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. The regional cut from our spot poll captures downstream, but the majority of companies are in upstream and oil and gas services, so they’re still impacted by a relatively low oil price and are still adjusting to that. This is in line with our global observations. The big NOCs – some of which mention it as part of their vision – can’t control the price of oil, but they can control our own costs. Another focus area is employee engagement, because of the impact on the sector, because of the pandemic, because of working from home. These trends have an impact on the engagement of employees.
Another interesting aspect finding from our global as well as regional polls is the emphasis on well-being, particularly mental well-being. This is not a surprise because of increased stress, people being online 24/7, etcetera, even more so when everybody’s working from home. But it does surprise me a bit that this was the number two on the 2021 agenda for many companies,
This is surprising because normally, particularly if you look at mental health, this is a topic which is more top of mind in Europe and North America than here in the region. As Mercer we’ve received quite a lot of requests to look into well-being as a concept, as a topic that companies really want to take seriously going into 2021. On the other hand, 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 but a bit more down the pecking order 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, specifically if companies expected this to be a long term priority area for organizations. When we talk to big organizations in the region, we find many are implementing long term change, but 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; compared with 70% globally. Globally, for the oil and gas sector, the pandemic was the catalyst in order to make this change, because the sector was still quite traditional – flexible work was even in more developed markets or mature markets uncommon. This was one of the one of the areas where the sector was 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 GCC, another point came up, and this is not so much seen globally. The number one reason mentioned by regional participants is that many roles are not conducive to flexible working. So basically these companies follow the rationale that because half our population, or even more, can’t work flexibly, 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 again, about 50% of the sample here in the region was from 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, which is not easy for companies in our sector. Change typically requires investment, but we have less money 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, etcetera, in order to get ready for the new normal. That’s the main difficulty in the oil and gas sector globally, but has a larger emphasis here in the region as we’re still in “development modus”.
