How do you reshape

when today’s
future may not be
tomorrow’s reality?
Oil and Gas Digital Transformation
and the Workforce Survey 2020

ey.com/oilandgas/digitalskills
 How do you reshape when today’s future may not be tomorrow’s reality?

Contents
1. Executive summary 1

2. Everyone agrees – digital is critical 2

3. Being digital vs. doing digital 6

4. The skills gap is real 8

5. Competition for talent will heat up 12

6. So what will companies do? 14

7. An influx of adaptive skills 16

8. Reskilling is more than training, it requires change 18

9. Investments in talent aren’t optional 22

10. A playbook for survival and success 24

ABOUT THE SURVEY

TRUE Global Intelligence, the in-house research practice
of FleishmanHillard, fielded an online survey of oil and gas
executives representing a cross-section of integrated oil
companies, national oil companies, independent producers
and oilfield services companies. Respondents hold different
functional roles across their organizations, including IT, HR,
operations, strategy and digital. Nineteen percent hold a
C-suite title. Respondents live and/or work for companies
with operations in North America, Latin America, Europe,
the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.

The survey was fielded between 6 June and 5 July, 2020.

 Oil and Gas Digital Transformation and the Workforce Survey 2020 1

ONE

Executive summary
Oil and gas companies are facing disruption and Our survey revealed significant skill gaps even
uncertainty like no other time in the industry’s among current users of digital technologies.
history. Already, companies were navigating Workforce composition and training are widely
challenges related to pricing outlooks, evolving acknowledged barriers to technology adoption,
energy demand and decarbonization. The global and the skillsets needed to onboard and extract
COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this environment value from digital technologies — data analytics,
— prompting a historic drop in crude prices and cybersecurity, data science, design thinking,
cost-cutting measures in a way not anticipated artificial intelligence and others — far outpace the
even a year ago. current level of maturity across the industry.

To meet these challenges, oil and gas companies Not surprisingly, 92% of the executives we
are looking to digital technology to drive efficiency surveyed recognize the ability to reskill quickly is
and productivity into operations, transforming crucial. The challenge confronting the sector can
how they operate and truly doing more with less. be summarized in three figures: nearly 60% of the
This comes with its own set of challenges: digital workforce needs to be reskilled or upskilled, 43% of
technologies are evolving rapidly and companies the workforce will be reskilled or upskilled, and it
must determine which to embrace and adopt, will take 10 months to reskill the average worker.
where to integrate them into the value chain and
To achieve this, companies must:
how to fully leverage them to extract maximum
value from the investment. • Overcome cultural and organizational barriers,
including resistance to change; values and
The June 2020 survey of oil and gas executives
mindset; and governance and organizational
clearly demonstrates the industry understands the
design elements that hinder flexible, rapid
most promising path forward. Executives need the
decision-making.
right digital technology — and a workforce with the
skills and training to maximize those tools. • Solve for reskilling fundamentals such as
developing badge programs and building
For example, our survey found most industry
curricula that curate open-source learning
insiders recognize the competitive advantage a
material and align to intentionally applied, on-
digitally enabled enterprise can deliver: 80% are
the-job learning experiences.
investing at least a moderate amount in digital
technology today, relative to their budget. Further, • Proceed quickly despite the impulse to sacrifice
not one participant responded that their company these efforts to other priorities in the worst
is planning no investments in digital. It is clear the market many of us have ever experienced. If
current environment makes these investments companies wait to come out of the downturn to
more urgent rather than less. invest, they may not come out of the downturn.
Skills will be the competitive advantage.
But how well positioned are oil and gas companies
to earn back the value of their investment in The ability to make difficult choices and find
technology, especially in the current environment? the right balance will determine who emerges
And more pointedly, how well positioned are best positioned to thrive in the post-pandemic
their workforces — based on the technical and marketplace.
adaptive skills needed for these technologies — to
successfully enable this digital transformation?
2 How do you reshape when today’s future may not be tomorrow’s reality?

