What were the key findings from your spot poll?
The 2021 priorities here in the region are not surprisingly focused on efficiencies and cost control, particularly, there is downstream in the region, but a lot of upstream and oil and gas services. So they’re still impacted by a relatively low oil price and are still adjusting to that. That’s in line with global results as well. The big NOCs, like the on in Abu Dhabi, they have it on their website: We can’t control the price of oil, but we can control our own costs. All the NOCs and the services segment are focusing on this. Other focus areas are employee engagement, because of the impact on the sector, because of the pandemic, because of working from home, these things have an impact on the engagement of employees.
Another aspect that’s across the globe and also here in the region and quite interestingly, is well-being, particularly mental well-being. This is not a surprise because of increased stress, people being online 24/7, et cetera, even more so when when everybody’s working from home. But it does surprise me a bit that this was the number two on the agenda, also for companies in the region, which is quite a surprise because normally, particularly if you look at mental health, that’s more top of mind in, let’s say, Europe and North America than here in the region. But we’ve gotten quite a lot of requests also to look into well-being as a concept, as a topic that companies really want to take seriously going into 2021. Interestingly, if we then asked how many companies have actually done something about well-being policies and programs, it’s only 23% of the sample. And then there is a topic which is high on the agenda globally and a bit less on in the region here, which is D&I. So diversity and inclusion.
Were any unexpected results or anything in specific that surprised you in the results?
Yes, the other point and the second main focus of the poll is on flexibility and flexible working, about if they expected this to be a change and a long term priority area for your organization? When we talk to the big organizations in the region, they say, yes, when we look at the wider scope for results, only 50% say that flexibility would be implemented on a greater scale than prior to the pandemic going forward. That’s 50% here in the region, versus 70% globally. Globally, for the oil and gas sector, this was the catalyst in order to make this change, because the sector was still very traditional, flexible work was even in, more developed markets or mature markets, still quite traditional. This was one of the one of the areas where they were lagging way behind the tech sector and other sectors.
Why do think there is a relatively low acceptance of flexible working in the longer term?
Globally and in the region, the responses said that we think that our leaders and our managers don’t have the right attitude or the right skills to manage a flexible or remote working population. That’s one of the top reasons why flexible working wouldn’t be implemented at a greater scale. But in the region, another point, and this is not so much seen globally, is the number one reason actually mentioned that many rules are not conducive to flexible working. So basically saying because half our population can’t work flexibly or even more, nobody works in a flexible manner. 76% said that was one of the reasons for not implementing flexible working on a greater scale going forward. Globally, only 30% of companies mentioned this.
Another interesting point was about base pay–can you elaborate on that?
If we’re looking at salaries for next year, we do see a slightly larger proportion of companies here in the region saying that they will freeze the base pay compared to other regions of the world. One of the reasons may be that there’s quite a lot of the services segment companies participating in our survey here.
On the topic of salaries, what about layoffs and reducing headcount?
If you look at the companies, about 40% of companies in the region said they had workforce reductions and are planning further reductions. But about 50% of the sample here in the region was the services and drilling segment of the market.
What’s the big takeaway for you from all of this data, looking at the region?
This pandemic is a catalyst for wider change, and that it’s not easy for the region because we need to change. Change typically requires investment, but we have less money in order to do so. You see companies trying to balance the drive for efficiency and cost control, and the need for investments in training, development, in other types of infrastructure, cultural changes, et cetera, in order to get ready for the new normal. That’s difficult here in the region in the oil and gas sector. But that’s generally in line with the sector globally.
