D E PA R TM E NT S • H S E&T CO RN ER
Great Crew Change 2.0: Better
job-site engagement, competency
assurance programs help to keep
short-service employees safe
Companies also relying on behavior-based
tools, automation to enhance rig-site safety
BY JESSICA WHITESIDE, CONTRIBUTOR
Drilling companies are facing a shortage of
experienced personnel as the ongoing
post-pandemic recovery continues, which
means many are bringing on less-experi-
enced short-service employees (SSEs). To
ensure these SSEs can operate both safely
and efficiently, companies are looking to
automated and error-tolerant systems,
competency assurance programs (CAPs)
and mentorship engagement to keep per-
sonnel safe while meeting productivity
expectations. “You cannot achieve operational excel-
lence without safety. We have to make
sure our people are highly trained, high-
ly skilled and highly competent,” said
Donovan Randolph, Nabors Industries’
Senior QHSE Manager for North America.

He spoke during the Great Crew Change
2.0 panel at the 2023 IADC HSE & Training
Conference in Houston on 19 April.

Workforce pressures
compounded by upturn
The long-simmering “great crew
change” was always going to be tricky for
the industry, due to the hiring slump in
the mid-1980s and ’90s that left a whole
generational gap in the workforce. A brain
drain of STEM professionals leaving for
the tech sector over the past couple of
decades hasn’t help either.

More recently, the personnel shortage
has been exacerbated even further by pan-
demic-related layoffs and resignations, as
well as stiff competition from other skilled
and unskilled labor markets, including the
growing renewables sector.

And then there’s the impact of the post-
40 pandemic demand for rigs. Dirk Kolnsberg,
VP HSE at Patterson-UTI Drilling Company,
pointed to a Baker Hughes statistic show-
ing that the April 2023 US rig count was up
by over 200% from the low in 2020.

“Not only do we have this crew change
issue, but now also we have this massive
upswing in the numbers of rigs, so we
also have additional pressures that weren’t
there back in 2013 or 2014,” he said.

With broader factors than retirement
now at play in the skills shortage, the tran-
sition focus has shifted from knowledge
transfer to retention and skill develop-
ment. For example, Patterson-UTI has imple-
mented a formal process to verify that
new-to-industry employees have the criti-
cal information and competencies they
need to be successful, Mr Kolnsberg said.

“We’ve seen a significant improvement in
our retention because of that.”
Engineering variability out
through automation
Setting people up for success also
includes looking for opportunities from a
technology standpoint to engineer some of
the hazards out, Mr Randolph said.

“When something happens, it’s not
always about going back and reviewing
and revising the policy,” he said. “We need
to look at it from a deeper perspective, at
how we can actually eliminate something
or create a better error-tolerant system for
our teammates so when things do happen,
no one gets killed.”
Mr Kolnsberg said Patterson-UTI is
automating a lot of its downhole solutions
to take some of the variability out of its
operations and to shift some of the rou-
tine tasks within a drilling process away
from personnel. “We’re looking for ways to
automate that so we’re not relying on the
drillers who might only have four or five
years of experience in the oilfield.”
Enabling mentors
Mentorship is another essential com-
ponent to help newhires feel engaged and
gain the competencies they need to stay
safe – but what if their supervisor doesn’t
have the time or skills to get that coaching
component right?
Patterson-UTI reviewed its operational
and HSE expectations in 2022 to see how
processes and responsibilities for its job-
site managers had changed since 2014
to keep pace with internal and external
requirements. The analysis found that the
documented responsibilities for the role
had ballooned from 359 to more than 1,200.

The requirements broke down roughly by
thirds into administration, engagement
(such as coaching and verifying the work
of others), and action (when the manager
would personally go out and perform jobs),
Mr Kolnsberg said.

“One of the questions that we asked is,
where should they be spending their time?
Are we asking them to do the right things?
Are we providing them opportunities to
spend more time on engagement? How
can we minimize the amount of adminis-
tration they have to do?”
Part of the answer is to take a risk-
based, time-management approach to
optimizing processes and to employ digi-
talization strategies to eliminate a lot of
the administrative tasks so supervisors
have more time to supervise and foster job-
site engagement. “Improved engagement
will lead to better retention, better perfor-
mance, better safety,” Mr Kolnsberg said.

Mr Randolph noted it is also important
to ensure that leaders receive training
and resources to be effective mentors.

Someone may be deemed a mentor simply
by virtue of their time in service or high
performance. But is someone a good rig
manager simply because he or she is a
good driller? If you expect mentors to oper-
ate at a high level, you have to give them
tools to help them learn how to manage
and communicate, he said. “We expect
J U LY/AU G U ST 2023 • D R I L L I N G C O N T R AC T O R