TWO

Everyone agrees — digital

is critical
Oil and gas executives recognize the value in digital technologies
and anticipate significant investment in them. Despite a breadth of
disruptive trends facing the industry, survey respondents believe
increasing availability of data analytics and insights has the greatest
potential to positively impact their business growth.

Planned investment in Investing in digital technology

digital technologies relative to
total budget

The COVID-19 pandemic 58% 27% 15%

20%
A small amount
29% Low oil prices 41% 21% 38%
A great deal

Total increases Doesn’t change it/too soon to tell

Total decreases/it’s no longer urgent
51%
A moderate amount

EY insight:
Oil and gas companies that have not fully embraced digital technology must do so now.
Organizations must do more than just capture the full value of their existing digital investments —
future technology enhancements must truly underpin the company’s strategic vision. Companies
must turn to technology to meet market expectations, while continuing to secure value from
investments, and drive efficiency through value chain integration. Efforts to decarbonize the
economy only add to this need.
 Oil and Gas Digital Transformation and the Workforce Survey 2020 3

“
Predictive analytics gives
oil and gas access to
huge amounts of data.
Our ability to tap into
that data is the fuel for
transformation.

IT human resources executive,

integrated oil company

43%
identified the increasing
39%
identified decarbonization and
92%
agree their organization will have
availability of big data analytics other changes in response to to change the way it operates
and insights as one of the top- climate change as another of the coming out of the current
three trends that will positively top-three positive trends of the downturn.
impact their company’s business sector, as much a technological
growth in the next three years. as a business challenge and a
reminder that companies can
position themselves to gain from
decarbonization.

“We need to keep evolving as a company or

we’re going to become obsolete. We have to
innovate, we have to be up to date, we have
to be current, we have to be ahead of it, or the
company will be taken over by somebody else
and it’ll cease to exist.

Digital operations executive, integrated oil company

4 How do you reshape when today’s future may not be tomorrow’s reality?

Oil and gas companies are currently using and actively developing new use
cases or improvements across a breadth of digital technologies.

Digital technologies currently in use (yellow bar) and, if currently using, improvements or use case
developments in progress (gray bar)

Currently using If currently using: improvements or use case developments in progress

Remote monitoring 93%

72%

92%
Mobile platforms/apps 73%

90%
Cloud computing 76%

89%
Operational technology 65%

85%
Advanced analytics 80%

70%
Robotic process automation (RPA)
74%
Artificial intelligence and/or 68%
machine learning 79%

66%
Internet of Things (IoT)
49%

52%
Chatbots
59%

49%
3D printing 37%

Virtual and/or augmented reality 48%

71%

44%
Edge computing
45%

Next-gen enterprise resource 42%

planning (ERP) 57%

23%
Blockchain 67%

14%
Autonomous transport
40%

EY insight:
Data and analytics are key to driving efficiency across the value chain. As an example, our estimates show an
oil and gas company could potentially unlock more than US$145 million of value annually by integrating its key
processes across the upstream oil and gas value chain with a common data model. However, without skilled and
trained workforces to operationalize around a common data model or to fully integrate processes across the
organization, oil and gas companies will continue to leave money on the table.
 Oil and Gas Digital Transformation and the Workforce Survey 2020 5

“
The more we use the data the more
potential issues we’re seeing with the
data in either the way data is collected or
the way data is used. It’s really driving
the need for better data, more data and
then also people using it correctly and
then interpreting the results.

IT human resources executive,

integrated oil company

“The extent you can use machine learning

or predictive analytics to find when
something is going to break. That can
save you big time.

