Tag Archive for: Construction Recruitment

How Rensol Resolves Subtle Gender Discrimination Case for an Oil Company: A Case Study

Case Study - Oil Company

Client Problem: An employer in Turkmenistan worries about receiving complaints of subtle discrimination incidents among female oil employees to various project sites

  • Female employees from various oil fields complain of alleged discrimination in the workplace from men co-workers and even branch managers.
  • Discrimination incidents already caused the filing of resignation from some female employees from across many branches.

Rensol’s Solution: Disciplinary Action; Equality Policies; Prioritize Deployment of Highly-Skilled Female Workers to Boost Women Participation

  • As a consultant, Rensol recommends that complaints should all be taken seriously. Disciplinary action against workers involved should be imposed accordingly.
  • Impose equality policies among workers.
  • Rensol advises priority on the deployment of women to increase the diversity of workers and to promote gender equality.

It was tackled in a previous blog post that the oil and gas industry has a bad reputation as a workplace for women. The male-dominated industry was home to cases of discrimination and sexism that make attraction and retention of female workers difficult for human resource managers.

Case in Point: A Greasy Situation in an Oil Company

The senior management of an oil company in Turkmenistan worries upon receiving bulk complaints of alleged discrimination and sexism among women employees. Cases vary from inequality, favoritism, and even cat-calling.

Apparently, in every oil kiosk they have, there was only one female employee at most, in a minimum of 8 female employees per branch. The employers were doubting if they can still retain women employees as reprimanding discrimination would hurt most of their manpower, but ignoring it would surely affect their reputation.

The oil company consults Rensol Recruitment & Consulting on how they can eradicate discrimination in all their job sites.

Rensol Intervention: Responsible Reprimand and Women Empowerment

With the established expertise in the industry of talent management, Rensol can solve the gender imbalance in the oil company.

Rensol recommends imposing disciplinary action to workers concerned as addressing each incident will signify their ethical commitment that discrimination must have no room in their organization. Forgiving men and firing women will never solve the gender discrimination issue in their company but will even make them vicariously liable for the actions of their employees. Every complaint should be taken seriously. Disciplining employees by imposing reprimand will position their company to an image of integrity, that is important to keep their reputation good and sound for talent attraction and for customer satisfaction, as well.

Policy on equal opportunities should also be imposed and every employee should have read and understood that policy. Strict implementation and supervision should be set to monitor that every demand of both genders is met.

To further empower women in the workplace, Rensol advised that recruitment of female employees be a part of their priority to equalize diversity in every branch. Even with low career attractiveness, Rensol was able to source female candidates whose level of technical capabilities and qualification is at par with their male counterparts.

Recruitment of female workers has been proactive and had generated good feedbacks from job seekers from the Philippines who are seemingly attracted to the brave effort of the company to prioritize women as workers for the job ruled by men.

ABOUT THE COMPANY: Rensol Recruitment and Consulting, Inc. is the fastest growing recruitment agency in The Philippines. A career consultant that aims to go above and beyond the level of expectations of both the aspirations of the candidates and the dream team standards of employers through providing exceptional opportunities and unparalleled quality-driven recruitment services.

 

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Empowering Women in the Kingdom of Men

Women in Oil & Gas Industry

The oil and gas industry is undoubtedly a male-dominated arena. About 85% of its global workforce are males. This industry is known to be notorious for women to establish a stable career path.

It was only when crude prices began to crash when oil and energy executives realized the profitability of hiring and retaining women in the industry.  Globalization has been reshaping gender diversity in the workplace. The focus on female workers is in the works to escalate gender balance and under-representation.

Challenges

Workforce in Oil & Gas Industry Challenged

More than the diversity problem, this is an industry where racism and sexism have been norms, making recruitment of women a tough job and a challenging work for recruitment agencies.

Gender-related challenges build wide gaps in perception between men and women. When technical and field roles started to open doors for women, scarcity of comfort rooms for ladies arise.  Some women who were sent to gas stations have reported cases being doubted and discriminated by their men counterparts. Women with children exhibited inefficiency in delivering their jobs.

Men and women start equally in this industry, however, it is rare for women to reach the top echelons because of gender barriers that are still existing with companies where gender diversity is not yet a high strategic priority.

In a report by the World Petroleum Council (WPC), only a few women were offered with technical and operating roles that are crucial for them to advance to senior management roles. Their limited presence in technical roles does not account for their lack of ambition to climb the ladder higher but with existing policies that prohibit their career advancement.

Diversity

Workforce Diversity in Oil & Gas Industry

Yuri Inoue, head of Showa Shell’s legal division, said that it would be difficult for companies to differentiate themselves in the oil industry without emphasizing women’s participation. Diversity is vital for survival. Attracting, retaining, and empowering more women in the industry is relevant to be done.

