Demonstrating the Competence of the Workforce

The oil and gas industry’s business landscape has changed. The trend is clear: being able to demonstrate the competence of the workforce is now and will continue to be business critical. The argument is simple: just having development programs in place and believing that they equip personnel with the ability to be successful in their job activities, is not enough! It is only when companies assure that all their employees are in fact competent in what they do, that they will deliver on their promises to shareholders, customers, and the community as a whole. Companies have naturally evolved their development methodologies to incorporate a competency program into their business framework. However, in this self-regulated industry not all programs are created equal. This paper describes elements that make up a robust competency program to align with industry practices and regulations. It also describes how a company may demonstrate the competence of its workforce to its stakeholders. The elements that make up a robust program includes: assessing employee’s competence on the job as a preferred methodology; using qualified and competent assessors to conduct assessments; emphasizing employees’ consistency and exposure in the application of the competency; verifying conformance to established processes; and ascertaining the validity and reliability of the competence information. The demonstration requires the company to prove that: it has competency processes in place; it has communicated the processes; and it is applying the processes while developing, assessing, and documenting personnel’s competence. During this demonstration, competence records are shown but the level of detail varies depending on the instance: pre-work, execution of work, and delivery of services. This paper introduces a compelling case for action to assure the competence of the workforce and work towards standardizing an industry-wide approach.