Digital finance executive,

integrated oil company

Oil and gas companies generate errors and inefficiencies can cause • An oil and gas company, on
huge amounts of data, which is often significant value leakage and cost average, faces nearly 27 days of
recorded manually across multiple, millions of dollars. For example: unplanned downtime annually,
disconnected paper records or amounting to losses of nearly
• Our studies show that at some
spreadsheets by siloed functional US$38 million to US$88 million.
companies, as often as 75% of the
teams (often with different data
time, a rig schedule is reworked • Without an integrated view of
management practices). As a result,
due to a lack of data integration upstream operations, companies
employees spend a lot of time finding
between production and land tend to overbuy equipment and
and validating data manually —
departments and a lack of clarity on materials needed in the field. This
outdated processes that often slow
what a company owns and where. results in billions of dollars of
critical decision-making and lead to
unneeded supplies.
project delays. • Companies sometimes
inadvertently lose value from
Because oil and gas operations
expiring leases due to unmet
are highly complex, large scale
minimum drilling commitments.
and capital intensive, even small
6 How do you reshape when today’s future may not be tomorrow’s reality?

THREE

Being digital vs. doing digital

Many challenges to technology adoption are organizational and
cultural — coordinating across departments, the ability to change in a
timely manner, a lack of workers with the right skills and the challenge
of training workers to use new technologies.

“
If we’re not scaling and doing
one-off things, then that can
become an obstacle and a
barrier in terms of achieving
success in the future.

IT human resources executive,

integrated oil company
 Oil and Gas Digital Transformation and the Workforce Survey 2020 7

“If you think about barriers, there are cultural barriers, there are
technology barriers and then there are skills barriers. You can
throw money at a problem and upskill your workforce. You can
throw money at a problem and bring new technology in. Culture
is a tougher nut to crack. The reality is, you can throw all of the
money and resources you want at the other two but if you still
have that cultural barrier blocking you, you’re going to fail.

Digital finance executive, integrated oil company

Challenges to technology adoption

Major challenge Minor challenge

Integrating technologies from different eras 57% 40% 97%

Coordinating across departments 52% 45% 97%

Ability to change quickly enough 63% 33% 96%

Too few workers with the right skills in the current workforce 43% 51% 94%

Training our workforce to use new technologies 36% 57% 93%

Funding 49% 40% 89%

Resistance to change among front-line employees 34% 52% 86%

Lack of understanding of the business opportunity 39% 45% 84%

Hiring workers who can use new technologies 21% 58% 79%

Active leadership and commitment 22% 48% 70%

Identifying use cases for technologies 18% 49% 67%

EY insight:
Companies need to become digital, not simply do digital. Market leaders in the adoption and
application of digital technologies intentionally invest to address the organizational and cultural
elements, which others often neglect. This includes flattening the organization to accelerate
decisions, realigning performance metrics and incentives to match the desired behaviors and
enabling employees through integrated learning that advances skill development in real time.
Companies need to assess their plans to become more holistic in addressing these key challenges.
8 How do you reshape when today’s future may not be tomorrow’s reality?

FOUR

The skills gap is real

Among the technologies companies that currently use or are using planning
to use, a significant percentage of executives say their company does not have
the skills necessary to realize the technology’s investment value. Further, there
is a substantial gap between the importance of specific skills and a company’s
current maturity across the full range of digital technologies.
 Oil and Gas Digital Transformation and the Workforce Survey 2020 9

Have access to the skills necessary to realize investment value in technologies they are
currently using (or planning to use).

78% 77% 72% 68% 62%

Mobile platforms/apps Operational technology Cloud computing Remote monitoring Robotics process
(e.g., remote sensors, etc.) automation (RPA)

55% 54% 50% 49% 48%

Advanced analytics 3D printing Edge computing Internet of things (IoT) Chatbots

(virtual assistant)

45% 45% 43% 33% 25%

Next-gen ERP Virtual and/or Artificial intelligence and/ Blockchain Autonomous transport
augmented reality or machine learning

“
We can have the best technology, but if you don’t have the ability
to connect the dots, to understand where the application of
technology would create either better process efficiency that we’re
trying to have, or create a totally new top line for the organization,
or new business for the organization, none of that would happen.

