STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING FOR
RESEARCH TECHNICIANS: A COMPARISON OF US AND DUTCH
PRACTICES AT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL
University of Amsterdam Faculty of Economics and Business MSc in Business Studies Date: 15.12.2010 Student: Mihaela Imbroane Thesis Coordinator: Prof. John Cullen Student number: 6092764 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................. 4
2.
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 5
3.
LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................... 6
3.1.
3.1.1.
Evolution of HR planning and the positive things it brings....................................... 7
3.1.2.
The content of the planning and its time frame ......................................................... 9
3.1.3.
The Demand and Supply of the HRP ....................................................................... 13
3.1.4.
Sources of resourcing for the HRP and the importance of finding the right fit....... 14
3.1.5.
A successful HRP..................................................................................................... 16
3.2.
4.
5.
HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING (HRP) ........................................................................... 6
HR PLANNING AS AN INTERNATIONAL HR STRATEGY................................................. 17
3.2.1.
The Ethnocentric Orientation .................................................................................. 18
3.2.2.
The importance of culture in the international HR.................................................. 19
3.2.3.
Integrating HR planning in the business strategy ................................................... 20
METHODOLGY ................................................................................................................ 21
4.1.
QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS .......................................................................................... 22
4.2.
SAMPLING .................................................................................................................... 23
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL .................................................................................................. 24
5.1.
THE HR DEPARTMENT IN SHELL .................................................................................. 25
5.2.
THE ROLE OF RESEARCH TECHNICIANS ....................................................................... 26
6.
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS: SHELL PEOPLE REPORTS ..................................... 28
7.
INTERVIEWS ANALYSIS ............................................................................................... 35
8.
THE HUMAN RESOURCE PLAN .................................................................................. 44
9.
RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................... 49
10. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 51
11. REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 53
12. ANNEX 1 ............................................................................................................................. 58
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Tables:
Table 1: The questions that framed the human resource plan…………………………………11
Table 2: Skill-pool distribution in the Netherlands……………………………………………28
Table 3: Skill-pool distribution in the United States…………………………………………..28
Table 4: Age distribution, the Netherlands……………………………………………………31
Table 5: Unplanned attrition in the Netherlands………………………………………………34
Table 6: Unplanned attrition in the United States……………………………………………..34
Table 7: The forecast of Research Technicians in 5- 10 years time, Netherlands …………...46
Table 8: The forecast of Research Technicians in 5- 10 years time, United States…………..47
Figures:
Figure 1: Flow of employees………………………………………………..…………………15
Figure 2: Demographic distribution, the Netherlands…………………………………………29
Figure 3: Demographic distribution, the United States………………………………………..30
Figure 4: Age distribution, the United States………………………………………………….32
Figure 5: Diversity distribution in the Netherlands……………………………………………32
Figure 6: Diversity distribution in the United States…………….…………………………….33
Figure 7a: Recruitment perception, the Netherlands…………………………………………..38
Figure 7b: Recruitment perception, the United States………………………………………...38
Figure 8: Attrition rate and opportunity to grow ……………………………………………...40
Figure 9a: Perception on the flow of Research Technicians in the Netherlands……………....42
Figure 9b: Perception on the flow of Research Technicians in the United States………….....42
Figure 10: Routine work and the need of a skill-pool manager in the Netherlands and United
States…………………………………………………………………………………………..43
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Human resource planning has traditionally been used by organizations to ensure that
the right person is in the right job at the right time (Bulla and Scott, 1994). This paper
proposes a resource plan for the Research Technicians within the departments of Downstream
and Upstream Shell, the Netherlands and the United States. The Research Technicians are an
important part of Shell supporting both Upstream and Downstream businesses. However, due
to their job group level, this population is often not given priority in activities such as human
resource planning. Therefore, an analysis (including quantitative and qualitative data) was
conducted in order to support the resource plan. The quantitative data, which was based on
Shell reports, was complemented by the qualitative interviews conducted with the managers
from both the Netherlands and the United States. It was found that the population of Research
Technicians is likely to be a stable population within the next 10 years, thus the managers do
not expect any major changes such as an increase or decrease in the number of their staff.
There is a low attrition rate (1-2 people/sub-department/year) and the recruitment process is ad
hoc. In the Netherlands, managers tend to prefer recruiting interns and, depending on their
work, offer them a permanent contract at the end of the assignment, whereas in the United
States the preferred recruitment mode is to hire contractors after a 2 year probation period. A
common issue regarding the flow of Research Technicians concerns the gaps that will appear
in certain departments. One way of addressing this issue is by assuring a high level of
deployability between different sub- departments. Moreover, when new Research Technicians
are recruited, a common training based on a generic model of technical competencies should
be implemented. In this regard, overspecialization could be avoided and the mobility of the
employees between different departments would increase. Therefore, a local skill-pool
manager for each country would be beneficial to create cohesion between different subdepartments and to advise the Research Technicians and help them find assignments in
different sub-departments.
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2. INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Planning (HRP) is an important component of business planning.
Without it there is little chance of the business having the right people at the right place at the
right time doing the right work (Boyd, 2008). Contemporary human resource planning occurs
within the broad context of organizational and strategic business planning. It involves
forecasting the organization's future human resource needs and planning for how those needs
will be met. It includes establishing objectives and then developing and implementing
programs (staffing, compensating, and training) to ensure that people are available with the
appropriate characteristics and skills when and where the organization needs them (Armstrong,
2007).
Organizations must realize that in order to adequately address human resource
concerns, they must develop long-term as well as short-term solutions. As human resource
planners involve themselves in more programs to serve the needs of the business, and even
influence the direction of the business, they face new responsibilities and challenges (Jackson
and Schuler, 1990).
The aim of this paper is to propose a human resource plan for the Research Technicians
within Projects and Technology (P&T) Shell in both the Netherlands and the United States.
Human resource planning addresses human resource needs that the business requires, in both
quantitative and qualitative terms. For quantitative data, reports from Shell people have been
analyzed and for qualitative data, 15 interviews with the Research Technicians’ managers have
been conducted, 11 in the Netherlands and 4 in the United States.
The reason why this population is studied is that the talent strategy implemented by
Shell only includes employees with University studies and does not include the Research
Technicians who come from professional schools an have a different background (e.g
chemistry, physics). Research Technicians are mostly found between JG 8 and JG 6, and their
major activity is to support the Upstream and Downstream businesses. Therefore, it is
important to analyze their inflow and outflow to assure a healthy age distribution in the
upcoming 5 to 10 years.
Altogether in the Netherlands, the departments of Amsterdam and Rijswijk contain 163
Research Technicians whereas in the United States, Houston, the total number is 126. The
Research Technicians are grouped under the following categories:
1. Research Technician
2. Associate Technician
5
3. Associate Researcher
4. Laboratory Technician
5. Senior Associate Researcher
The paper is divided as follows: in the first section a literature review on the concept of
human resource planning will be provided followed by the second section which offers a brief
discussion of the methodology used. The next section gives more insight into the business of
Shell and the role of the Research Technicians. The fourth section provides a quantitative
analysis of the Research Technicians in both The Netherlands and United States. The fifth
section discusses thoroughly the results of the interviews conducted with the managers
(qualitative analysis). The final section of the project will discuss recommendations based on
the outcome of the interviews as well as on personal observations.
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
In the literature review the concept of HR planning and the HR planning as an
international HR strategy will be provided. In order to do so, the section will be divided into 2
subsections. In the first subsection the definition and importance of the HR planning will be
put forth, followed by a chronological evolution of the concept in companies. Next, the content
of planning will be presented as well as the long term and the short term orientation. The same
subsection will then aim at explaining the demand and supply of the HRP as well as providing
a short discussion on the HRP sources of resourcing and the importance of personorganization fit. The subsection will conclude with what a successful HRP will look like.
The second subsection will treat the concept of international strategic HR briefly
continuing with the presentation of the Ethnocentric Orientation which is specific for the case
study. Following that, the importance of culture in international HR will be discussed, prior to
concluding with the integration of HR planning into the business strategy.
3.1. Human Resource Planning (HRP)
The human resource planning (HRP) determines the human resources required by the
company in order to achieve its strategic goals. Human resource planning has traditionally
been used by organizations to ensure that the right person is in the right job at the right time
(Jackson and Schuller, 1990).
6
HRP has received considerable attention as a method of linking strategic organization
objectives with human resources strategies and policies. HRP can have a major positive impact
in the areas of personnel cost- effectiveness employee productivity and management resource
development (Nkomo, 1987). All these will be illustrated at Royal Dutch Shell, the company
chosen as a case study.
After providing a short definition and description of the HRP the following paragraphs
will discuss more into detail the evolution of the concept of human resource planning as well
as offer a parallel between the researchers who support this plan and the ones who consider it
unnecessary.
3.1.1. Evolution of HR planning and the positive things it brings
Starting with 1950, and following the growth of modern management science, business
planning has become the key differentiator enabling competitive success (Boyd, 2008).
However the Human Resource Planning and its alignment with business appeared later on.
The 1980s seem to be a good reference point for this discussion.
Until 80’ all formal planning was treated as a broad phenomenon and very little effort
was made to distinguish what sort of formal planning one was dealing with (such as corporatelevel planning, or business- unit planning, or functional- level planning). In the case studies we
analyzed how the HRP integrates with the corporate- level planning strategies and how it
aligns with the company’s policies.
The 1980’s witnessed an increasing focus on strategic human resource planning efforts
in organizations. This type of planning was viewed as an important component of functional
level strategic planning (Nkomo 1987). HRP should result in a human resource strategy that is
congruent with the organization’s corporate and business strategies (Miles and Snow 1984, in
(Nkomo, 1987). The questions addressed in a HRP depending on the scope of the planning can
be for instance: “What are the kind of people is needed to operate in the organization? What
kind of human resource policies and strategies are needed to achieve human resource are
needed to achieve the organization’s objectives (Dyer , 1982).
