BP Companys Human Resource Development Strategy - How to Attract, Win and Retain Talented Employees - Case Study Example

Strategic Human Resource Development Name: Institution: Course: Date: Strategic Human Resource Development Introduction Talent management in any organization is considered as a strategic human resource development (HRD) issue. This is because with the current trends in globalization and increasing levels of competition in the competitive market has named it important for companies to devise ways through which they can attract, recruit, and retain the best talent within their industries (Reitman 2013, p. 10). For an organization to be able to ensure that its pool of employees are the best in the market, it would be important to develop a strategic human resource development plan to ensure that all the matters arising and the impeding issues that can be solved through the development of the most appropriate infrastructure (Schweyer 2011, p. 8). The main objective of this paper is to assess BP Company and its HRD strategy on how to attract, win and retain talented employees as part of its workforce. Company overview and the HRD issue Overview of BP Company BP, PLC, which is one of the leading oil and gas companies in the world today, was formed in 1909 with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The company, which until 2000 was called British Petroleum, has gone through a series of name changes due to merges with other oil companies in the United States such as Amoco Corporation (Leydier 2013, p. 45). In addition, the changing of names was also due to the need to establish a firm position in the oil market and this explains why in 1935, the company acquired the name Anglo-Iranian Company. The company celebrates a greater competitive advantage over most companies on the global platform due to its ability to attract different oil partners to merge and create a larger corporation with a huge customer base (Leydier 2013, p. 51). BP PLC is a private company due to the decision by the British government to sell its shares to the public in late 1980. Through privatization, it became relatively easier for the company to acquire other companies that were partly owned by the government such as Britoil PLC, which was responsible for producing oil and gas from North Sea field (Jargosch & Jurich 2014, p. 14). The company has been able to drill oil fields and build refineries in different countries such as Alaska and in the United Kingdom. The merger between BP and Standard Oil Company in 1970 was due to the discovery of natural gas and the need to acquire controlling powers in the US oil and gas markets (Jargosch & Jurich 2014, p. 18). Until 2000, BP was thriving as an oil and gas company on the Global market due to its merger with Amoco Corporation and it existed as BP Amoco. However, in bid to improve on its market share and competitive advantage the company took over Atlantic Richfield Company and Burmah Castrol and acquired the name BP PLC (Jargosch & Jurich 2014, p. 19). In 2010, the company experienced the largest oil spills in history in an offshore drilling Deep-water Horizon after an explosion and collapse of the well (Leydier 2013, p. 52). The marine oil spill affected the business on both profit levels and its corporate social responsibility towards the environment. The company was held responsible for the spill of 4.9 million barrels of oil into sea. In addition, the company was aloe fined $4.5 billion for the damages caused and was found guilty of 14 criminal charges (Jargosch & Jurich 2014, p. 29). Despite this challenge the company and its associate and subsidiary companies have continues to engage in the production, exploration, distribution, transportation and refinery of oil and natural gas products. The company has also continues to operate filing stations and convenience stores in different countries with varieties of brands names such as BP and ARCO among others (Jargosch & Jurich 2014, p. 67). Recruitment and retaining talented employees The oil spill at the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 was considered as a major setback to the company in terms of its public reputation and competitive advantage (Reitman 2013, p. 34). It was therefore the responsibility of the human resources department together with other levels of management to develop a strategy on how to improve on the damaged reputation and increase the company’s market share (Jargosch & Jurich 2014, p. 14). This was considered a challenge to the company considering that the public through the media had begun voicing concerns on the role of BP PLC in mitigating environmental damages. The Human resources with the help of public relations has the responsibility of developing strategies aimed at influencing the public towards the vision, mission and goals of the company in solving the oil spill issue. In addition, the need to improve on the company’s profit margins meant that they could intensify on marketing in already established markets and accessing new markets (Kerr 2012, p. 56). Other than the problem arising from the oil spill, the success of any company is determined by its ability to develop expansion mechanisms. This does not only require professionals but also individuals who would combine the knowledge they acquire in academic institutions with their creative abilities in the development of marketing and competitive strategies (Reitman 2013, p. 18). The major challenge however concerns the best ways to identify the talented individuals and the additional trainings that these individuals should be given to improve on their levels of effectiveness and efficiency (Schweyer 2011, p. 30). Recruitment and retention of talent in BP PLC Company An effective recruitment and selection processes only possible in situations whereby an organization such as BP employs the most effective human resources policy procedure to improve on its efficiency and effectiveness in selecting the most appropriate employees for the organization. One of the major setbacks that have affected the ability of the organization to ensure the hiring of the most competitive and the most talented individuals are the recruitment and selection strategies (Reitman 2013, p. 40). This in the view of organizational change theory denies the company an opportunity to embrace changes in the market. BP PLC Company has over the years been hiring on the basis of experience rather than competencies. This has contributed to the development of a work force that is currently aging. This means that it will be important for the company to re-strategize on the hiring process as a way of ensuring that more energetic and equally competent individual are hired to the team as part of embracing change in the oil and gas market (Kerr 2012, p. 19). According to organizational theory, it is important for the decision makers in any organization to consider the prevailing environmental and market conditions before developing a strategy that targets any sector of the said organization (Price 2007, p. 16). While applying this theory in the recruitment and retention of talents, BP PLC, through its management, has developed the realization that competition for different talents in the oil and gas market is taking place on a global scale. This is because highly skilled workers are increasingly becoming mobile as they seek to progress in their careers (Price 2007, p. 22). This has created some form of shortage of skilled and talented workers especially in countries where there is rapid development of oil and gas industry (Schweyer 2011, p. 45). In such countries, BP PLC faces the challenge of spending more resources in outsourcing for employees in other countries due to insufficient