The conference I presented at last week in Kuwait was poorly attended to be honest, however the quality of people there was quite good. A broad range of subjects were covered which is good for generalists attending to increase their knowledge, but no so for specialists who have specific problems to fix. One of the most interesting presentations was from the Oil & Gas sector.
The presenter talked about the shortage of students entering engineering disciplines at Universities. Compounded with the fact that the baby-boomers are due to retire in the coming 5 years; means that petroleum engineers and the like simply do not exist in the requisite numbers. This is clearly a massive worldwide problem for recruiters, so when you have to attract people to offshore fields and to less desirable countries you really have to be attractive. In the past salary has done the trick, but now employer branding and the recruitment process are critical also.
O&G recruiters are having to consider offering virtual status, so that new hires don't even have to leave their home countries and families, and allowing retirees to work 2-3 days a week. These workforce dynamics are new in the Middle East and it will be intriguing to see how many such appointments are actually made. This is a double-edged example of the crunch being caused by the Knowledge Economy. As the mature experienced heads are leaving the workforce, the new blood are choosing Law, Technology & Business degrees at Universities.
The War for Talent in this sector is entering a stage similar to that present in the Healthcare industry where we commonly see hospitals short of nurses.
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