Human resources executive, national oil company

10 How do you reshape when today’s future may not be tomorrow’s reality?

Skill importance vs. current maturity

Critical + very important Advanced + expert maturity

Data analytics 91% 32% Digital literacy 69% 12%

Cybersecurity 88% 60% Digital engineering 68% 31%

Data science 85% 23% Artificial intelligence 68% 9%

Robotic process
Engineering 78% 75% 45% 28%
automation

Cloud computing 77% 34% Geospatial analytics 42% 31%

Design thinking 69% 25% Physical robotics 25% 11%

EY insight:
It’s not enough to simply spend more on digital technology. Oil and gas companies must also understand where
they have knowledge gaps and invest significantly in addressing those. The ability to incorporate an intentional
skills strategy into digital implementation plans will be a core driver of value realization. The strategy should
balance training as well as applied and experiential learning as part of a broader learning framework.
Oil and Gas Digital Transformation and the Workforce Survey 2020 11

“
You need to have a very clear framework
that helps you identify current gaps and,
again, sets the desired skills that you’re
wanting to build. We’re using some third-
party tools where someone goes and
takes a certification … But just because
someone passes a test, that doesn’t mean
that they’re proficient in applying those
skills on the job. It’s very important
from a reskilling standpoint to switch
from measuring training completion to
measuring applied learning.

IT human resources executive, integrated

oil company

“
The skills required to understand how
you create new value, a new way of
doing things or a new business product,
those are the skills that we need.

Human resources executive,

national oil company
12 How do you reshape when today’s future may not be tomorrow’s reality?

FIVE

Competition for talent

will heat up
Executives predict shortages of workers with digital skills will improve over the
next three years, but this may be overly optimistic given the market demand
for these skills across all industries. Further, even with increased availability,
many still anticipate inadequate access to certain skills.

“
As a global organization, it’s a skills and it’s a
geography question, because you can end up
with a mismatch. You can have enough bodies,
but they’re in the wrong places.

Global CIO, integrated oil company

 Oil and Gas Digital Transformation and the Workforce Survey 2020 13

“The younger generation doesn’t view our industry like previous

generations did, and so we’ve got to overcome that stigma.

Digital finance executive, integrated oil company

Skill availability today and access to skills in the future

Inadequate availability today Inadequate access three years from now

57%
Artificial intelligence 28%

52%
Data science 20%

43%
Design thinking 17%

43%
Data analytics 16%

42%
Digital engineering 20%

38% The greatest shortfall is on

Digital literacy 16%
arguably the most important
Physical robotics
35% of digital technologies,
17%
artificial intelligence (AI), a
Robotic process automation
29% critical and potentially game-
9%
changing technology given
26% its role in taking advantage
Cloud computing 8% of big data. Without AI, it is
25% doubtful companies can take
Geospatial analytics 11% full advantage of the sheer
17% volume of data other digital
Cybersecurity 13% technologies either generate or
12%
rely upon.
Engineering 5%

EY insight:
While executives optimistically anticipate improved access to technical talent in the future, there
are several trends pointing toward an ongoing skill gap problem. First, competition and demand
for these workers are growing across every industry, all of which are facing shortfalls of their
own. Second, our 2017 EY US Oil and Gas Perceptions Survey found traditional tech companies
and many other sectors are more attractive than oil and gas to younger workers. Further, there
is a convergence in talent markets in many geographies that will also impact oil and gas. These
factors will create challenges for oil and gas companies as they work to recruit new talent,
making reskilling and upskilling even more critical to future success.
14 How do you reshape when today’s future may not be tomorrow’s reality?

SIX

So what will companies do?

Despite the recognized importance of skills to their success and competitive
advantage, most oil and gas executives report their companies do not
have a robust plan to reskill their workforce. Instead, executives say their
companies will deploy a smattering of strategies to account for these gaps.

Our ability to reskill as a company will determine We have a robust plan to reskill over the
our success over the next three years. next three years.