Lately, starting with the 90s and continuing in the 21st century, HR development has
been moving from the supportive role of business strategy to an influential role formulating
the strategy (Armstrong 2007). Achieving the level of expertise required to meet emerging
business needs is one of the most important challenges for competitive companies. Shell is one
of them. The rapidly changing business environment requires a dynamic strategic planning
7
process (Torraco, 1995). Brandenburg et al.’s work (2006) addresses the metrics and
procedures necessary for a more strategic approach to workforce management strategy. In this
regard, Dainty et al (2009) also examine the practices of some leading organizations, focusing
on how the knowledge relating to employee’s needs and abilities is currently fed into the
resourcing decision-making process.
The importance of the human resource planning was strongly debated among different
researchers and generated various dissenting voices at its inception. On the one hand, Nkomo
(1987) proved in her studies that there is no apparent difference between the companies that do
adopt HRP and the ones that do not use it. Moreover, supporting this idea, Rothwell (1995)
argues that “apart from isolated examples, there has been little research evidence of increased
use or of its success.’ She explains that the gap between theory and practice arises from issues
such as the HR strategies, and that there is a lack of evidence that human resource planning
indeed works. She also notes a difficulty in HRP of predicting the future. In this case Rothwell
observes that the actual need for planning may be in inverse proportion to its feasibility.
Furthermore, research conducted by Taylor (2008) shows that employers, prefer to wait until
their view of the future environment clears sufficiently for them to see the whole picture
before committing resources in preparation for its arrival. The manager’s perception is that the
more complex and turbulent the environment, the more important it is to wait and see before
taking any actions.
On the other hand, there are also bodies of literature which dispute these limitations,
and argue that a good HRP has indeed many benefits. The first is a cost alignment with the
company’s strategy. (Boyd, 2008; Jackson and Schuller, 1990). Greener (2003) argues that
human resource planning also provides input into higher-level strategic planning processes.
One benefit of such planning is that, even though the forecasts might not be accurately done,
the very act of developing forecasts determines the line managers to reassess the fundamental
assumptions under which the organization operates. Another positive contribution of human
resource planning is that it signals the need for change and guides the activities within human
resource management towards greater compatibility with the organization. The process of
human resource planning includes an interface with strategic planning (Armstrong, 2008). In
this regard, the common activities that the human resource planning is focused on are: to state
the organization’s current stock of human resources, to forecast the human resource demand,
to forecast the internal and external supplies of labor, to compare supply and demand forecasts,
8
to develop plans for dealing with shortages and surpluses, and to feed back these results in a
strategic planning interface.
After having discussed the evolution of the HRP as well as its positive and the negative
sides, the following subpart will focus on the content and the steps of the planning. The
subpart will conclude with the long-term and short- term orientation of HRP.
3.1.2. The content of the planning and its time frame
The human resource plan is interdependent with all aspects of the business (Boyd,
2008). A human resource strategy is a critical component of the firm’s corporate and business
strategies. It comprises a set of well-coordinated objectives and action programs and aims at
securing a long-term, sustainable advantage over the firm’s competitors. A human resource
strategy should not only be consistent with the firm’s corporate and business strategies, but
also with the other managerial functional strategies (Arnolodo, 1985).
Workforce inventory and planning is an integral part of human resource planning. A
great effort is necessary in order to be accurate in this quantitative part of the planning activity
(Boyd, 2008). Workforce planning strategies that are necessary to success thus include
becoming a part of the business plan as well as automating the collection, processing and
analysis of quantitative data. In this regard, we will observe that in the case study, the human
resource plan is only a small part of the business strategy. The skill-pool analyzed is not yet
included into such a plan, therefore this paper proposes a uniform human resource plan and a
uniform integration with the business plan of the entire company at all levels both locally and
internationally. The line management cannot do the planning on its own, but rather they needs
cooperation with the HR department. Moreover, the line is also dependent upon that
availability and use of automated capabilities that allow the manager to concentrate on the
qualitative and forecasting part of the plan. Therefore the “two essential building blocks for
human resource planning are: a comprehensive human resource information system; and a
basic business plan.” (Biles and Holmberg, 1980, pp.78)
Succession planning programs are complex systems designed to safeguard the longterm health of the organization. The key activities in succession planning are identifying highpotential employees, identifying needed competencies, and providing learning experiences to
develop these competencies (DeLuca, 1988). Well-developed programs include a variety of
components: selection procedures, development plans, mentorships, frequent and systematic
9
performance reviews, and career planning activities that involve employees in planning and
monitoring their own development (Hall & Associates, 1986; Leibowitz, 1988).
Since the succession planning programs are complex systems, the steps of a human
resource plan are also diverse and depend on different researchers. In the following,
paragraphs Spellman’s (1992) point of view will be discussed since it is also the HR strategy
that will support the human resource plan in this paper. In his study Spellman (1992) indicates
that the HR strategy for a human resource plan should be developed as follows:
First of all, a definition of skill and competency (behavioural) requirements is
necessary. These can form the material for the structured interviews that will be one of the
selection criteria. They could also indicate whether psychometric tests could be helpful.
Regarding the skill-pool of Research Technicians psychometric tests are not relevant; instead
assessment centers based on experimental work could be implemented.
Second of all, the analysis of the factors affecting decisions to join the organization
should take place. In this stage, the benefits package and the total pay should be discussed,
followed by the career opportunities, the training periods and the accessibility of these
trainings. Moreover, topics such as how rewarding the job is, the organization’s values and
targets, increasing employability and recognizing achievements are also important for this
stage.
Third, competitive resourcing is an important factor. Competitive resourcing means
that the employer as an organization competes with other firms for employees. The factors
mentioned above should be covered, and the aim of each organization is to seek competitive
advantage by exploiting the skills of employees that are superior to those of its rivals. One of
the factors is the salary and the benefits. However, these are not the only ones. In this regard, it
is necessary to track market rates and make a policy decision regarding the position where the
organization wants to be in relation to the market.
Lastly, the recruitment and selection techniques are a strategy that should explore
methods not only of recruiting the number of people required but also for finding staff who
have the necessary skills and experience, and who could deliver the desired behavior and fit
well into the organization’s culture and values system. In the case studied, these processes and
techniques will include the use of skill analysis, competency mapping, structured interviews
and or assessment centers. The aim of the strategy that Spellman (1992) proposes is to develop
the best mix of recruitment and selection tools.
10
The steps that Spellman (1992) proposed have been transformed into specific
questions, in order to answer as accurately as possible the real situations of a certain
population. Therefore, the interview questions discussed with the managers have been based
on the set of questions that resulted from Spellman’s propositions as well as Armstrong’s
(2007) ideas. The set of questions proposed by Armstrong have been divided in two parts. The
first part (first column in Table 1) includes questions that have been answered by managers
and that delineated the resource plan, and the second part (second column) includes questions
that have not been able to be answered by the managers because of limited knowledge. In this
case, these questions have been proposed as recommendations in the human resource plan, as
important factors that contribute to the accuracy of the HRP and should be taken into
consideration when developing the next plan (Table 1).
Staff availability and recruitment
Skills and development
In the light of business plan how many people What should we do about identifying people
are we likely to need in each sub-department with potential and developing their abilities?
in the short and long term?
Is there any danger of downsizing? If so, how What skills are we likely to need in the
are we going to deal with it?
future?
Will we be able to meet the needs from our Is there scope to make better use of people by
existing resources? If not where will we be increasing employment flexibility?
able to find them?
Do we have a problem in attracting or What do we need to do to develop or extend
retaining key staff? What do we need to do our skills base?
about it?
Table 1. The questions that framed the human resource plan
The concept of planning became very specific therefore, in order to determine the
direction for human resource plans the company must have “a series of questions that your
organization needs to answer in order to predict and perhaps control some of the major change
areas for the future. This means that you begin by asking the right questions – the questions
which, if asked regularly and systematically, will force you to produce answers of maximum
value in shaping your future human resources.” (Odiorne, 1984, pp.14).
11
In addition to this, the specificity of the HRP also comes from the time frame. The time
frame of the effects of Human Resource Plan is divided into two categories: short term
planning and long term planning. Short term planning often requires a less tedious and
accurate process than long term plans, which have to consider many extra factors such as
environmental, political or economical factors that might vary across time. It is always easier
to make short term planning, but long term planning is what determines at a small scale the
health of the department and at a big scale the health of the entire organization. However,
many companies move all of the planning from a longer-term focus to a short-term one. That
normally tends to create an environment within which the plan cannot be fully successful
(Boyd, 2008). In this regard, an over-reliance on short-term planning could be more costly
than an accurate projection in the long term. Recruitment selection and developing talented
personnel takes a lot of time. Therefore, the human resource plan proposed in this paper is
based on data that will be able to predict on longer term (5-10 years) the flow of the personnel,
the gaps, the attrition rate and the different recruitment methods.
The impact of not having long-term human resource planning can lead to a limitation
of the overall business plan to current human resources (Boyd, 2008). To achieve most longterm business plans requires some change in human resources from the current state to the
necessary state. When a human resource plan is not implemented at all for instance, the
business goals achieved are often less possible than they are with a successfully implemented
human resource plan.
We must also take into consideration that when the planning horizon is very long (10
years), greater uncertainty exists when predicting both future demand and future supply.
Producing demand and supply forecasts and determining what action needs to be taken are
important steps if the forecasts indicate the possibility of a human resource deficit or surplus
(Armstrong 2007). Human resource objectives follow logically from consideration of any
discrepancies between demand and supply (Jackson and Schuller 1990).
