In the Middle East, Saudi Aramco came in second place as top oil and gas employer, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) ranked sixth and the Kuwait National Petroleum Company was listed as 14th, according to the first major study of oil and gas workforce perceptions since the start of the global downturn.
Globally, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and Halliburton make up the top five in the wide-ranging Ideal Employer Survey 2016 which attracted responses from 8,400 people in more than 100 countries.
More than 3,000 oil and gas industry companies were named in the survey and despite the challenges faced by the sector through the depression in the oil price, no companies from other industries were ranked in the top 30.
The research, the first of its kind in the sector, was carried out between July and September this year, ranking companies based on 19 questions focussed on their qualities and rating their ideal employers.
Commitment to health and safety is the single most important attribute (securing 90%) for people in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors worldwide. Competitive salary, interesting and challenging work, and corporate integrity (all 88%) were equal second, with workplace culture, and training and development programs (87%) joint third.
Regionally, only respondents in North America and Europe chose factors other than safety as their top priority. Salary, and manages business with integrity were joint top for North America, and the focus was on ‘interesting/challenging work’ for Europe.
Bucking the global trend, respondents in the UK and Africa had different number one ideal employers compared to the other regional breakdowns.
The UK cited BP as their top ideal employer, followed by Shell, Chevron, Maersk and ExxonMobil.
In Africa, Chevron came out on top, followed by ExxonMobil and then Shell.
Respondents in APAC ranked Shell number one, with Chevron second, ExxonMobil third, with PETRONAS further down the list at number eight.
James Bennett, Rigzone managing director said, “That the largest companies in the sector complete the top 30, the majority having undergone significant change due to the effects of the downturn in the past 18 months, will give them confidence that the workforce remain committed to the sector.”
On coming first in the survey, Jonathan Kohn, Shell HR VP for the UK, Ireland, Nordics and South Africa said, “We have made a strong commitment to try to maintain our graduate recruitment through the whole cycle. We typically recruit in the range of 800 to 1,100 graduates per year around the world. We are at the bottom end of that range at the moment… But that is still a very substantial commitment.”
James Bennett, said, “It is no surprise that health and safety is the overwhelming priority across the majority of respondents, but no-less reassuring for an industry which continues to put people first in all aspects of E&P and downstream activity.
“Across the industry, new challenges continue to emerge – companies that can best adapt to the current environment and take advantage of new technology will be most attractive to professionals looking for interesting and rewarding work.”