Strongly agree 9%

Agree 92%
Somewhat agree 39%

Disagree 8%
Somewhat disagree 50%

“
There’s at least four different ways in which
we can get those skills: retrain, redeploy, Strongly disagree 2%

recruit and rent. This will help us focus

around what is that talent strategy, how much
resources or capital or investments do we
have, and what is maximum and optimum for
us now around our business strategies.”

Human resources executive, national oil company

 Oil and Gas Digital Transformation and the Workforce Survey 2020 15

“
Once you understand what your gaps are today and
going forward, then you can make some choices
about how you want to fill them and prioritize them.
But I really wonder whether organizations have
invested the time to understand really where they
are. And where they’re going to find themselves in a
few years, because that’s been a big one for us.

Global CIO, integrated oil company

Companies are using a variety of strategies to address changing skill needs.

Currently doing this Will do or likely to do May or may not do this Unlikely or will not do Not sure

Expect existing employees to pick up skills

40% 52% 6% 2%
on the job

Look to automate the work 51% 40% 8% 2%

2%
Collaborate with other businesses and
41% 46% 10% 2%
organizations
2%
Retrain existing employees 27% 54% 14% 3%

Hire new permanent staff with skills relevant to

29% 46% 17% 6% 2%
new technologies
Outsource some business
30% 38% 22% 6% 3%
functions to external contractors
Reduce staff whose skills do not align to new
27% 40% 16% 13% 5%
technology needs
Hire new temporary staff with skills relevant
27% 35% 19% 11% 8%
to new technologies
Hire freelancers and/or contingent workers
24% 33% 29% 8% 6%
with skills relevant to new technologies
2%
Implement the use of digital badging 8% 29% 16% 46%

EY insight:
For most companies, the approach to filling skills gaps is highly variable and fragmented.
Companies need broad consensus on priority skills and a coherent, comprehensive approach
to identify the skills they have, those they need now and those they will need in the future, and
then address the gaps with measurable and interconnected strategies.
16 How do you reshape when today’s future may not be tomorrow’s reality?

SEVEN

An influx of adaptive skills

The digital era will drive a reordering of priority skills in the workforce.
Historically referred to as “soft skills,” these adaptive skills are critical
to the behaviors and mindset necessary to have the flexibility, creativity
and resilience to test and apply new technologies against industry
problem sets. The challenge — these skills are in short supply and
needed across all industries.

“Adaptive” skills are expected to become more in demand over the next three years.

Percentage expecting to see an increase in demand for skill

Analytical thinking and innovation 89%

Creativity, originality and initiative 82%

Critical thinking and analysis 82%

Complex problem-solving 80%

Resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility 75%

Active learning and learning strategies 74%

Technology design and programming 74%

Reasoning, problem solving and ideation 72%

EY insight:
Effective adoption of digital technologies requires behavior, mindset and skill shifts. It is not
enough for companies to have the technical expertise to make use of a technology. They must
also have the skills to apply those technologies as broadly and strategically as possible — with
critical thinking, creativity, innovation, problem solving, ideation, etc. — to find and extract
every bit of value possible. This is the difference between doing digital and being digital.
 Oil and Gas Digital Transformation and the Workforce Survey 2020 17

The future of work requires people with

different capabilities and mindsets.
By focusing on adaptive skills, oil and
gas companies can pivot more quickly
to meet the demands of the future
business no matter the disruption in
their path. To accelerate these skills in

“
their workforce, companies need to:

1. Determine the skill needs of the With the pace of change of technology, you’re going to look
company based on short- and long- for people who are able to adapt … if we’re making data
term strategies.
more readily available to people, then you’re going to want
2. Complete a robust, data-driven people to have analytical skills who can draw conclusions
assessment of the workforce, from that data to make better decisions faster.
segmenting roles based on
new, stable, and redundant and
IT human resources executive,integrated oil company
diagnosing the gaps across each.

3. Tailor innovative microlearning to

the needs of each employee. These
microlearning exercises must align

“
with the organization’s macrolevel
skills needs.
We’re not trying to necessarily build people who are
4. Combine meaningful coaching and amazing at blockchain. We are trying to build people
mentoring with formal learning and
who are creative and innovative, can use whatever the
on-the-job experiences.
technology is, and be adaptive and open to learning.
5. Measure adaptive skill progress
continuously against tangible Digital operations executive, integrated oil company
benchmarks.