This section has emphasized the steps and the content of HRP from Spellman and
Armstrong’s point of view. It also provided some insights into the time framework (e.g. short
term and long-term HR planning). The following subpart will explain the demand and supply
and how they relate to the HRP. It will also delineate HRP as a process and how it is perceived
in Shell, the study case company.
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3.1.3. The Demand and Supply of the HRP
A good resourcing strategy compiles both the analysis of business strategies and the
demographic trends (Armstrong, 2008). They are based on the outcome of the following
interrelated planning activities: Demand forecasting (estimates future needs for people and
competences), supply forecasting (estimates the supply by reference to analyses of both
current resources and future available resources), forecasting requirements (an analysis of the
demand and supply forecasts to identify future deficits or surpluses) and action planning
(prepares plans to deal with forecast deficits). These can be achieved through internal
promotion, training or external recruitment. At this stage, retention and flexibility strategies
are developed as well.
Demand refers to the number and characteristics (e.g., skills, abilities, pay levels, or
experience) of people needed for particular jobs at a given point in time and at a particular
place. Supply refers to the number and characteristics of people available for those particular
jobs (Armstrong, 2007). The forecast will also take into account the labour market trends
relating to the availability of skills and to demographics (Armstrong, 2008). Although the
demand and supply are described as separate areas they are closely interrelated and they often
overlap. For example, demand forecasts as estimates of future requirements may be prepared
on the productivity of employees. But the supply forecast will also have to consider
productivity trends and how they might affect the supply of people (Armstrong, 2008).
Important questions are "Which jobs need to be filled (or vacated) during the next 10
years?" and "How and where will we get the people to fill (or vacate) those jobs?”. The first
step in answering the supply question involves determining the desired characteristics of
employees who fill (or vacate) the jobs of interest (Jackson and Schuller 1990)
In Shell, HRP is taken very seriously and is part of the business strategy. However, it
only concerns the talent groups which are found from job group 5 and above, disregarding the
lower job groups. In this regard, it is important to emphasize that an HR strategy in a company
should be uniform for all employees. Even though in some part of the company the HR
policies might be adjusted to the different environments cultures and jobs, the general strategic
HR should be heterogeneous. Just as HRP is a distinct and separate planning process for the
talent strategy, it should also become a separate process for each skill-pool, even if they are
encountered below JG 5. The HR is responsible to not only initiate the effort for the HR
13
planning but also execute and administer the plan. HR plans should also be created with input
from the line managers who are more aware of the current situations of their population.
Human resource planning can also take a double approach in what concerns the main
component: the people. A distinction can therefore be made between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ human
resource planning. The former is based on quantitative analysis in order to ensure that the right
number of employees with the right skills is available when needed. The latter, as described by
Marchington and Wilkinson (1996), focuses on creating the culture of the organization so that
there is a clear integration between corporate goals and employee values, and behaviors. Many
times the soft version actually becomes virtually synonymous with the entire subject of human
resource management.
This subsection presented the demand and the supply forecasts as well as the link and
their importance in the HRP. It also provided some insight into the soft vs. hard HRP. The next
paragraphs will deal with the internal and external resourcing followed by a thorough
discussion on the importance of the right fit (between individual and the organization) as part
of the HRP strategy.
3.1.4. Sources of resourcing for the HRP and the importance of finding the right fit
The next issue that will be discussed is the sources of resourcing. Both internal
resourcing as well as external recruiting needs to be analyzed closely in order to obtain the best
results (Judge and Ferris, 1992). External applicants are not the only source of applicants, the
internal staffing representing an important source as well (Miller, 1984, Sonenfeld, 1984 in
Judge and Ferris, 1992). In the studied case the internal resourcing represents the first modality
of recruitment and only when internal staff is not found for a certain position, the external
recruitment process proceeds. The reasoning behind this is that first opportunities are offered
to the company’s employees. In the case of Research Technicians the situation is even more
complex in the sense that resourcing internally has the advantage of matching experienced
people with similar jobs. The training period is shorter and the fit between the employee and
the job already exists.
However, an important point to take into account as Beer et al (1984) concluded is the
management of the flow of people into, through, and out of the organization. Effective staffing
decisions are predicted on the ability of the organization to balance these inputs, throughputs,
and outputs of people (Beer et al, 1984). This approach becomes connected to the attrition rate
of a certain skill-group of employees. A healthy attrition rate is neither too low nor it is too
14
high. It should reflect a healthy movement of the employees in the skill-pool: the least
productive employees are replaced with new ones. The model presented by Judge and Ferris
(1992, pp.218) that represents a flow of the employees in the departments of an organization is
presented below (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Flow of employees
According to the design presented above the inflow, through flow and outflow of
personnel is affected by internal and the external resources available as well as by internal (HR
strategies) and external (laws and regulations) environmental factors. The three processes
therefore are not independent. Both the quantity and the quality of in flows affect performance
evaluations and the mobility of employees represented by the through flow.
Furthermore, downsizing is also influenced by the external hires (inflow). In the same
way, the quantity of existing employees might lead to an external hire or to a contract
termination of existing employees (Judge and Ferris, 1992). A healthy flow of employees
should take into account both external and internal resources, as well as a reasonable attrition
rate.
Finding the right fit is an important element when considering the external recruitment
process. In this sense, fit was defined by Chatman (1989) as the degree to which the goals and
values of the applicant match those of employees considered successful in the organization. In
15
addition to Chatman’s definition pointing towards a more global construct, the fit can also be
perceived as the degree to which the applicant is liked by the interviewer, manager or
supervisor (Judge and Ferris, 1992). The discussion of fit in HR staffing decisions implicitly
raises the form versus substance problem discussed thoroughly by Ferris and King (1991). The
essence of this problem is the difficulties in distinguishing candidates who are truly qualified
(substance) from those who construct images of qualifications and competence (form).
Sorting out the process dynamics and adequately addressing it can be a difficult and
tedious process (Judge and Ferris, 1992). The rational model of HR resourcing suggests that
candidates come to the selection context with knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience, and
that decision makers come with an understanding of the job demands and specifications as
well as different selection procedures designed to best measure the candidate’s characteristics.
In this regard, the decision maker attempts to make the best decision by identifying the most
qualified candidate. In order to do so, he or she must use a very accurate selection device. The
selection devices are multiple and companies use different styles.
For instance in Shell, for the graduate program, the candidate must pass an application
process, an interview and an assessment center. For the Research Technicians, who are
encountered several levels lower, the process is not done as thoroughly. However, accuracy is
necessary since the focus for this skill-pool is on their technical abilities and interests
conducting experimental work. For this purpose, the selection process should involve a
manager that is aware of the requirements of the Research Technicians and can evaluate them
from this point of view. At the same time, the manager should also possess a qualification for
assessing the candidates because it is also important to assure a best fit between the
organization and the individual.
This subpart presented the internal and external sources of individual recruitment and
visualized with a model the input through-put and output of personnel. It also discussed the
importance of person-organization fit and provided a short insight into Royal Dutch Shell
recruitment process. The following part will delineate a successful HRP accentuating the
resourcing process elements.
3.1.5. A successful HRP
To be carried out effectively, management of staffing and performance should be
concerned simultaneously with managing performance and facilitating employees’ career
progression and rewards (Baruch, 2003; Pilbeam & Corbridge, 2006, p. 179). A key factor in
16
ensuring that the employee needs are taken into consideration by the managers and the
company, is the development of a climate of trust in the employment relationship with their
managers. Trust is important because employees will not be willing to share their work-related
knowledge unless they feel secure that it will be used for them rather than against them (Ellis,
2001; Storey & Quintas, 2001).
The success of the resourcing process in a company depends upon identifying the
following elements: (1) the skills and experience that an employee brings to the new role; (2)
learning opportunities in terms of further developing the individual’s skills, competencies, and
abilities; and (3) employees’ personal needs and career aspirations (Dainty, 2009). The first
element ensures a fit between the individual and the job. The second element ensures the
development of a series of skills and competencies to ensure deployability in the departments
that offer similar jobs, and the last element ensures that the employees, the managers and the
company agree on the development opportunities in such a way that the employees will be
supported to achieve their career aspiration.
The competency frameworks, used in assessment centers also specify recruitment
standards, and identify learning and development needs. At the same time, they indicate the
standards of skills and performances required and serve as the basis for human resource
planning (Armstrong, 2008). The job evaluation could be based on levels of competency, and
competency-based pay systems could be introduced. They can also serve the purpose of
defining career paths and pay progression opportunities (Armstrong, 2008).
The elements of a successful HRP were presented in this section. The next part of the
paper will focus on the international HRP and the international HR strategy. The subsection
will start with the international context of multinationals, followed by the ethnocentric
orientation of Shell in the area of Research Technicians.
3.2. HR planning as an international HR strategy
Global competition, information technology, and new knowledge, are elements that
force organizations to constantly evaluate the way they operate (Lawler et al, 2006). These
initiatives involve considerable changes that lead to fundamental implications for their human
resources functions. Therefore, human capital management should be an important part of the
strategy of any corporation (Cascio 2000). The annual reports of many corporations show that
the company’s human capital is one of the most important assets. In many organizations,
compensation represents one of the largest costs. Costs of training and other human resources
17
management activities are also added. Human capital has a significant impact on the
performance of an organization (Cascio, 2000). In essence, without an effective human capital,
organizations are likely to have little revenue (Lawler et al, 2006). A growing body of
evidence affirms that HR practices are crucial in any organization that aims at achieving a high
market value (Becker and Huselid, 1998)
Following the globalization trend, human resources management need to adapt its
strategies. For instance, with greater globalization of markets, it will become more difficult for
companies that have no human resource planning to compete with companies from other
countries that have already taken advantage of such strategy (Greener, 2003). Furthermore, in
a growing number of organizations, human resources are viewed as a valuable source of
competitive advantage. Competitive advantage can be obtained in various ways, such as a
good investment in employee skills, distinctive organizational cultures, management
processes, and systems. These are forms of competitive advantage that cannot be or are very
hard to imitate by competitors, unlike different types of equipment that can be easily
purchased by competitors. Therefore, competitive advantage can be obtained with a highquality workforce because this enables organizations to compete on the basis of market
responsiveness, and technological innovation, instead of reliance on low costs (Greener, 2003).
