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Australian Energy Producers Journal Australian Energy Producers Journal Society
Journal of Australian Energy Producers
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Non peer reviewed)

Esso Highlands Limited—committed to world’s best practice assessment processes for the PNG LNG Project*

P. McNulty A and M. Mathieson B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Esso Highlands Limited.

B ValueEdge Consulting.

The APPEA Journal 51(2) 709-709 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ10089
Published: 2011

Abstract

The PNG LNG Project is a major resource project in Papua New Guinea that should double the GDP of PNG and provide significant benefits to numerous remote, regional and metropolitan communities. Through a commitment to providing optimal training and employment opportunities for PNG nationals, Esso Highlands Limited is recruiting candidates from all over PNG to take up training and employment opportunities.

One opportunity for PNG candidates is the Operations and Maintenance Technician Traineeship Program. This involves 18 months of preparatory training in Port Moresby and 12 months at advanced technical training facilities overseas followed by up to 24 months on the job training at the actual facility; either the Hides gas conditioning plant in the Southern Highlands or at the LNG plant outside Port Moresby in PNG.

This program is structured to establish a highly-trained workforce of more than 150 technicians for key operational roles in the PNG LNG Project. A nationwide recruitment drive attracted more than 8,000 applicants. Although the scale of this response—in a country with poor socio-economic conditions and limited paid employment opportunities—was anticipated, the linguistic and cultural diversity of the candidates provided a major challenge for Esso Highlands. The challenge involved how to appropriately and fairly assess and select the required number of trainees from this massive pool of candidates.

To address some of the assessment and selection needs, Esso Highlands Limited commissioned ValueEdge Consulting in light of their experience and expertise in delivering similar culturally appropriate assessment programs throughout Australia and southeast Asia. This presentation will provide an overview of the staged assessment model used to select the 76 most suitable candidates from the original 8,000 applicants for the first traineeship program, which commenced in Port Moresby in July 2010.

The success of this recruitment program in a culturally, linguistically and educationally diverse country is highlighted by the fact that another significant-sized group of the candidates were retained by Esso Highlands Limited in internship positions—this is in addition to the 76 candidates selected for trainee positions. Due to the high-calibre talent pool attracted by this opportunity and assessed through this program, the extended pool of retained candidates enabled Esso Highlands Limited to meet their needs for the traineeships and also to identify suitable candidates to fulfil a range of their other training and employment opportunities.

This presentation will outline details of the selection methods and tools used for the assessment of: training potential, technical aptitude, interpersonal skills, technical knowledge, team work and individual competencies. The presentation also outlines a model for other green-field sites in countries where traditional recruitment methodologies are ineffective or culturally and linguistically biased against the local population.

Patti McNulty is the training and national workforce development manager for ExxonMobil’s PNG LNG project.

Patti moved to PNG in mid-2009, responsible for the recruitment and training of the future PNG operations and maintenance technician workforce.

Patti also oversees the development of a capable, above-field workforce to support the future operations of this project that will be more than 30 years.

Her work is closely linked to the commitments made to the people of PNG regarding the nationalisation of the PNG LNG workforce.

Originally from Ballarat, Victoria, Patti joined ExxonMobil, Melbourne in 1993, holding various staff development roles, which lead to the position of HR operations manager for the ExxonMobil Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands Downstream business.

Patti’s experience in PNG has been enormously rewarding and challenging. She believes her lateral thinking skills have improved enormously as every new situation has its own unique set of variables.

Mark Mathieson is a registered psychologist, executive and personal coach and an experienced practitioner in applying psychology to performance-based environments.

He has worked extensively in improving quantifiable outcomes through optimising the alignment of people at the operations level of strategising in the boardroom, with roles taking him from Antarctica to the war-zones of the Middle East. He has served as a military psychologist in the Australian Army for more than 12 years including a number of years with special forces and numerous deployments across the world.

Mark has extensive skills in assessment, selection and development for high performance environments including remote, isolated or high pressure roles. He has conducted research and developed programs in the application of mental toughness training in the corporate and military sectors. Mark also has a primary interest in the alignment of key people systems with business strategy and outcomes.

Mark holds an MAppPsyc, GradDip (HRM and applied psychology) and BA (social sciences).