O&G Firms Investing In Diversity Reap Major Financial Benefits
The U.S. Energy Workforce & Technology Council has released its latest Workforce Diversity toolkit based on updated data showing that diversity has a financial upside for oil and gas companies.
Research shows that companies with a higher percentage of women in executive positions have a 34 percent higher total return to shareholders than those that do not and companies with ethnic diversity on their executive team are 25 percent more likely to have above-average profitability and 27 percent likelihood of outperforming peers in value creation.
“Developing diverse talent is imperative for the energy technology and services sector as it continues to develop new and innovative technologies to lead us into a lower carbon future,” said Leslie Beyer, CEO of the Energy Workforce & Technology Council.
“We continue to increase employment in the sector after significant declines in the workforce stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. Looking to a more diverse set of potential employees will accelerate the industry’s workforce goals while broadening the creativity of the sector,” she added.
This latest study, published in collaboration with Accenture, draws on insights of more than 250,000 workers, including 62,000 in the United States. The report also considers race and ethnicity dimensions along with gender.
Notably, the study found that the percentage of women in the sector rose to 19 percent, almost reaching Energy Workforce’s 20 percent goal set in 2018 and up from 16 percent that year.
Ethnic and racial minorities, which were not part of the 2018 study, comprised 28 percent of the sector. One of the reasons for women’s increased representation is they were recruited at a greater rate, comprising 20 percent of all recruits in 2020 vs. 16 percent in 2018, the study found.
The Workforce Diversity toolkit provides recommendations for Energy Workforce member companies to help further progress toward each organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.
The toolkit incorporates input from the updated study and subsequent member workshops. It is a living document that includes a diversity index to measure where companies stand regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion, it also includes actionable recommendations, infographics, and best practices for organizations to adopt to make a substantial impact on the makeup of their workforce.
The Energy Workforce was also recognized by the Houston Business Journal with the Outstanding Diversity Helping Hand award which recognizes for-profit and nonprofit organizations that have shown dedication to promoting and championing diversity and inclusion in the business community or are supplying diversity-related resources, such as job sites, diversity training programs, and e-learning.
To contact the author, email username.eldina@gmail.com
Published at Mon, 04 Jul 2022 11:00:00 -0700