Moreover, increasing strategic alliances with foreign companies is also contributing to the
strength of a multinational. Such alliances allow companies to combine their distinctive
competencies in order to gain an advantage on the market in front of other competitors. Royal
Dutch Shell for instance almost all the time works in joint ventures with local companies from
different countries.
3.2.1. The Ethnocentric Orientation
When a company enters the international market the global strategies have to be
redesigned in order to have international success. Among these strategies are also the HR
policies. The complexity of the HR department grows once the company becomes
multinational and has two first characteristics: first of all, the employees of multinational
organizations include workers of different nationalities and second of all, the managers now
have to decide how to adapt the company’s HRM policies, to the national culture, and the
business culture where the company is doing business (Cullen, Parboteeah, 2008).
An effective HR system has its policies and procedures adapted to different country
locations. The adaptation of HRM practices is necessary when dealing with non- managerial
18
employees. Since they usually are host country nationals, they expect that the company and in
this case the HRM policies fit their local traditions. Therefore when a company decides to
expand to a different market, in depth knowledge of the local conditions of the particular
country is needed (Cullen and Parboteeah, 2008).
Knowing the International Human Resources Orientations (IHR) is essential in
determining the policies of a multinational strategy. In this regard they can be ethnocentric,
polycentric, regiocentric and global. The ethnocentric IHR Orientation follows the policies of
the parent organization HR practices. The regiocentric and polycentric IHR have greater
responsiveness to the host country differences in HRM practices. They both emphasize
adaptation to cultural differences among countries, the regiocentric orientation adapts practices
to regions and the polycentric orientation adapts HR practices to countries. The last
orientation, the global orientation is more manager-focused. It refers to a perfect fit between a
manager and the assignment (Cullen and Parboteeah,2008).
In the case of Shell, the IHR depends on the department analyzed. Although the
company overall implements a global IHRM orientation in the case of the Research
Technicians (who are part of a lower job group) an ethnocentric IHRM is more likely adopted.
On the one hand looking at the managerial section of Shell, it can be concluded that
international assignments are required for career advancement. In the same time there is a
continuous cultural adaptation and multilingualism that would determine this global
orientation. On the other hand, in the departments where Research Technicians lie, the
population is selected from the home-country. They are selected mostly by the managers who
have a technical expertise and the whole recruitment action involves little process. The
development of the Research Technicians is also limited with the exception of few very
ambitious cases that are over-capacitated and pursue a managerial position.
This part discussed the different orientation strategies focusing on the ethnocentric
orientation which is used by Shell in the PTI and PTD departments. The next paragraphs will
show the importance of culture in an international HR.
3.2.2. The importance of culture in the international HR
An important consideration that the human resources professionals must take into
account its inconsistencies between culture and strategy. This inconsistency can “severely
impair the successful pursuit of a given course of action.” (Gould, 1984, pp.33). Crossnational differences in HR strategies include factors such as national culture, the country’s
19
available labor or political and legal institutions (Cullen and Parboteeah, 2008). Often these
differences can be insurmountable obstacles to overcome.
Culture is the product of the interaction between group members. Thus, not only
individual values and perceptions help in building a culture but the culture in turn impacts and
shapes the group members’ values. Therefore, culture is an example of the “social construction
of reality” that involves the interaction of both the individual-level and the group-level
phenomena (Lawler et al 2006).
Punnett and Shenkar (1994) took into consideration the culture from the perspective of
employees in an organization and identified several types of cultures: (a) the company’s
organizational culture that influences all employees, (b) unit-specific subcultures that influence
only those within particular departments or divisions of the organization, and (c)
transorganizational cultures that influence members of particular professions or occupations
(and cut across organizational boundaries). Therefore, there may be subcultures specific to
major units of an organization. In the same time, different types of employees (e.g., Research
Technicians, or engineers) may also be affected by occupational cultures that transcend
organizational boundaries. Occupational cultures are reinforced through such mechanisms as
common training, membership in professional associations, and off-work interaction with
other members of one’s occupation or profession. The concept of supra-organizational culture
refers primarily to national culture.
This part provided some insights into the importance of culture for an international
environment. Next, the importance of HRP as part of the general business strategy will be
tackled.
3.2.3. Integrating HR planning in the business strategy
The real challenge of HR planning is to integrate business strategy with HR practices,
by making the HR planning an integral part of the business planning process. In order to obtain
the best outcome, the HR professionals should engage the line managers and work together to
achieve the best results (Smith et al, 1992).
HRP is the formal process that links business strategies to the human resources
practices. The business plan is an essential part of an organization strategy. In the business
plan, the product market and technological directions are defined. HRP in some organizations
such as Royal Dutch Shell is also part of the general business plan. Generally the aspects
covered by the Business plan in what concerns the HRP deal with the structure of a certain
20
skill-pool, their competencies accountabilities and organization to make the strategy work
(Smith et al, 1992).
The HR function supports a broad range of business objectives that require competent
employees. Since business objectives are diverse they can be designed on long term or short
term frames and can focus on broad business issues such as the cost reduction policy Shell
implemented during the past years. The objectives can also relate to more specific issues such
as the employee turnover in the company or even more specific, the turnover in a certain skillpool of employees. By enhancing the employees expertise through HR strategies and policies
increases the likelihood that business objectives will be achieved (Torraco, Swanson 1995).
In order to develop correctly the HR plans we should answer the following questions:
Who should be involved in the HR process, and how can they be encouraged to participate;
What are the steps for an integrated HR planning; What are the desired outcomes of an
integrated HR planning process; What are the pitfalls and challenges of accomplishing
integrated HR planning (Smith et al, 1992).
In addition to this, Walker (1980) observed that human resources can influence an
organization’s capacity to achieve its strategic objectives in 3 ways: First is cost economics,
second is capacity to operate effectively and third is the capacity to undertake new enterprises
and change operations. All these factors in the end affect organizational performance. The goal
of strategic human resource management therefore, is the effective application of such
resources to meet organizations’ strategic requirements and objectives so that it will lead to a
better performance (Greener. 2003)
The importance of HRP and its connection to the business strategy has been described
above. Below, the methodology of this paper will be detailed. It will focus on case study, the
qualitative interviews, and the triangulation of data. The section will conclude with the
sampling description.
4. METHODOLGY
The basis of this paper is a case study analysis at Royal Dutch Shell. “Case studies are
rich empirical descriptions of a phenomenon that are typically based on a variety of data
sources” (Yin, 1994). The importance of case studies is particularization not generalization
therefore it is unique and implies knowledge of others (Yin, 1994). Case studies demand a
wider range of skills: interviewing, interpreting information from documents, design and
21
analysis from structured surveys, observation periods, literature review and research reports
(Stake, 1995).
In the studied paper, triangulation of data has been used. Therefore the objective of the
case study has been analyzed with different methods. Firstly quantitative data from Shell
People regarding the number of Research Technicians, their job group divisions, demographics
and attrition rate has been analyzed. Secondly, semi-structured interviews with the managers
of the skill-pool in case have been conducted. The reason why triangulation data was used is to
make sure that the phenomenon is scrutinized from different sides and that the quantitative
data is complemented with the qualitative one (Stake, 1995). In the same time triangulation
also ensures consistency between the different types of data.
4.1. Qualitative Interviews
Qualitative research methodologies contributed in a substantial way to the development
of international human resource management (IHRM) (Gephard, Richardson, in Harris, 2008).
Qualitative data is a source of explanations of processes. With qualitative data for instance,
one can see which events lead to which consequences and can easily get beyond initial
conceptions and generate conceptual frameworks (Miles and Huberman, 1994). The qualitative
data adds important value to research because first of all, it is rich and complex, helping the
researcher understand the problem and the “real situation”, and second of all, it can lead to a
strong understanding of latent and ominous issues.
However qualitative data also has some flaws such as the possibility of researcher bias,
the adequacy of the sample, the generalizability of findings the credibility and quality of
conclusions, and their utility (Lincoln and Guba, 1990, Wolcott, 1992).
Therefore, to avoid as many flaws as possible that can appear from collecting only
qualitative data, this paper also makes use of quantitative inquiry by using the “multisite
multimethod” study (Smith and Louis, 1982). This study is a combination of two or more
different types of data. In this case the paper details qualitative interviews and quantitative data
reports from Shell People. Following Rossman and Wilson’s idea (1991) a combination of
qualitative and quantitative data is very helpful because it first enables confirmation of each
other via triangulation and second because it can add value to the analysis by providing richer
details.
The three activities that compose data analysis and that have been incorporated in the
case study are: data reduction, data display and conclusion/ drawing verification. In the Data
22
reduction data has been selected, simplified and transformed. This process continues until a
final report is completed. Data reduction is a form of analysis that sharpens sorts, and
organizes data in final conclusions (Miles and Huberman, 1994). During all the interviews a
lot of information was gathered. The essential information was then clustered in categories and
subcategories. The other part of the information that was left out was either because it was not
related to the topic or because of redundancy. Once the data was transformed, the patterns of
the interviewee’s responses were much more easily perceived.
The second component of the analysis, data display, represents a compressed assembly
of information that permits conclusion drawing and action. The form used in this paper to
display the qualitative data is graphs charts and tables. This way it is easier to observe the
organized information and draw the conclusions.
