Oil Search
“Assessment centres have given us a high level of comfort in knowing that the graduates selected will succeed.” Mark Gorodecki, Corporate Learning and Development Manager, Oil Search.
The background
In 2003, Oil Search underwent rapid expansion in Papua New Guinea and grew from 65 to 800 staff in two years. The organisation now faces several challenges including building and operating a gas pipeline from Papua New Guinea to Australia, and further expansion into the Middle East. As part of the continued development of its talent pool, Oil Search needed an efficient yet fair method to screen and assess graduates – their future leaders.
The challenge
Oil Search turned to SHL to help select top university students to develop into senior technical roles and supervisors. Oil Search’s Corporate Learning and Development Manager, Mark Gorodecki, says, “In the past Oil Search used resumes and academic performance to select graduates and then cut the numbers down via an interview process. When you get close to 600 applications, this process can be cumbersome.
The solution
“To screen applicants more effectively and fairly, we now use paper-based ability tests. This provides us with a shortlist of candidates who we then put through assessment centres, which simulate typical workplace scenarios,” said Mr Gorodecki. “Assessment centres have given us a high level of comfort in knowing that the graduates selected will succeed,” Mr Gorodecki added.
The results
Oil Search is now using SHL’s personality questionnaires and ability tests to help with recruitment in all its operations. “Recruitment is an important issue for us,’’ Mr Gorodecki says. “We are committed to developing local people and leave the countries we operate in with a legacy. To ensure we are successful we need to have the right people to begin with.”
“The new gas pipeline will breathe fresh life into our business and there will be plenty of new jobs. As we expand we need to move people around to manage different areas. In both of these situations we need to have the right leaders. SHL is helping us to make sure we do” he says.
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