7 minute read
Fracking the Traditional Mindset
By Megan Winchell, Universal Pressure Pumping
There's a new type of fracking emerging in the oil and gas industry that is providing an unprecedented competitive advantage in the oil patch: creativity.
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The nationwide labor shortage has prompted energy companies to be nimble and creative in recruiting and training field employees beyond traditional backgrounds in farming, mining and high-risk outdoor environments. By thinking and acting differently, these forward-thinking enterprises have transformed their onboarding models to extract new talent, bridge the knowledge gap, provide thorough safety training for new hires and broaden employees’ hands-on experience before they head to the job site.
In this new era of creative onboarding, employee orientation has swapped passive PowerPoint and video training for participatory, practice-oriented instruction aimed at providing a high level of understanding about stringent safety protocols to maintain a safe work environment.
Gone are the days when personal protective equipment (PPE) was handed out after viewing a series of slides. Instead, employees are coached on how to assemble, adjust and wear a hard hat for optimum protection from falling objects and overhead hazards. Employees who will be wearing fall protection on the job site practice properly attaching the anchorage, and inspecting and wearing a full-body harness and connector. New hires also learn how to wear and clean respiratory equipment to protect against breathing in silica dust, cement and chemical vapor in the field.
In addition to fully understanding the purpose and uses of PPE, companies are providing driver safety training to boost safety in the field. Employees learn practical, hands-on defensive driving habits in an engaging classroom setting and receive behindthe-wheel instruction from crash-avoidance trainers for smart decision-making and certification.
To ensure workers can safely operate powered industrial equipment and are OSHA compliant, forklift training has shifted dramatically from a docile classroom presentation to experiential vehicle operation, inspection and maintenance before certification. As a result of one-on-one guidance and interaction, employees and their companies are working in tandem to reduce preventable accidents, safeguard people and protect field assets.
While onboarding and training isn’t new to the century-old oil and gas industry, the uniqueness of who is being onboarded, how they are being trained and the benefits of their training reflects outside-the-box creativity.
• Valuable new employees are being attracted and retained beyond the traditional talent pool.
• Roll-up-your-sleeves learning allows employees to self-correct under the guidance of experienced industry professionals and to become comfortable with a company’s processes, procedures and expectations.
• Holistic learning experiences are anchored to a person’s memory and can be recalled more quickly than dry textbook information, watchand-learn simulations and third-party narratives.
• Over the course of onboarding, new employees are engaging both sides of the brain – the left hemisphere for listening and analyzing pro cesses, and the right hemisphere for visual and spatial processes – which enables greater retention of relevant information.
Beyond onboarding are opportunities for certified employees to participate in technical development programs and operations schools. Here, employees become hands-on proficient in lockout-tagout safety procedures to isolate and render inoperative hazardous energy sources on dangerous equipment to prevent accidental startup prior to maintenance or repairs.
As part of their technical training, employees demonstrate to a trainer how to read chemical data sheets, as well as the use, procedures and specific PPE for handling hazardous chemicals. With a mindset on safety, companies also are conducting walk-throughs in which employees participate in hazard identification and risk assessment exercises alongside an instructor to promote awareness and control.
The underlying link between all aspects of beyond-the-norm recruiting and training is a commitment to safety, efficiency and innovation. Companies that have meticulously sharpened their skills at training in-house and on-site for both onboarding and technical training have done so around standard operating procedures rooted in these three attributes.
Of course, a company can onboard and train extensively, but open two-way communication is imperative for long-term success. Cultures of caring are becoming more than mission statements on websites as companies walk the talk by hosting leadership boot camps and other multiday events that bring together employees and top brass. Discussions ping pong amongst participants, yielding ample feedback and highlighting issues and operational concerns that warrant further dialogue to make improvements and meet employee needs.
Here's where the rubber meets the road. Company executives, starting with the president, are committing to be at job sites, in shops and at facilities to collaborate with employees, obtain feedback and communicate a company’s direction. Face to face … person to person … one on one … a two-way street.
They know that thinking outside the box requires being outside of the corporate office to be present, listen and respond to employees during onboarding and training, at job sites and offices. To supplement on-site visits and as a lifeline to ongoing two-way communications, periodic surveys encourage every voice to be heard anonymously and without concern.
Similarly, in-person and virtual town halls promote a culture of caring and promote an open-door policy that welcomes questions, concerns, suggestions and valuable insight in a safe, employee-centric environment. For example, an employee might want clarification on how and when to execute stop work authority in an unsafe condition, to which the company can respond with communications about stop work authority appropriateness and how it can be used in an unobstructed way that doesn’t necessarily shut down operations completely.
Creative thinking also applies to the organizational chart. Thought leaders who have climbed the ranks from technical positions to management roles are very intentionally flattening the traditional control structure to eliminate the steep hierarchy of people and abundant layers of red tape that stifle the ability to address and adjust to change quickly.
In doing so, these reality-savvy professionals are moving beyond performance, technology and solutions – long-embraced industry cornerstones – to approach problem-solving, leadership practices, organizational structures and techniques with powerful creativity.
Open minds and open communications result in creative thinking to answer tough questions in ways not previously seen in the fracking industry: an existing outside vendor can be incorporated into the team to expeditiously solve a problem; a CEO can put boots on the ground at a jobsite to escalate an issue or address a situation; employees at all levels can become part of a creativemindset that challenges age-old conventions with positive disruptions and innovative workstreams to meet technical problems.
Also at the forefront of creativity is a mindset of accommodation. Inoffice staff and remote employees are being given opportunities that advance work-life balance. In the field, companies are progressively considering requests for different work schedules. There’s a fine line to walk on both sides, and employers are working with employees to strike a mutually beneficial balance.
On the flip side of this win-win scenario for employees and their employers are customers who benefit from creative solutions that lead to improvements in well performance, nimble resolutions, greater confidence and brand loyalty.
Onboarding. Culture. Relationships. Brand. These are among the many things that can be enhanced – even transformed – by creativity, and the leaders in this new way of thinking and executing are taking their rightful place as champions in the oilfield.
Megan Winchell is senior director of HSE at Universal Pressure Pumping, the hydraulic fracturing business of Patterson-UTI. She is a collaborative leader in the oil and gas industry and has more than 20 years of experience in U.S. and international operations. Winchell is skilled in stakeholder alignment and team development to drive solutions and create change.