The last component, conclusions drawing and verifications, refers to identifying
regularities, patterns and explanations. In this regard the analysis identifies five main
categories: the position of the managers toward the recruitment process, the composition of
their teams (interns, contractors, employees) their perspective on age distribution, the current
situation in terms of numbers of Research Technicians and how that might vary in the next 5 to
10 years and the attrition rate.
In order to create plausible conclusions and recommendations, a separate analysis was
conducted using different reports from Shell People. The results are also verifying the
interviews by creating a solid numeric proof. Although the quantitative analysis did not
include the topics of recruitment, and future prediction in terms of numbers of Research
Technicians, it did include a thorough analysis of their actual number, age distribution,
ethnicity and attrition reasons. Both analysis offered new insights on the subject of Research
Technicians and helped to identify different HR strategies in the resource plan of this skillpool for the two countries studied.
4.2. Sampling
The sample of the interviews is an important element that can easily create bias.
Qualitative researchers use small samples of people unlike the quantitative researchers who
work with larger groups of people and seek statistical difference. In this case the sample is
purposive and not random (Kuzel, 1992)
On the one hand, quantitative data can help with the qualitative study by finding a
representative sample and supplying background data. It also verifies the qualitative findings.
23
On the other hand, the qualitative data can interpret and illustrate quantitative data (Sieber,
1973).
In this paper the choice of the interviewees (the managers of the PTI and PTD
departments) has been made using the quantitative data first. They have been selected directly
proportional to the number of their Research Technicians. First of all because the more
Research Technicians they have the better the problematic extrapolates, and second of all, their
experience is directly proportional to the number of their staff. Therefore the managers were
interviewed based on a long experience with Research Technicians and on their awareness of
the HR Talent strategy of Shell. In total, 15 interviews were conducted, 11 for the Netherlands
and 4 for the United States. The analysis of the interviews will follow patterns of the two
cultures and how the Research Technicians are treated by HR and by the Company in the two
locations. The interview questions were based on ideas of the human resource plan proposed
by Spellman (1992) and Armstrong (2007) but were adapted to the case study. A sample of the
interview questions can be observed in Annex 1.
The next section will offer some insight into the business that Shell has, focusing on
the three main areas: Upstream, Downstream and Projects& Technology. The next subsection
will present the HR department in the company detailing the main areas of HR. The section
will conclude with a thorough discussion of the Research Technicians skill-pool, their
activities and their contribution to the business.
5. ROYAL DUTCH SHELL
Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies with the headquarters in
The Hague, the Netherlands. They operate on three levels: Upstream, Downstream and
Projects and Technology.
In the Upstream businesses Shell explores and extracts crude oil and natural gas, often
in joint ventures with international and national oil companies. They also convert natural gas
to liquids in order to provide cleaner burning fuels. Upstream markets and trades natural gas
and power in support of the businesses. The Upstream businesses are grouped into two
organisational units: Upstream Americas, covering the Americas, and Upstream International,
covering the rest of the world with major interests in Europe, Asia/Middle East/Russia,
Australia/Oceania and Africa (shell.com).
24
The Downstream organization is made up of a number of businesses. Collectively these
turn crude oil into a range of refined products, which are moved and marketed around the
world for domestic, industrial and transport use. These include fuels, lubricants and bitumen.
The manufacturing business includes Refining, Supply and Distribution. The global network
of Shell Trading companies encompasses Shell’s trading activities in every major energy
market around the world (shell.com).
Projects and Technology organisation provides technical services and technology
capability in upstream and downstream activities. It manages the delivery of major projects
and helps improve performance across the company. It also delivers differentiated technical
information technology for Shell and drives research and innovation to create tomorrow’s
technology solutions. Projects and Technology also houses Safety & Environment and
Contracting & Procurement as these are integral to all activities (shell.com).
5.1. The HR department in Shell
Shell as a company not only focuses on the three levels (Usptream, Downstream,
Projects and Technology) but also on other functions such as Marketing, Finance and Human
Resources. In this section, the HR function of Royal Dutch Shell will be detailed focusing on
its importance to the business and the international strategies.
The HR department in Shell is divided into 3 parts. The first part is HR policies which
deals more with external recuitmment, employee relgulations, and expat policies. It is a
general function. The second part of the HR department is HR in the business, which focuses
on the relationship between the company and the employees. In this case, if a department's
structure is not functioning effectively, HR professionals work closely in partnership with line
managers to change organisational design, support team-building initiatives and devise
appropriate interventions such as coaching or away-days. Thr third part of the HR department
is learning. In this department, programs to develop employees are prepared such as trainings
and different sets of onboarding for new-on-the-job employees. It is also responsible for
supporting change and helping employees or departments understand changing processes.
The international HRM in Shell is very strong and is based on a very well implemented
organizational culture. Their approaches differ slightly from culture to culture but the core
activities strategies and principles remain the same. Integrity Honesty and Respect are key
behavioural components for this company and the HR department works very hard to ensure
transparency and that these core values are respected by all employees. The diversity and
25
inclusiveness program is also part of HR because the company believes that only in a
homogeneus world, new ideas and insights could add value to the business. In order to ensure
that the HR strategies operate correctly, key priorities for HR both centrally and across the
business have been developed. The main priorities for the international HR department are:

Meeting the immediate and future resourcing needs of the business

Deepening professional capability through competence development

Improving individual and organisational performance

Supporting the delivery of change programmes to support these improvements

Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of HR systems and processes
5.2. The role of Research Technicians
Effective human resource planning is the key to achieving innovation in technical
organizations (Badawy, 2007). This includes analysing and determining staffing needs,
recruiting, selecting, and hiring qualified people to have a powerful Research and
Development (R&D) department.
Shell has a diverse population within its employees. From engineers and researchers to
HR professionals and finance managers, Shell comprises a wide range of career possibilities.
However, the ascending possibilities are not the same for all employees. In order to understand
better the phenomenon, the job group division will be explained.
The job group scales in Shell are divided in 3 categories. The first category, ranks from
15 to 1, 15 is the lowest job group, 1 is the highest. This is called the number category (NC).
Starting with job group (JG) 2 one becomes a manager. The second category of employees in
Shell is called the Letter Category (LC) and comprises two sets: A and B, the latter being the
highest. In these categories Vice-Presidents that manage more than 15 people are included.
The third and last category is called the SE division and encompasses the first 250 Senior
Executives around the world. After this category remains the board which is composed of one
person representing each major department in Shell. The scale progression in the company is
different for the employees ranked JG 5 and above than for the employees ranked JG 6 and
below. Usually employees can join a JG 5 level when they have finished a Bachelor/ Master/
PhD study and are considered to have LC potential. This potential is determined using a
criterion called CBD (competence based development) that is made for all JG 5 and above
employees. The CBD usually determines the highest potential of an employee and is a
prerequisite to get later promotions and advance on the scale. The reason why the CBD is only
26
run for JG 5 and above is because this group has university studies, and so it is expected that
they would be the future of the company and would occupy leading and managerial positions.
For JG 6 and below CBD is considered inappropriate since people who join Shell at
lower JG are expected to have minimum scale progression. The company however, does not
prohibit progression for JG 6 and below but it is not very much encouraged either. This
explanation of the JG distribution within Shell was an essential step in order to understand the
population of the Research Technicians that will be evaluated in the next sections of the paper.
It also shows that the implementation of a resource plan for the Research Technicians is a
change process within this company, and it represents a new approach for the HR department
of Shell. This will be analyzed in both the Netherlands and in the United States because these
two locations have the highest density of Research Technicians and the results can be
generalized across different Shell locations.
The Research Technicians are an important component within Shell in supporting the
Downstream and Upstream Technology businesses. They conduct experiments in laboratories
in both the Netherlands and the United States in order to support R&D. In the Netherlands in
Amsterdam, the Research Technicians work to discover improved processes and find better
compositions for final products that are produced in Refineries, in the Downstream business.
The Research Technicians not only conduct experiments but they also go to the Refineries and
support with advice their clients.
In the United States, the Research Technicians relate more their work with the
Upstream business. They experiment at a smaller scale with real materials such as rocks and
different compositions of fluids how to obtain better results in the real environment. The main
purpose of their technologies is to extract as much oil from the ground as possible (eg. If 20
years ago the percentage of oil extracted was around 18 %, nowadays thanks to experiments
and innovations it is possible to extract up to 33%). In both locations the Research Technicians
need to be able to ensure the existence of HSSE (health, security, safety and environment)
standards for all ideas that will be put into practice.
The ideas, talents and skills technical professionals are an R&D laboratory’s greatest
asset (Badawy, 2007). In departments whose most valued product is essentially ideas, and
experimental work, the importance of effective utilization of human resources cannot be
overemphasized.
This section started with a general description of the Shell business before moving on
to focus on the HR function in order to understand how the international strategic HR works in
27
the company. It concluded with the description of the Research Technicians from the locations
studied (Netherlands and the United States) and the importance of studying this population for
the business. In the next section the quantitative data collected from Shell People report will
be analyzed in order to better understand the necessity for a HR planning.
6. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS: SHELL PEOPLE REPORTS
In this section, the quantitative data collected from Shell People reports aims at
answering the following issues. Firstly, what is the number of Research Technicians in both
the Netherlands and the United States? Secondly, what is their JG distribution across the two
locations, their age, gender and the nationality? Lastly, an attrition analysis has been conducted
in order to observe how many Research Technicians left Shell in the past 5 years and what
their main reasons were.
