Already in the second decade of the 21st century and steaming ahead at a breathtaking pace, how are large global organizations, adapting to the changing business environment? Many with long and entrenched histories and practices, how are they aligning their workforces to leverage today's business opportunities in the new world?

The oil and gas industry is a global business that understands the meaning of resource scarcity. With a global workforce required to meet the needs of projects around the world, never has this term applied so aptly to what is fast becoming one of the rarest of global commodities: human talent.

Competition for talent is reshaping how organizations think about their human capital needs, and the strategies they are developing to optimize their access to, and utilization of the critical skills essential to strategy execution and project delivery.

Talent acquisition and mobility

The structural misalignment between the current skills of the workforce and those that will be required in the future is forcing corporations to look beyond their immediate needs and actively participate in the development of the industry's future talent pipeline. Many are actively engaged with the education sector, seeing the need to both attract students to the industry and to its occupations, as well as assist in defining the new skills and competencies required to be effective in tomorrow's world. Partnering with leading colleges and assisting with curriculum development have become recognized activities within corporate talent management teams.

This all comes too late for the middle tier of the industry's employees. Renowned for its camel-back workforce, skills are being developed in new graduates, are well developed in the over 50's, but lacking in the 30-50 year range. As Deloitte highlights in their 2011 Trends report, the industry has lost a generation, and the result is a severe shortfall of experienced managers and leaders. In response, oil and gas corporations are taking ownership of the problem and investing heavily in the training and development of their emerging talent. Increasingly popular are global rotational programs, allowing employees to develop a broad base of skills, across countries and regions, and work with experienced mentors. Developing career competencies is becoming a prerequisite for success in an environment where change is constant and challenges are escalating in complexity.

Fortunately technologies supporting talent acquisition and mobility management are stepping up to efficiently facilitate this, just in time. In order for organisations to accurately capture the skills of their workforce, plot their talent whereabouts and link this with business needs, fully integrated systems are required. For multinationals operating in numerous countries and workplace jurisdictions, the complexities of talent management are making robust and dynamic systems essential to effective workforce management. This complexity is exacerbated by the growing trend of large multinationals being domiciled predominately in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, yet experiencing their greatest growth in the emerging markets. The borderless workplace needs a borderless workforce.

Career planning, performance and development

Increasingly, organizations recognise that performance, development and employee career paths sit on the same continuum. High performers require constant development to challenge and grow their abilities, and career progression is their goal. Most organizations today recognize the necessity for the dual career carriageways of management and technical mastery: the former developing leadership breadth and the latter functional depth. In fact, career paths and career plans are emerging as the leading indicator of employee retention, and a 'go/no-go' deciding factor for many Gen Y employees.

Corporations are actively surveying their employees to understand what really matters. Many organizations have workforces that span four generations: their wants and needs are as diverse as their constituents and the concepts of 'progression' and 'rewards' can have a variety of meanings. For example, many mature workers are more interested in flexible work and mentoring others than climbing the corporate ladder. By contrast, young workers want a clear line of sight to career advancement and specific development milestones that will enable them to achieve rapid progression. Again, technology is the Talent Manager's friend. With the ability now to dynamically map, link and illuminate career path options, talent management technologies that unify processes from talent acquisition to succession planning allow both the employee and manager to optimize career planning.

Knowledge transfer and succession management

Multinational corporations are subject to a 'double-whammy' knowledge transfer challenge: shifting knowledge from senior, experienced (and soon-to-be-retiring) employees to the next generation; and leveraging organizational know-how and best practices across geographic and cultural boundaries.

Inter-generational knowledge transfer requires recognition of the differences in preferred approach to ensure the exchange is optimized. Much research has highlighted the differences, for example, in learning styles and communication channel preferences, between older and younger workers. Across cultures, different values, norms and expectations can present roadblocks to effective knowledge transfer, to which many frustrated expatriate leaders will attest. The oil and gas industry has its own additional challenges: offshore oilrigs and remote sites can limit access to technology we otherwise take for granted. Together, there are any number of hindrances to the orderly and timely transfer of information from point A to B.

The ultimate litmus test of effective talent management is the bench strength of an organization's succession plan. Succession tests the applied processes and tools of all the other stages of the talent management life cycle:

o robust sourcing and selection practices fuel the succession pipeline with new recruits and fresh experience;

o an effective performance process engages high performers to produce and excel;

o active development processes continuously build the capabilities required of employees in the future; and

o dynamic, challenging career paths stretch employees and create the conditions that allow them to reach their full potential.

All change brings both threat and opportunity. The changing face of the oil and gas workforce requires a talent management response that leverages the opportunities through the application of new processes and supporting technologies. In this high growth and competitive landscape, human resources are scarce and the war for talent is real.