Succession Planning Critical for Longevity of Oil, Gas Companies

A real concern for companies who have a succession plan and have identified people to be considered for certain roles is whether or not they let those employees know.

“Their question is ‘what if the position never opens up or we change our minds?’ Then we’re getting their hopes up for nothing,” said Power. “My advice to them is to be transparent with their employees. If they’ve been identified as a potential successor, that can be exciting for employees to know. However, appropriate expectations should be set. Stress that they are being considered and they have potential, but it is a plan and plans can change.”

Power said succession plans should be revisited on annual basis. They should consider things such as the demographics of employees to predict retirements that may happen within the next two to 10 years and forecast vacancies. They can also look at skills and qualifications of existing staff and determine if there are skill gaps in which the company has no choice but to look to hire externally. It also helps to have a “Successor A” and “Successor B” in mind, and sometimes it doesn’t hurt to have a “Successor C.”

“The worst thing is a company that is dependent on one or two individuals,” said Read. “You need to have at least two or three other people that can do the job. The most important thing we do at Swift is create an environment where people want to come to work every day, build a strong team, train people, have contingency plans, and an organization where the employees and company will carry on, regardless if people leave.”   


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Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

Ali Garkasi  |  July 14, 2015
As a senior drilling advisor, I know that operator companies are very concerned about reducing the cost as much as they can to stay in business; they made drastically changes to restructure their business and going through downsizing plans, etc. I feel that major operator companies did not learn a lot from many industry down turn cycles. I think when the down turn stats or they are already in a down turn cycle, it is too late to take certain measures, instead of all that the industry as one unit should react and think differently and be prepared for the down turn cycles before it happens, they should work together to minimize the impact of the down turn, as an example, they can work together to absorb the glut oil which is the problem in reducing the oil prices. There are other solutions, which may take more time and effort to go over it now.


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