In order to analyze the supply and demand of the Research Technicians and therefore
propose a good resource plan, a first step is to see their actual number in both the Netherlands
and the United States (Table 2, Table 3). As it can be observed the Research technicians are
found in The Netherlands in a total of 163 and in the Unites States they are found in a total of
126 (Shell People Database)
Table 2: Skill-pool distribution the Netherlands
Primary Skill Pool Group Distribution
Research Analysis and Measurement
Research Chemistry & Catalysis
Research Exploratory
Research Process
Research Products
126
33
53
2
5
33
Table 3: Skill-pool distribution in the United States
28
Below, the analysis on gender and JG can be found (Figure 2 and Figure 3). Looking
the gender the majority of the Research Technicians from both the Netherlands and the United
States are males and only a very small portion are women. One explanation could relate to
more limited supply of females with technical qualifications in the areas required.
Regarding the JG distribution it can be seen that the population in JG increases
inversely proportionally to the job group in both the Netherlands and the United States: the
lower the JG the higher the number of Research Technicians. It is interesting to observe that
JG 6 has the highest number of people. One explication could be that staff progress rather
quickly from JG 8 to JG6. Another reason could be that many people are already recruited at a
JG 6 level.
Figure 2: Demographic distribution, the Netherlands
29
Demographics Job Allocation Deployment Age Gender Onboarding SG Cat Co. Region Geog
100%
10
9
=> 60
90%
Female
39
80%
5+ yrs in Shell
38
55 ‐ 59
8
5‐ yrs in Shell SG4+
0
70%
60%
50 ‐ 54
7
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
45 ‐ 49
Local
126
Shell
126
North America
126
PT
Male 5‐ yrs in Shell SG5‐
88
87
40 ‐ 44
35 ‐ 39
6
30 ‐ 34
25 ‐ 29
20 ‐ 24
Figure 3: Demographic distribution, United States
In the table below (Table 4, Figure 4) the age distribution can be viewed. The green
color indicates that the demographic group is in proportion with the overall population. It rates
between 9% and 17%. The yellow color shows that the age distribution is significantly above
or below this level but still in a moderate way. It rates 18%- 20%, respectively between 7%
and 9%. The red color draws attention to the fact that the age distribution in certain intervals
seems either too high or too low. It ranks more than 20%, respectively, less than 7%. However
the 20- 24 age interval and 60 + interval will always be red because few people enter every
year in the company and few remain after they reach the retirement age. This scale has been
decided by the skill-pool managers in Shell and might differ as per department. In this case the
real data that represents the skill-pool of Research Technicians has been used; therefore the
30
interpretations are based on the real age distribution split. In the Netherlands, generally, the
age distribution is healthy. It only ranks slightly above average in the 45-49 group and 50-54
group, meaning that for those age groups a very intense recruitment process was done. The
importance of Research Technicians was not always at the same level and before technology
took place of many activities they were considered a very important part of the company.
Nevertheless, since technology is regarded as an essential driver of the business, the HRP
should take into account that the age distribution at all levels should be flat with no major
fluctuations. This is illustrated by Shell’s vision of becoming the world’s most competitive and
innovative energy company (Vorser, May, 2010)
Table 4: Age distribution, the Netherlands
Analyzing closer the age distribution in the United States, it can be observed that it is
not as healthy as the Netherlands. In the 25-29 interval and the 35-39 interval a serious gap can
be seen. The 45-40 age interval is also slightly underpopulated. In this situation in the next 10
years a lack of Research Techncians will take place and the experimental work of Downstream
and Upstream businesess for the Americas could be negatively affected. In order to prevent
such gaps from happening, systematic hirings should be done in the following 5- 10 years. The
recruitment process should also take into consideration the trainings and the number of years
that the new Research Technicians will need to perfect themselves and perform all activites
independently. A proposal of the ideal age distribution will be provided in the Human
Resource Planning section, where both the Netherlands and the United States Research
Technicians’ population will be discussed in detail.
31
Figure 4: Age distribution in the United States
Regarding the nationalities of the Research Technicians it can be observed (Figure 5,
Figure 6) that the majority is Dutch in the Netherlands, and US American in the United States.
In the Netherlands a small mix of Morrocan, Surinamese, Russian French Polish and British
can be detected, wheres in the United States, only 2% are Mexian and 1% British.
Figure 5: Diversity distribution in the Netherlands
32
This nationality distribution shows that the skill-pool of Research Technicians does not
have as scope international recruitment and expansion. Expats are also not elected for these
positions. As it will be seen below, the recruitment process is very specific for this niche of
employees and the nature of work does not require international studies, therefore it does not
necessarily represent an advantage. Therefore, the company adopts an ethnocentric orientation
focusing on the local workforce.
All Staff by Nationalities
Mexican
British
0%
0%
2%
1%
0%
0%
American
97%
Figure 6: Diversity distribution in the United States
An important point in the analysis of the target population is the existence of labour
turnover. In this case, the analysis of the people leaving the organization provides data for use
in supply forecasting so that calculations can be made on the number of people lost who may
have to be replaced. An analysis of Research Technicians who left Shell as well as their
reasons is provided below (Table 6 and Table 7). This analysis covers unplanned attrition and
excludes 2009 transition and retires.
In the Netherlands, in the past 5 years only 14 people out of 176 left the company in an
unplanned way. This shows that the fluctuation of personnel is very small, almost static. Only
in 2008 the attrition rate was higher whereas in 2006 there was not registered any leave for the
below mentioned reasons. The conclusion that can be drawn from the tables below is that Shell
is a very good employer for both Research Technicians in the Netherlands and the ones in the
United States because the attrition rate registered is indeed very small (Table 5, Table 6).
33
Reason for action
No Reason Stated
Work Challenge
Family Circumstances
Relocation
At Company Request
Other Type of Work
Grand Total
2005
1
2007
3
1
3
2008
4
1
1
1
1
1
9
2009 Grand Total
8
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
14
Table 5: Unplanned Attrition in the Netherlands
In the United States, reasons for leave are multiple but no major fluctuations took place in
the past 5 years. The number of Research Technicians who leave per year is slightly the same
summing a total of 13 cases from 2005 to present time (Table 6).
Reason for action
Other Type of Work
Conduct
Performance
Family Circumstances
Further Education
Fit of Skills/Interests w
Pursue Own Business
Management/Supervisory Style
Grand Total
2005
2006
2007
2
2
2008
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
4
1
3
2009 Grand Total
2
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
1
1
3
13
Table 6: Unplanned Attrition in the United States
In addition to the data on turnover, the managers observed that the main reasons for which
Research Technicians leave their job are either because of retirement or because they look for
a new assignment in another department inside Shell. Rarely do they leave because of
dissatisfaction with the company or a less challenging type of work.
As observed form the two tables above the attrition rate is very small. A low attrition can
lead to a de-motivation of the personnel. In order to maintain a good and healthy flow of
employees, all organization should have an attrition rate that is high enough to create a good
balance of inflow and outflow of personnel. Based on the total numbers of the Research
Technicians as well as on the discussions with the managers that will be presented in the next
section a healthy attrition rate for this population would be of 5%. Every year 5% inflow and
5% outflow. This way new Research Technicians can enter the organization, the population
will not be static any more, and the motivational level will also increase.
This section presented a quantitative analysis of the Research Technicians skill-pool. It
focused on their number, age groups, job group distribution, ethnicity and attrition rate. The
34
following section will discuss in detail the interviews conducted with the managers. The
section will start by focusing on topics such as contractors, the recruitment process and
internships. Next, the attrition rate viewed from the manager’s perspective is analyzed as well
as the opportunities of growth for the Research Technicians. The section will then conclude
with a discussion on the planning of staff in the next 5-10 years, their training and the
exposure to job routines.
7. INTERVIEWS ANALYSIS
In order to propose a complete human resource plan for the Research Technicians in
Shell, the quantitative analysis presented above will be complete by the qualitative analysis in
this section. In the studied case, the planning process focuses on specific areas of activity
within the organization, where it is possible to forecast likely future people requirements in
terms of numbers and skills (Armstrong, 2009). One of the demand forecasting techniques for
quantitative estimated of future requirements used in this study case is managerial or expert
judgment. Predictions on short term will often be based on broad scenarios rather than on
specific supply and demand forecasts (Armstrong, 2007).
In order to better understand the necessity of a human resource plan for the Research
Technicians within Shell Netherlands and the United States, a qualitative research has been
conducted. The qualitative method uses the interviews as an instrument in order to understand
the different opinions and perspectives on the Research Technicians’ overview.
The
interviews conducted with the managers from different PTI and PTD sub-departments, share
some common traits as well as differences that are specific to each sub-department. However,
the analysis that will follow aims at grouping the interviewed managers according to the
location: the Netherlands and Unites States. The reason for splitting the interviews in these two
sections is to observe if there are any differences between the two countries in what concerns
the Research Technicians’ HRP and the role of the HR department in this skill-pool. For the
Netherlands, 11 interviews were conducted whereas for the United States another 4 interviews
were conducted. The topics that have been discussed include perception on contractors and
interns, recruitment, attrition rate, opportunities to grow as well as stability of the population in
the next 5 to 10 years, trainings and routines at work. Figures 7a, 7b, 8, 9a, 9b and 10 support
graphically the topics discussed and were done for separately for the Netherlands and for the
35
United States, where the vertical axis represents the number of managers interviewed and the
light and dark blue blocks reflect the respective answers for each question.
A first element analyzed in the interviews was the use of contractors (Figure 7). From
the interviews conducted, it can be observed that in both the Netherlands and the United
States, the managers generally do not have contractors: “Contractors are not good to work with
[…] part of our research is confidential so we try not to involve contractors”. Thus the
managers find it very hard to work with contractors, firstly because it is confidential work,
secondly because they need a period of adaptation to the Shell environment followed by a long
period of training which costs the company a lot of money, and lastly because there are few
highly qualified people on the market especially for overspecialized jobs found mostly in the
PTD department. The idea is to invest in employees that will pursue a long-term career within
Shell “most people start young in these departments and stay their whole career”. However, in
PTI Netherlands and United States, contractors are preferred if the sub-departments work on a
specific projects and extra help is needed for a limited period of time.
