An investigation into job role localisation in the oil and gas industry: a case study

This study investigates the viability of localising job roles in the oil and gas industry and whether job role localisation can reduce staffing costs. The principal barrier to job role localisation is high standards required by oil and gas companies and immature labour markets that do not meet these standards. A four stage mixed methods approach is taken. The first stage addresses the global level using a survey about local content issues. The second stage focuses on the national level using interviews to investigate how national factors can affect job role localisation. The third stage addresses the company level, using a decision tree methodology on a sample of ten job roles within one oil and gas company operating in Ghana to assess the viability of localising particular job roles. The fourth stage uses training and development investment timelines to model whether the costs of employing expatriates are greater than training, developing and employing Ghanaians to do the same job roles. The findings show that different stakeholders often share opinions about local content issues. At the national level there are many national context specific factors that affect job role localisation including legislations, culture, attitudes and experience within the labour market. The decision tree methodology developed in this study is an effective tool to assess the viability of localising different job roles over time. Training and development investment timelines show that it is more cost-effective to invest in the education, training and development of local people than it is to employ expatriates. This study finds that localisation is becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide. Oil and gas companies must adapt their localisation strategies to the national context where they are operating. Whilst not all job roles should be localised, decision trees can support companies to decide which job roles should be localised. Furthermore, companies can reduce costs if they train, develop and employ local people rather than employing expatriates.