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Hard Operations General Management Employee Retention Organizational Behavior

High Engineer Attrition at SLS Oil Gas Services

#Oil & Gas Services
ProHub Comment

The case focuses on diagnosing high employee attrition for Field Engineers in a specific, challenging industry. The provided exhibits (Exhibit 4 and 5) will be crucial for analyzing the 'Level Loading' (time spent offshore) and how it varies by seniority, directly hinting at potential causes related to work-life balance and career progression. The problem's structure suggests a combination of qualitative interviews (to gather context and sentiment) and quantitative analysis of operational data.

Estimated Time 37 minutes
Difficulty Hard
Source Wharton
20 / 100
Our client SLS is one of the world’s largest oil and gas services provider operating in 85 countries and employing about 100,000 people from over 140 countries. They help find, scope and drill as much oil and gas as possible for their clients – which range from major international oil companies to petrostates such as Saudi Arabia and Russia. Of late they are seeing a very high attrition rate among their Field Engineer (FE) population across several offices globally, the Mumbai office in India being one of the most affected. The CEO is concerned and has asked you for advice specifically for the Mumbai office. She hopes that if the problem can be fixed in Mumbai, similar fix can be implemented everywhere else. It is indeed a matter of grave urgency for SLS.

Clarifying Information

  1. What does a Field Engineer do? Field Engineers work with specialized oilfield equipment which they lower inside a well, and then record and analyze data to identify whether and how much oil and gas is buried in the ground. They spend a considerable amount of time working on oil rigs. All oil rigs in Mumbai are offshore i.e. at sea (see Exhibit 1 that shows two types of offshore oil rigs in Mumbai) Most offshore rigs are bad with poor food, poor internet and poor accommodation.
  2. How is attrition rate defined? (No. of FEs quitting in a year / Avg. no. of FEs in that year) %
  3. Where are FEs going? Mostly going to do Masters or moving to a completely different industry
  4. How high is the attrition rate? 28% in 2016 in Mumbai (similarly high in several other offices globally)
  5. What has the CEO requested? Identify the cause(s) of high attrition and make recommendations on fixing it
Mock Interview
Interviewer

Our client SLS is one of the world’s largest oil and gas services provider operating in 85 countries and employing about 100,000 people from over 140 countries. They help find, scope and drill as much oil and gas as possible for their clients – which range from major international oil companies to petrostates such as Saudi Arabia and Russia. Of late they are seeing a very high attrition rate among their Field Engineer (FE) population across several offices globally, the Mumbai office in India being one of the most affected. The CEO is concerned and has asked you for advice specifically for the Mumbai office. She hopes that if the problem can be fixed in Mumbai, similar fix can be implemented everywhere else. It is indeed a matter of grave urgency for SLS.

You

Thanks. Before analyzing, I'd like to clarify a few key questions...

Interviewer

Good question. Let me provide some background information...

You

Based on this, I suggest analyzing from these dimensions...

AI Score
Structure Analysis Communication Business Sense Quantitative
Practicing...
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Practice this case with AI Mock Interview

This case involves a large oil and gas services provider, SLS, facing severe Field Engineer attrition, particularly in its Mumbai office. The CEO seeks advice on identifying the root causes and implementing solutions, with the hope that successful fixes in Mumbai can be replicated globally. The case requires an analysis of internal and external factors contributing to attrition, with specific exhibits on ‘Level Loading’ by seniority to guide the quantitative analysis.

Key Insights:

  1. Importance of understanding the specific operational environment (offshore rigs, FE role) and its impact on employee satisfaction.
  2. Leveraging quantitative data (Exhibits 4 & 5 on Level Loading vs. Seniority) to identify specific pain points and disparities in workload.
  3. Considering both internal (management changes, work-life balance, career progression, team cohesion) and external factors (further education, industry shifts, competitive market) for attrition.
  4. The value of a structured framework to diagnose complex HR/Operations problems, combining qualitative insights from potential interviews with quantitative data analysis.