Recruitment was the second topic discussed in the interviews. All managers from both
the Netherlands and the United States stated that the recruitment for Research Technicians is
done ad hoc, “several people in the departments have some contacts, or sometimes we go via
HR”. Therefore recruitment is not standardized. Some managers in the Netherlands believe
that Shell as a company “should be more proactive and make a better effort in the
presentations” in front of the Hogeschool for instance. In the Netherlands, when talking about
external recruitment, each sub-department from both PTI and PTD has one person who has
contacts with Hogescholen and in some PTI sub-departments also with universities. This is a
very informal process, which is tackled differently from sub-department to sub-department.
Moreover, “the intern positions are driven by the availability of students or personal contacts.
In some PTD departments recruiting interns works mostly with word of mouth, “I heard from
a friend”. In PTI, agencies are used as recruitment option especially in the use of contractors.
In the United States, the process of recruiting is mostly done through HR and is focused on
agencies rather than special schools. Furthermore, the majority of new recruits come from the
contractors “We give them a period of 2 years and if they do good work we offer a Shell
contract”.
As part of the HRP the organization may have to formulate “make” or “buy” policy
decisions. A “make” policy means that the organization prefers to recruit people at a junior
level or as trainees and rely mainly on promotion from within and training programs to meet
36
future needs. A “buy” policy means that more reliance will be placed on recruiting from
outside- bringing fresh blood into the organization (Armstrong, 2007). As observed in the
interviews in the Netherlands, it can be seen that recruitment of Research Technicians is
oriented on “make” policy although in the United States, they mostly use “buy” policy when
they need people with experience found outside Shell such as the contractors.
Internships are part of “make” policy and are considered as the best option to recruit
graduates on Research Technicians positions because the company can form them. On the one
hand, in the Netherlands good interns have the possibility to be offered a contract after an
assessed internship if they comply with the required standards. Usually young people start a
job at JG 8 level and they remain in the department for many years. Moreover, the Dutch
managers state that it is a good way of getting graduates in the company and test them first
(Figure 7a, Figure 7b). On the other hand, in the United States internships at laboratory
technician level do not exist. They only have few internships for Phd or Master levels. In both
the Netherlands and the United States in the PTI department several managers pointed out that
the general rule is that resourcing options are firstly sought internally and only afterwards is
external recruitment considered. However, in the United States, few opportunities come from
inside the company. The majority of new staff are recruited from outside, through contractors.
The quality of the people depends on the quality of education and experience received.
In the Netherlands in the PTI the quality of the interns and contractors is perceived as
reasonably good whereas in other sub-departments of PTD managers consider that the quality
of schools is low therefore they regard people as being insufficiently prepared (Figure 7).
Concerning the Dutch qualifications, all mangers stated their preference for HBO degrees
(undergraduate diplomas from applied sciences schools that are encountered one level below
university). In addition to that, in some PTI sub-departments for instance university degrees
can also be very important.
37
disagree
agree
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Contractors
Use of
are a good internships
option
Preferred Recruitment Quality of
mode of is done well schools is
recruiting :
high
internships
Figure 7a: Recruitment perception the Netherlands
In the United States the managers referred mostly to the contractors. In this regard they
stated that they need to invest a lot of money and time in contractors in order to be familiarized
with the company, and the work they are engaged in. Therefore the quality in contractors is not
so high in the beginning. Few of them are good enough to be offered a Shell contract after 2
years. The recruitment is also a process that is not very proactive. Most of the time, they use
sources such as agencies or companies that are hired by Shell to do some of the lab
technician’s work.
disagree
agree
4
3
2
1
0
Contractors are a Preferred mode of Recruitment is done
good option
recruiting :
Well
internships
Figure 7b: Recruitment perception in the United States
A third important issue discussed during the interview was the attrition rate. The
purpose of discussing the attrition rate was to help determine the health of the departments.
The different discussions provided slightly different answers. In both the Netherlands and the
38
United States in PTI department the attrition rate is rather low. In the Netherlands only in two
bigger sub-departments of PTD, the attrition rate is perceived as high (Figure 8). In addition to
this, in 2009, due to the transition, 10 people were lost in both PTD sub-departments from a
total of 65 people. In both countries, there are one or two Research Technicians per year that
leave from each sub-department. As one of the Dutch managers pointed out, “The age profile
of the population is reduced by natural attrition” thus the main reason of attrition is either
retirement or migration to different departments due to new assignments. The migration can
also be marked by a career progression. One of the managers pointed out that “because of
transition 2009 (a global reorganization) Research Technicians are too stable, they all start the
same assignment at the same time. There should be more flow, more job rotations”. Therefore,
a higher deployability of people should be implemented in order to encourage job rotations
and increase employability. In the Netherlands in some sub-departments, in PTD the Research
Technicians start with temporary contracts that last 2-3 years. Not all of them end with a
permanent contract. Therefore the reasons why they leave are either because they find better
opportunities in other departments or because they are inefficiently skilled to be offered a
permanent contract. Temporary contracts are not used in PTI. The managers from PTI usually
mentioned a probation period that the employees must pass in order to have a permanent
contract.
A fourth aspect covered in the interviews was the prospects for career development for
the Research Technicians. Overall, managers from both PTI and PTD across the Netherlands
and the United States stated that the Research Technicians seem to have opportunity to grow
(Figure 8) “They have all possibilities to climb the ladder. There are no limits […] it all
depends on the level of ambition”. They gave examples of Research Technicians who reached
a JG3 level. However these growth opportunities are not present in all sub-departments and the
majority of Research Technicians do not grow more than JG 6 level. It was interesting to find
out that the company does not seem to consider the Research Technicians important on long
term “This should be a skill-pool more actively managed”, one of the managers concluded
“they are always excluded from activities and exercises”. Moreover, in the Netherlands, “CBD
is not considered relevant for the Research Technicians”. These aspects show indeed a
negligence but more on the soft side of this skill-pool. The company needs these type of
specialists but they are not indeed part of the talent strategy. They are isolated and managers
treat them differently. Some apply the rules and do not give the Research Technicians the
opportunities they deserve like having a competency based development whereas other
39
managers “treat them like scientists”, and “We always flag opportunities when they arise” . In
the United States, the Research Technicians have “sort of CBD based on leadership, the
quality of work they did” which are managed by a capability adviser.
On the one hand, in the Netherlands, only in one PTI sub-department the Research
Technicians are very well taken care of and a form of CBD is used. In this particular case, the
Research Technicians also have a forum once a month and receive updates about the
organization. In addition to this, in the United States the managers also observed that “the
Research Technicians tend to form their special group”. Moreover, in another sub-department
from PTD for instance, all Research Technicians use Indice of Performance (IDP). On the
other hand, in the Netherlands, the majority of managers from PTI and PTD do not conduct
CEP for the Research Technicians. IDP and CEP is mandatory only for JG 5 and above not for
JG6 and below. Managers should also make sure that the assignments of the Research
Technicians are sufficiently challenging since this aspect of their job can have a significant
impact on their career, more specifically on their effectiveness. A more challenging work
determines a higher level of effectiveness in the long term (Badawy, 2007). In the Netherlands,
the Research Technicians rated the work challenge between moderate and low whereas in the
United States the assignments are little challenging, and only in some departments through job
rotations the challenge of the work rises.
Figure 8: Attrition rate and opportunity to grow
9
4
8
7
3
6
5
high
4
high
2
low
low
3
1
2
1
0
0
Attrition rate
Attrition rate
Opportunity to grow
Netherlands
Opportunity to grow
United States
40
A fifth point discussed in the interviews was the future perspective on staff over the
coming 5-10 years. It has been observed that the number of Research Technicians will not
necessarily change in this period (Figure 9). Stability can be seen in the majority of subdepartments across PTI and PTD in both Netherlands and United States. However, in the
Netherlands in one sub-department of PTD and two sub-departments in PTI the managers
expressed their concern in the loss of a considerable number of people in the next 5 to 10 years
due to retirement (Figure 9). The same concern can be observed in the PTI departments in the
United States. The issue becomes even more important because the individuals who will retire
are regarded as very experienced staff. Many people have the same working years and will
retire around the same time. In some PTD departments in the Netherlands, in the past 10 years
a decline in the number of staff took place due to automatization. Moreover, the part of the
work considered “low end of the work” is outsourced which leaves a smaller population of
Research Technicians. One solution in order to avoid a gap in these departments is to focus on
staff deployability. Deployability can only be done if the Research Technicians are firstly
trained to use a broader range of competencies so they can adapt to different sub-departments
easier. In the United States the deployability of staff is better implemented “the Research
Technicians are cross-trained on different skills that benefit both the individual and the
company […] it involves capability, creates variety learn more, add value from company
perspective, creates mobility”.
Regarding the continuity of staff, the managers across PTD in the Netherlands
observed that the company does not allow overlapping “there is no budget for overlaps so we
can’t hire any more people”. This means that people should already leave their jobs before the
new hires take their place. However, two sub-departments in PTI are now understaffed (Figure
9). At the present time both departments would need around four new Research Technicians
“we must avoid the cliff. In short time we will have a loss of very experienced folks” which
means that a better management of population should be implemented.
