Blog
Blog
Addressing the need to scale hydrogen solutions
Jess Stanley
President of Operations Americas
More people work in the energy sector today than in 2019, and energy employment reached nearly 67 million in 2022, growing by 3.4 million over pre-pandemic levels according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). So, how is the energy industry working to accommodate this tremendous talent growth and nurture the next generation to lead us through the energy transition?
In a recent Gastech panel discussion on building the workforce needed to deliver the energy transition, I shared how we as leaders in this industry need to focus on bringing together a collaborative ecosystem that inspires and empowers the next generation of talent.
Looking after a part of the organisation where most of the people are distributed across the Americas, my challenge is always to reach out and to understand how talent is being fostered and how we are delving into the organisation and pulling up the talent. When we consider equity and how we ensure that people have access to opportunities, how do we show that talent isn’t going unnoticed because they may not sit in a central office where they are visible to leadership every day?
Investing in technical talent
One of the things that we will be investing further in are trade apprenticeships, where we work with technical colleges and enable more students and recent graduates to come into the field. I find programs like these incredibly rewarding because not only is the individual learning from the job, but you’re often matching that person with someone who has dedicated experience and takes pride in passing down that experience as a teacher. This mentorship and combination of skill sets brings tremendous impact to customers and how we improve the execution of work in the field.
A great example of how these partnerships can work is in Wyoming, where we have partnered with the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources to find alternative uses for coal since the local economy is incredibly reliant on its coal industry. Through this partnership, we are bringing together people with a diversity of experience to look at how we can use the coal to not heat or cause combustion which ultimately leads to carbon emissions but rather transform it into a different energy source like asphalt or use it in buildings. Wood is providing the engineering insight and the construction and operations support for the pilot plants and technology.
In that same ecosystem, we are also giving our field technicians access to development opportunities outside of their current roles. For example, the state of Wyoming and city of Gilette are facilitating a leadership program that encourages more people to get involved in the local politics behind the energy sector that fuels the state. Sponsoring, hiring, uplifting and enabling our people to have access to these kinds of opportunities is what is needed to take the energy sector beyond the commercial deals that we do and make a difference in society.
Nurturing talent with flexibility
We also need to approach the talent challenges of the future with flexibility. I would start with being flexible about what you see talent to be, what we describe as the paradigms that exist. In the energy transition, as we move away from more traditional fossil fuels and adopt more clean energy sources, we should apply how we have approached talent previously and learn from what has worked, but also look for other skills and experiences that can meet the range of energy work ahead of us.
I encourage flexibility when it comes to how you attract that talent; what makes them want to work for you? As an employer, we must be flexible in providing a stimulating and enjoyable workplace for individuals which often means meeting them where they’re at. One of the endless debates employers have wrestled with since the pandemic is office presence and how often people should come into the office. While I am a big promoter of office presence, I’m not a promoter of five days a week, working from nine to five. I believe people should want to come to the office because they want to engage, they want to work in teams, they want to solve problems together.
However, people also need to have a fulfilling life and a balance. If you dictate that people are in the office from nine to five Monday through Friday, you exclude a large amount of the workforce that might just want to be working part-time or adopt hybrid schedules. At Wood, there’s a significant percentage of our staff that don’t work traditional 40-hour work weeks. We have deep specialists in engineering where we want folks to be working with us on any basis, not just on a full-time basis. It’s particularly important to consider flexible work schedules for caregivers, women returning to work or people that may want to pursue further education alongside their job, if we want to bring diverse and exceptional talent into the workplace.
Creating an inspired workforce
I think one of the most inspirational problems we’re solving in the 21st century is the energy transition, and for us to take on this challenge, we need an inspired workforce. We need a workforce that wants to collaborate, that wants to be a part of solving the problem.
Often trying to solve the problem on your own results in a lesser outcome than collaborating with others. I find that when you talk about diversity and the energy transition, they’re seamlessly connected because you need to bring together conventional ways of doing things with new and creative ideas.
When I look at my team, I want people to come into work every day feeling inspired. I aspire to lead an organisation where there is a sense of belonging and a clear purpose, whether it be in the office, at a job site or working from home. I hope people are able to see that they’re working toward solving the biggest problems our world is facing.