By approaching this workforce shift with

data at the forefront of the decision-
making process, companies will have
a more robust and informed approach
to their workforce skill needs — which
in turn will enable them to provide
demonstrable return on investment
on their talent agenda. Further, it will
allow companies to think and plan for
future roles and capability requirements
more dynamically as the needs of
the organization evolve. As a bonus,
companies will see increased employee
engagement, capability and mobility;
savings in hiring and redundancy costs;
and better insight for mobility and
internal hiring decisions — all of which
will create a competitive advantage.
18 How do you reshape when today’s future may not be tomorrow’s reality?

EIGHT

Reskilling is more than

training, it requires change
Executives recognize the enormity of the reskilling challenge — they
estimate nearly 60% of workers will need to be reskilled to maintain
competitive advantage.

43% of the workforce and and will be reskilled Estimated workforce reskilling timeline for those
workers who need to be, can be and will be
reskilled or upskilled

17%
Less than 6 months 17%
43%

24%
6 to 11 months 35%

17%

12 to 17 months 35%

Can and needs to be reskilled/upskilled, and will be

Can and needs to be reskilled/upskilled, but won’t be

18 to 23 months 5%
Does not need to be reskilled or upskilled

Cannot be reskilled or upskilled

24 months or more 8%

“
We’re doing a lot to marry business acumen
to digital skills to create this worker who
understands what the business impact of the On average, executives estimate it will take 10
months to reskill or upskill the average worker.
technology they’re utilizing or proposing is.

Digital operations executive, integrated oil company

 Oil and Gas Digital Transformation and the Workforce Survey 2020 19

“
Culture is at the root of how a corporation operates. It can be
institutionalized in the organizational structure that you have at any
given point in time, but the organizational structure is more flexible
than the culture, right? You can change boxes and wires, but you may
not change behaviors and culture. In fact, you will not change behavior
and culture by just changing boxes and wires. That’s a different
problem and needs a different solution.

Global CIO, integrated oil company

Evaluating organizational culture and approach to training

68%
51% 49% 44%

Our organization Our organization is Training is seen as a Our senior

is good at teaching good at teaching cost center more than executives give
newcomers about the in-demand skills an opportunity for skills transformation
industry improvement enough attention

EY insight:
Given the evolving nature of technologies and the demand on skills across industries, workers
will need a combination of formal training, on-demand microlearning, experiential learning
and apprenticeship to build the necessary skills at all levels of the organization. This requires
companies to rethink their learning maps and leadership development programs. Building
digital fluency cannot be left unplanned, unmanaged or unmonitored.
20 How do you reshape when today’s future may not be tomorrow’s reality?

While executives recognize the importance of reskilling, there are significant

organizational barriers still at play, including organizational structure, governance
and mindset. To enable the breakthroughs necessary, shared commitment across
executive leadership — business, HR, digital — is needed to address these gaps with
the urgency necessary to complete an organizational renaissance.

Enablers and barriers of skills development

An enabler/More of an enabler Equally an enabler and a barrier A barrier/More of a barrier Neither

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Business strategy 77% 9% 9% 5%

Purpose and values 77% 11% 6% 6%

Technology 73% 13% 9% 5%

Leadership and teaming 64% 23% 8% 5%

Employee experience 53% 28% 14% 5%

Talent alignment 50% 27% 19% 5%

Performance and rewards 44% 25% 25% 6%

Physical environment 42% 22% 17% 19%

Organizational culture 41% 23% 33% 3%

Governance 39% 28% 30% 3%

Mindset 38% 28% 31% 3%

Organizational structure/design 36% 27% 33% 5%

Process 27% 27% 42% 5%

Executives believe “big picture” components like business strategy and purpose
will help enable skill development inside their companies, but they acknowledge
organizational structure, design and processes as barriers to development. This
suggests that while oil and gas companies know what they want to achieve, they
are less certain how to do so.
 Oil and Gas Digital Transformation and the Workforce Survey 2020 21

“In order to capitalize, we need everyone to buy in and do the cultural

shift that this is where we’re going, that the data is driving the decision
rather than people having thoughts or feelings about things or just
basing it purely on their experience.