supply of those skills in the host countries (Kerr 2012, p. 16). Currently BP is a leading company in deep-water oil exploration and production. The company has however been facing challenges related to its ability to ensure high level effectiveness and efficiency since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 (Antes et al 2013, p. 23). The main challenge in this sector arises from insufficient supply of experts in geoscience related disciplines. This has been exacerbated by the negative reputation that the company has continued to receive ever since the explosion at the Gulf of Mexico (Kerr 2012, p. 58). In addition, the challenge that BP faces in recruitment and retention of talented employees in geoscience disciplines emanates from the inability of the company through its human resource department to employ the most effective strategies that could attract fresh graduates into the company (Reitman 2013, p. 90). An additional challenge in the development of strategies that can be the most effective in coping with the prevailing a projected talent crunch in the oils and gas industry is related to the existence of a gap that is in finding and retaining highly qualified field and project engineers (Harrison et al, 2008, p. 67). Other than the geoscience specialists, BP is also facing some shortage of talents and skills in Information Technology (IT). This has been attributed to among other factors the increase in the automation of operation and systems in different areas in the oil and gas industry (Antes et al 2013, p. 42). Less interest among college students in courses with high levels of automaton of systems has exacerbated the shortage in the population of talented individuals within these academic fields (Cheese et al 2010, p. 11). It is important to note that as a key player in the market BP has the responsibility of seeking a mechanism though which it can integrate technological advancements and the need for talented personnel in the oil and gas industry (Kerr 2012, p. 67). This is because of the role they play in innovation of process and systems that would facilitate effective and efficient exploration, production and distribution mechanisms of oil and gas products (Reitman 2013, p. 97). The process of effective recruitment and retention of talented and highly skilled employees is important to BP due to the increasing need for the company to ensure competitive advantage in terms of an effective workforce. This means that the company will have to institute creative mechanisms in designing their hiring plans (Antes et al 2013, p. 102). This will include the process of outsourcing talents from other countries to boost on employee efficacy. For the company to realize such a change in its recruitment and retention strategy it will be important to develop new and relatively varied business operation models (Davis 2012, p. 17). This is because the operation models of any company provide a definition of its approach towards the market. This definition will even determine the kinds of attitudes and personalities that will be considered in the process of recruiting and retaining highly skilled staff (Jenner et al 2010, p. 45). For instance, in an attempt to boost its employee workforce, BP is seeking intelligent and process driven employees with the ability to understand complex issues and identify critical points through a logical process (Kerr 2012, p. 44). The main challenge when the oil and gas industry is perceived from the perspective of the attitudes and personalities lies in the desire to convince college students with the best character traits that the industry offers the best employment experience compared to other industries (Harrison et al, 2008, p. 20). Inasmuch as experience is a necessary but not sufficient in determining the level of competence of an individual, it would be important for the company to embrace attributes such as the ability to work in a team while demonstrating high collaborative skills (Antes et al 2013, p. 56). In addition, for BP Company the development of effective strategies to help in the recruitment and retention process will also require individuals with the ability to focus on safety and compliance operations in handling different responsibilities within the industry (Phillips et al 2011, p. 12). Being a strategic human resource development, recruitment and retention of talents is important to the organization since it provides a technique through which BP can engage employees in terms of their capabilities (Kerr 2012, p. 36). Conclusion and recommendations Conclusion The role of HRD is to ensure that there are effective strategies that are designed to solve employee related issues in an organization. BP PLC has been experiencing challenges related to recruitment and retention of highly qualified and talented employees. This is due to the rise in the level of demand for the rare skills and the wrongful strategies that the company has continued to implement in relation to experience based instead of competence based approaches has also diminished its position in the recruitment a market. Recommendations BP PLC Company should provide mentoring programs to students in schools and internships to attract the interest of the highly talented pool of students to work for the company after graduating from college. The company can also initiate programs that enhance the creation of flexible work schedules for employees as a way of providing opportunities to existing worker to seek ways of boosting their levels of competence through further studies and professional development programs (Price 2007, p. 33). There is need to create a workforce management plan which will help in the identification of specific roles and levels of competencies required in the company for the realization of organizational goals and objectives (Reitman 2013, p. 60). References Antes, Ralf, Bernd Hansjürgens, and P Letmathe. 2013, Emissions Trading and Business. Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag, Internet resource. Cheese, Peter, Robert J. Thomas, and Elizabeth Craig. 2010. The talent powered organization: strategies for globalization, talent management and high performance. London: Kogan Page. Davis, Tony. 2012. Talent assessment a new strategy for talent management. Aldershot, England: Gower. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=438954 Harrison, Jeffrey S., and Caron H. St. John. 2008. Foundations in strategic management. Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western. Jargosch, Reiner & Jurich, Joseph, 2014. BP plc Patent Landscape Analysis – January 1, 1994 to December 31, 2013. IPGenix LL.C: London, Print Jenner, Shirley, and Stephen Taylor. 2000. Recruiting, developing and retaining graduate talent. London: Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Kerr, Joseph, 2012. The best practices enterprise : A guide to achieving sustainable world-class performance. New York Universtiy Press: New York Leydier, Gilles. 2013. Environmental Issues in Political Discourse in Britain and Ireland. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1477529. Phillips, Jack J., and Lisa Edwards. 2010. Managing Talent Retention An ROI Approach. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:101:1-2014122412471. Price, Alan. 2007. Human resource management in a business context. London: Thomson. Reitman, Annabelle. 2013. Talent Retention: Career Planning & Talent Management, March 2013, Issue 0703. Alexandria, Va.: ASTD Press, Internet resource. Schweyer, Allan. 2011. Talent management systems best practices in technology solutions for r ecruitment, retention, and workforce planning. [Toronto, Ont.]: Wiley. http://www.123library.org/book_details/?id=7405. Read More