The future’s demand for shared energy is not attainable by discovering all types of energy source available but by nurturing “diversity of thought,” said Eileen Wilkinson, Vice President for Exploration in MENA at Shell. She added that a company’s longevity could be assured by inspiring more women to enter the industry.

In a survey by Ernst & Young Global Ltd, 615  of 1000 oil and gas professionals agree that gender diversity impacts the financial performance of a company. Gender diversity helps an industry to attain broader perspective which later drives a company’s growth. The industry should start imagining the number of innovative solutions that the joint efforts of male and female oil and gas employees can come up to.

The modern women are very much open to working for the oil and gas industry. Especially in the Philippines, competitive women are at par on the level of technical workers.  Women workforce from third world countries can do the toughest of jobs –  they can multitask, they can think through complex problems, as much as men can do.

The attractiveness of the oil and gas industry could be promoted by making career paths more accommodating to a wider range of jobs up to senior roles.  Work-life balance policies should also be made available and be applied equally to both genders. This effort looks forward to breaking down gender barriers in the status quo. The small percentage of women participating from this sector suggests that there is an evidently big population that are not maximized to make decisions that could create real positive impact on the oil, gas, chemical, and energy industry.

Seasoned recruiters will always have an eye for star performers. Learn more of our best practices in talent acquisition and let us collaborate to achieve your business goals.

ABOUT THE COMPANY: Rensol Recruitment and Consulting, Inc. is the fastest growing recruitment agency in The Philippines. A career consultant that aims to go above and beyond the level of expectations of both the aspirations of the candidates and the dream team standards of employers through providing exceptional opportunities and unparalleled quality-driven recruitment services.

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How Rensol Stepped in and Solved a Conflict between an OFW and a Local Worker: A Case Study

Case Study - Oil Company

Client Problem: A worker deployed by Rensol and a Local Worker gets into Physical Altercation

  • Filipino worker catches into an altercation with a local worker after an alleged maltreatment by the latter.
  • Employer sends incident report to Rensol and requests for help to defuse the situation.

Rensol’s Solution: Detailed Investigation, Proper Communication and Fact Driven Claims

  • Rensol dives in deeply into the investigation about the incident.
  • Rensol sends findings and recommendations to client company.

Misunderstandings and altercations are not rare things in the working community, RENSOL and with our above and beyond service as a Philippine recruitment agency guarantees to resolve such kind of incident if it involves our deployed employees fairly. While workplace violence is something intolerable yet manageable, it is a special form of bullying and harassment that could inflict damaging effect to productivity and reputation of a company.

Case on Point: Easing Up the Air in the Construction Site

A physical altercation between a Filipino worker and a local employee resulted to minor injuries to the latter. Being a serious incident, this was quickly addressed by the employer’s administration by sanctioning both parties. The Filipino worker claimed that he was treated unfairly by his co-workers and was only forced to get into a physical quarrel.

After Rensol Recruitment came into knowledge about the confrontation, the agency intervened and helped the client to come up with fair and unbiased decision.

Based on a separate investigation conducted by Rensol, with key eye witnesses from the construction site where one-third of workers were Filipinos, it was found that the deployed employee experienced bullying and discrimination in the workplace. The clash started when a group of local workers staged a prank to make fool of him. The OFW, who has already lost his cool, fought back out of too much embarrassment.

These findings were submitted to the client along with prior recommendation on how to resolve the bigger problem in their construction site, bullying and discrimination. Local workers involved in the prank were suspended as disciplinary action while the Filipino worker was given protection against site’s bullies.

Rensol Intervention

As a Philippine Partner Recruitment Agency which values ethical recruitment at the forefront, Rensol made it possible to positively impact both the employer and the employee in the most non-intrusive way possible. Investigation was conducted in a thorough and swift manner resulting in the confirmation of the worker’s claim to be true and factual.

Rensol made sure that the results were brought to the attention of the employer to assure that there will be no biases in their decisions and to defuse any chance of a legal battle between both parties.

After this incident, both Rensol Recruitment and the employer agreed to have stricter policies in their course of action towards these kinds of events, where the client agreed to keep a closer eye on their expats if they’re being treated unfairly by their co-workers.

Rensol Recruitment is unique compared to our industry counterparts in the Philippines as our terms of service does not end after deployment of our candidates, we go above and beyond the limits of our service agreement and make sure to keep an eye on them within the course of their work overseas.