Digital operations executive, integrated oil company

Challenges to reskilling
Major challenge Minor challenge

Competing priorities 66% 29% 95%

Difficulty prioritizing areas of focus 58% 34% 92%

The time needed to reskill 48% 48% 97%

Lack of funding 44% 45% 89%

Resistance to change among the workforce 37% 56% 94%

Difficulty assessing employees’ progress

32% 63% 95%
in reskilling

Lack of people to serve as teachers and trainers 29% 58% 87%

Workers struggling to learn digital skills 27% 65% 92%

Difficulty developing effective curricula

27% 53% 81%
that align to the needs of the business

Workers not wanting to learn digital skills 19% 63% 82%

Lack of active support from senior leadership 18% 50% 68%

Costs to reskill are higher than the benefits 16% 44% 60%

Lack of learning material and relevant content 13% 58% 71%

Working with labor unions and works councils 6% 31% 37%

EY insight:
The barriers and challenges uncovered by these executives are revealing. The growing skill gap in
oil and gas companies is not simply a learning issue, but it more systemic. Holistic, multilayered
plans need to be developed to help organizations move their culture and become digital.
Transforming a key company asset — its workforce — so it can continue to generate differentiated
value requires leadership commitment, a culture of empowerment and robust planning.
22 How do you reshape when today’s future may not be tomorrow’s reality?

NINE

Investments in talent
aren’t optional
The skill imbalance may be exacerbated by current market conditions as
oil and gas budgets are slashed, workers are furloughed or laid off, and
technology investments are viewed as optional. This is a reality likely to
persist for several quarters.

“
The right thing is to invest through the
cycle or even better if you can invest
countercyclically ... the next best thing
to do is just have measured investment
through the cycle and recognize that
if prices rebound there’s going to be
tremendous demand for talent and data
analytics and data science experts and
you’re going to have to pay dearly for
that, just like you pay dearly for any
other products during a boom.

Digital finance executive,

integrated oil company
 Oil and Gas Digital Transformation and the Workforce Survey 2020 23

“The oil and gas sector is facing its single biggest economic challenge ever
… so the appetite for anything that looks like discretionary investment
has dried up pretty well completely. However, where there are
technologies that can quickly pay back, there is quite a bit of appetite.

Global CIO, integrated oil company

Current market conditions will force us to delay ...

77% 84%
66% 69%

Technology adoption Reskilling efforts R&D efforts Our hiring efforts

To be successful despite current market

conditions, we need to invest in technology and 38% 52% 10%
the workforce to support our company right now.

We’re at risk of losing a generation of potential

workers if we slow down our efforts to reskill and 19% 50% 26% 5%
recruit a high-tech workforce.

We’re going to have difficulty retaining our best

16% 34% 40% 10%
high-tech workers during this downturn.

Strongly agree Somewhat agree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree

EY insight:
The role of technology will only accelerate, the volume of data will only grow and competition
for talent will only become fiercer. These realities will not wait for market recovery. More
importantly, contracting margins and depressed commodity prices will magnify skill gaps,
making it more obvious as to which competitive ingredients may be missing. And long-term
shifts such as decarbonization are creating new skill imperatives that companies need to start
addressing now.
The challenge for oil and gas firms is immediate: find a balance that enables them to invest in
their workforce while also addressing market pressures, so the industry does not lose these
crucial years and another generation of workers, as it has in past downturns.
24 How do you reshape when today’s future may not be tomorrow’s reality?

