and basics such as computer skills. The key factors driving this need include government/safety regulations, client requirements, succession planning and improving processes and efficiency.

As part of the post-pilot survey activities, an analysis will be done to determine the ongoing value of the survey and report for our stakeholders, if any updates or adjustments are required and if it is feasible to continue with future surveys.