ABOUT THE COMPANY: Rensol Recruitment and Consulting, Inc. is the fastest growing recruitment agency in The Philippines. A career consultant that aims to go above and beyond the level of expectations of both the aspirations of the candidates and the dream team standards of employers through providing exceptional opportunities and unparalleled quality-driven recruitment services.

 

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High Employee Turnover as a Silent Construction Manpower Crisis

Human capital is one of a company’s largest asset. Today, in order to succeed and achieve operational efficiency, overseas construction companies rely heavily on reliable, productive and competent labor force. These employees play a crucial role in the success of the company. As Alfred Marshall once said, “The most valuable of all capital is invested in human beings.”

Losing an employee may not hurt your business but losing a dozen more may cause your company to stumble. Furthermore, losing a bad employee can give way to a better one, however, not all loss of employee can bring back good to your company. You may find and hire new people to work for you, but are you willing to sacrifice your company’s delay in production?

Replacing your employees can be damaging to your company. According to an article written by Heather Boushey and Sarah Jane Glynn, HR experts of Center for American Progress, replacing your employees may hurt your business’ productivity for it all results to increasing direct costs and turnover costs.

Now, despite the unpopularity as a career choice, the construction industry is one of those labor markets struggling to get along with the continuously growing demand for output. Apart from skills shortage, the ADP Workforce Vitality Index 2017 reported that one of the major but unnoticed problems that affect construction companies and contractors is the high turnover among employees. Turnover refers to the rate at which workers voluntarily leave the company. This has a negative impact most especially in a specialized industry like the construction sector.  Turnovers pose risks from losing a skilled machine operator to a top engineer.

Finding and retaining the best employees is a competitive edge in the construction industry. However, addressing turnover has been not prioritized and was deemed normal by some human resource managers. Executives should be reminded that turnover is a sign of unhappiness in the workplace. It is beyond cancerous.

In a journal entitled “Investigating Employee Turnover in the Construction Industry: A Psychological Contract Perspective” published in 2016, authors identified what predicts employee’s turnover in the construction industry. Apparently, emotional exhaustion emerged as the top reason for the younger construction workers to suffer greater levels of exhaustion and who are more likely to exit the construction site.

Other causes of turnover included; conflict with management, toxic work environment, and job dissatisfaction. This problem constitutes unprofessional management, poor compensation, insufficient recognition, or even isolated cases like discrimination in the workplace and bullying among workers.

 

The Cost of Turnover

This industry long suffered from workers who keep on looking for better working environment, salary increases, and shorter working hours. Persistently high workers turnover affects operational efficiency and morale of employees. Without efforts to keep employees, a company may find it hard to establish a lasting culture within the organization if people continuously come and go.

High turnover hurts productivity and revenue due to constant hiring and training of new employees. This greatly affects continuity of services which is vital for a company to compete.

Based on a study of the Society for Human Resource Management, the cost of losing a salaried employee can cost as much as twice as their annual salary. This is a summation of the exit and separation costs; cost of recruiting a replacement; training and onboarding costs; lost expertise; administrative costs; and cost of lost productivity. This doesn’t include all the intangible and untracked costs prior to resignation and recruitment of vacated position.

Turnover may also push other employees to follow suit and leave you crippled with impaired human resources.

 

Effective Recruitment and Employee Retention

Managing employee turnover and exerting efforts toward employee retention is not just a tough job among contractors but among construction recruitment agencies as well where the burden of attracting skilled professional starts. Retaining employees and reducing employee turnover could be managed as early in the recruitment stage.

Turnovers, which may not be an issue within the workplace, might be an issue on recruitment when we initially hire the wrong person. Successful recruitment practice in construction should not just involve finding capable and qualified workers, but also those who can fit your work environment and could stay for a longer term.

Recruiters can easily spot job hoppers by simply looking at their resumes and by checking their references. During the recruitment stage, employees who are most likely be committed is easily detectable.

As soon as they landed on the job site, employers should find time to check out to their employees to pre-diagnose any chance of turnover. Establishing a comfortable environment and an ambiance of mutual respect among supervisors and workers could also cut issues that lead to turnover.

Finding a good employee is tough, and it will be more difficult if we have to lose the ones we already got. We can no longer extinguish the bills once it gets burned. We can no longer take them back once they walked out your door.

Seasoned recruiters will always have an eye for star performers. Learn more of our best practices in talent acquisition and let us collaborate to achieve your business goals.

ABOUT THE COMPANY: Rensol Recruitment and Consulting, Inc. is the fastest growing recruitment agency in The Philippines. A career consultant that aims to go above and beyond the level of expectations of both the aspirations of the candidates and the dream team standards of employers through providing exceptional opportunities and unparalleled quality-driven recruitment services.

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