TEN

A playbook for survival

and success

Oil and gas companies are making Technology and markets are evolving so quickly that
the three-year outlook of our survey is better seen as a
significant investments in digital gauge of the extended present rather than a near future,
technology. But our survey shows many and the conclusion is obvious: companies must dedicate
don’t have the workforce skills to realize meaningful resources to reskilling their workforces now.
the fullest return on those investments Survival is going to require changes: 92% of the executives
we surveyed acknowledged oil and gas companies must
— or a plan to develop the adaptive and change the way they operate if they are going to compete
technical skills necessary to do so. To coming out of the current downturn. These changes will
navigate the uncertainty and disruption require an intentional, coherent approach to workforce
brought by changing market conditions skills to maximize the advantage digital technologies have
today and for the future of energy. Companies that ignore
and COVID-19, companies will need to these realities in favor of only cost cutting may well emerge
secure competitive advantage through from the pandemic economy at a substantial disadvantage
a well-skilled workforce capable of to more agile competitors.
delivering digital transformation. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all playbook to address the
workforce challenge when it comes to adopting digital.
Being digital rather than doing digital requires a series of
intentional interventions — some large, some small — to
address the skills, mindset and culture of the workforce.
 Oil and Gas Digital Transformation and the Workforce Survey 2020 25

Regardless of company size or focus on the hydrocarbon 2. Do we have an accurate assessment of our employees
life cycle, our data shows obstacles are composed of and their current skills and development potential, and
smaller hurdles at the surface and those embedded more therefore a sense of how many workers need to be and
deeply into a company’s structures, processes and cultures. can be reskilled or upskilled?
These challenges call for proactive, integrated solutions
3. What are the current maturity, availability and access
to address the former — creating curricula, identifying
levels of critical skills within our organization and local
partners, building evaluation systems — as well as solutions
market, and which systems are necessary to begin to
to overcome the more fundamental and complex, such as
consistently and accurately measure those levels?
business strategy, mindsets, governance and allocation
of investment resources. The right strategy will enable 4. Which tools, partnerships and other resources exist or
execution of digital transformation, which is already are available to aid in this transformation, and which
difficult under the best of circumstances. still need to be identified, forged or acquired?

It is no coincidence that the best leaders are those who 5. Do we have a comprehensive view of organizational
manage the greatest transformations in trying times. The needs and resources to strategically prioritize our
critical questions executives can ask now to move toward efforts and find the balances necessary to position our
concrete, systemic solutions are as follows: organization for success now and in the aftermath of
the pandemic?
1. To what extent is my business strategy reliant on digital
technologies to get through the pandemic and make
growth gains in the subsequent years?
Contacts

Cyntressa Dickey Andy Brogan

Global People Advisory Services Energy Leader Global Oil and Gas Sector Leader
[email protected] [email protected]

Rachel Everaard Tim Haskell

Americas West Region People Advisory Services Leader US People Advisory Services Oil and Gas Leader
[email protected] [email protected]

Learn more at ey.com/digitalskills

To help oil and gas companies unlock value in these difficult times, EY has teamed with Microsoft to build a scalable, cloud-based accelerator
application known as the EY Digital Energy Enablement Platform, or EY DEEP. EY DEEP helps integrate key processes across the upstream
oil and gas value chain with a common data model to allow full extension of the platform across the organization. This extension breaks
down silos to integrate reservoir engineering to production planning, well operations to supply chain management, and land management to
decommissioning; supports better decision-making; improves efficiency; and reduces time and cost. Read more about the EY DEEP platform at
https://www.ey.com/en_us/oil-gas/ey-deep-digital-energy-enablement-platform.

To help companies upskill employees for the future world of work, EY has developed the Adaptive Skills Accelerator — a development program that
combines a rigorous capability assessment and a custom learner journey connected to a portfolio of EY and curated content that is all supplied
through an EY-developed Learning Experience Platform. The application contributes to both organizations and their employees and establishes the
foundations for success in the workplace of the future. Read more at: https://www.ey.com/en_gl/workforce/culture-talent-leadership.

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