41
disagree
agree
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
The flow of
people is
stable
Healthy age
population
Retirement:
long-term
issue
Overstaffed Understaffed
Figure 9a: Perception on the flow of Research Technicians in the Netherlands
In the United States all departments are understaffed and are considering a recruitment wave in
the following months. “Hiring hasn’t been constant. We are lacking senior people although we
have many good young staff. We lack the people who train and supervise them”. On long term
all managers interviewed from the United States concluded that they will face a serious gap in
this skill-pool “We will definitely face a gap in the next 5 to 10 years because of the old
population who will retire”.
disagree
agree
4
3
2
1
0
The flow of
people is stable
Healthy age
population
Retirement: longterm issue
Overstaffed
Understaffed
Figure 9b: Perception on the flow of Research Technicians in the United States
42
The sixth element discussed was job routine. On the one hand, in the Netherlands, in
two PTI sub-departments employees do not perceive their work as a routine and are “mostly
happy” (Figure 10). On the other hand, in some PTD sub-departments, because of potentially
monotonous work, the Research Technicians have job rotations so they have the possibility of
more variety. They enjoy it because it also increases their chance of employability. However
there are sub-departments in both PTI and PTD where the specialization level is still very high
so the chances of employability in other parts of Shell are very limited.
In the United States the job routine used to be very high. Even now for lab technicians
it still is high. They have little chances of employability in other places in the company “Lab
technicians are very unlikely to move to other jobs, they don’t have so many opportunities to
move around since they are constrained by the type of work. They have less secure jobs than
researchers for instance”. In this regard, in PTI departments for example, a higher
deployability was encouraged. The managers also conduct skill profiles through a form of
CBD in order to determine their progression.
Figure 10: Routine work and the need of skill-pool manager in the Netherlands and US
12
4
10
3
8
disagree
6
agree
disagree
2
agree
4
1
2
0
0
Routine work Necessity of skilpool
Manager
Routine work
Necessity of
skilpool Manager
\
Finally regarding training periods all Research Technicians from all departments across
the Netherlands and the United States require a long period of training during the first two
years. According to the managers this is necessary in order to enable the new staff to work by
themselves and adapt to the working environment. However the managers raised the issue of
the company’s limited budget for learning and training.
43
To sum up the above points, in the Netherlands, the Research Technicians’ population
is seen as steady and with a good balance. Mangers consider that their departments are neither
overstaffed nor understaffed therefore in the future do not expect any major changes in the
number of Research Technicians. It has been however pointed out that this balance is
influenced by technology and is also “constrained by budget and man power ceiling per VPship. Therefore if the budget is small, then less work needs to be done and less people are
needed”. In the United States, due to some major gaps in the age group distribution and the
fast retirement of senior Research Technicians, the managers have been authorized to recruit in
the following months.
In this section we analyzed the qualitative interviews conducted with the Research
Technicians’ managers. We found out that contractors are not the best way of supplementing
the experimental work in the two locations studied, and that in the Netherlands, interns are the
best way of bringing people in the company. Also the recruitment process is done adhoc in
both the Netherlands and the United States and the HR department is little involved in the
recruitment and selection activities. The attrition rate in both countries was found to be too low
and the growth opportunities as well as trainings and work monotony depend on departments
and managers. Finally the staff continuity in the Netherlands could be a difficult process
because of the impossibility of employee overlapping. However in the United States, a serious
recruitment process is considered due to the gap that might appear in the following 5 to 10
years. In the following section recommendations for the human resource plan will be proposed
based on the literature review, quantitative analysis and the qualitative interviews.
8. THE HUMAN RESOURCE PLAN
The first step in coming up with a resource plan, should address the twin problems, of
forecasting, demand and forecasting supply before objectives can be established and programs
developed. With increased uncertainty, interaction between the human resource planner and
line managers is even more critical for making accurate demand and supply forecasts
(Armstrong, 2007). For this matter the interviews with the Research Technicians have been
conducted. As observed in the second section, the demand for new Research Technicians is
very low in the Netherlands, in fact only two sub-departments from PTI are short on people
and each one proposes 4 new Research Technicians. In the United States, the demand is
slightly higher due to an unbalanced age distribution.
44
The next step in the Resource plan is the formulation of the objectives. With a shorttime horizon, objectives are often easy to state in quantifiable terms. A first objective is to
strive to have a flat age distribution. In order to do so, in certain age groups more people
should be recruited. The second objective is connected to the first and proposes an increase in
the number of people who are attracted to the organization and apply for jobs (increase the
applicant pool) in order to leverage the quality of candidates.
The final step of the resource planning is based on table 1, presented in the literature
review, which represents a combination between Spellman (1992) and Armstrong’s (2007)
visions. Therefore the first column includes the numbers of staff needed and the recruitment/
retention criteria, which is the base of this paper. The second column focuses on skills and
development requirements, representing recommendations for the final resource plan.
Following the HRP presented in the literature review, we can answer the questions regarding
the staff availability and recruitment.
The first question concerns the number of Research Technicians that are needed in both
Netherlands and United States. This question is connected to the second one, which asks
whether there is any danger of downsizing. The danger of downsizing will determine the
number of people needed. Therefore, the actual number of Research Technicians proposed by
the HRP will be analyzed after acknowledging the danger of downsizing.
First of all, as discussed with the managers, in the Netherlands, only two departments
from PTI are understaffed. Furthermore, from both the quantitative analysis and the interviews
conducted with the managers it resulted that the attrition rate among Research Technicians is
very low. This shows that the people within the departments studied are not mobile within the
company. They are not developed sufficiently to be deployable. Moreover, the managers seem
to believe that the main reason for employees to leave the company is due to retirement.
Another reason for low attrition rate is the good conditions offered by the company (showed
by the rapid job group progression of Research Technicians from JG 8 to JG6. In the United
States the attrition rate is also low which shows that indeed the company offers very good
conditions and is a true “employer of choice”. The mobility of the Research Technicians is
slightly higher than in the Netherlands but the age intervals that are under-staffed are four,
which makes the recruitment process an essential step in the next 5 years. If in the Netherlands
the recruitment can be done more slowly, in the United States an alert pace should be adopted
in order to avoid major gaps in the near future.
45
Second of all, analyzing the age groups from each department in the Netherlands, we
can see that there are no major areas of concern: some age groups are a little overloaded but
not in a concerning way. In this case we should keep in mind that the trend the age groups
should follow is a flat one so the number of people in the different age groups should be
around the same level. This is due to the organization’s long –term commitment to technology
as a differentiator. On the contrary, in the United States analysis, as observed in the
quantitative analysis, four age groups are under-populated respectively overpopulated.
Therefore, special attention should be paid to the age groups 25-29; 30-34; 40-44; 50-54.
Recruitment should be a priority for these groups in the next 5 years in order to avoid a gap in
the 10 years.
In the following two tables (Table 7, Table 8) the actual number of Research
Technicians is provided, followed by a suggestion of the actual number that the departments in
the Netherlands and in the United States will need in the next 5- 10 years.
The Netherlands
Age
Present
Proposed
distribution Proposed distribution in
distribution
in 5 years time
10 years time
20-24
3
20 (new recruit)
20 (new recruit)
25-29
23
3+ 12 (new recruit)
20
30-34
21
23
15
35-39
16
21
23
40-44
20
16
21
45- 49
32
20
16
50-54
29
32
20
55-59
19
29
32
Table 7: The forecast of Research Technicians in 5 and 10 years time, the Netherlands
Considering that we recruit 4 graduates per year, we reach a total of 20 Research
Technicians in the first interval group. In 5 years considering all conditions the same, all the
interval groups will be moving towards the next age interval. It can be seen that the age
interval of 25- 29 is very low, meaning that internal resourcing should be a priority in the next
5 years. The suggestion therefore will be to resource or recruit externally 12 new Research
Technicians that would fit into this age group. The age interval 55-59 will be refreshed with
46
the previous interval and the Research Techncians that were previously encountered in that
group will either have the choice to stay or retire.
The next step is in 10 years time. We maintain the graduate recruiting level and we
suppose that the age group 25-29 has been filled. What will result is the perfect balance
between all age groups.
Taking into consideration that the subdepartments where the
Research Technicians lie are around 20, one would agree that one recruitment per department
will be a good sollution. However, the distribution of the Research Technicians across the
Netherlands in all subdepartments is homogeneous. The advice will therefore be that thorough
meetings should take place between all Research Technicians’ managers and discuss the
importance of their vacancies. This way some departments could need more than 1 person
whereas other deparmtents may not need any at all.
The next table (Table 8) presents the situation in the United States. Here more caution
should be paid to the age distribution because already four age groups are underpopulated and
that can lead to an imballance in workforce.
The United States
Age
Present
Proposed
distribution Proposed distribution in
distribution
in 5 years time
10 years time
20-24
4
20 (new recruit)
20 (new recruit)
25-29
2
4+ 12 (new recruit)
20
30-34
17
2+14 (new recruit)
16
35-39
7
17
16
40-44
13
7+5 (new recruit)
17
45- 49
11
13
12
50-54
32
11+1 (new recruit)
13
55-59
26
32
12
Table 8: : The forecast of Research Technicians in 5 and 10 years time,United States
In the United States, a serious recruitment in different age groups should take place
before an imballance occurs. First of all, in the next 5 years the graduate recruitment numbers
could be the same as in the Netherlands.Second of all, the next goups that will need special
recruitment are the 25-29, 30-34, 35-39 and 50-54. It is very hard to recruit in the last
mentioned age group bacause the company will invest in employees who will not even work
47
for Shell their whole career. It is better to resource these kind of employees from inside the
company. The proposed plan in order to reach a stability after the 5 years would be to recruit
12 more Research Technicians in the 25-29 age group which will bring a total of 16. In the age
group 30-34, 14 new Research Technicians are needed in order to reach the minimum of a
healthy distribution. For the 40-45 and 50-54, an internal approach is recommended and will
assume 5 new recruites for the former category and 1 for the latter. It is important to
understand that the more experienced the Research Technciians are, the better they can teach
the new ones and become their mentors. Last but not least, the forecast in 10 years will balance
the situation and will assure a good flow in all age categories (Table 8).
Third of all, the question is whether the company can meet the needs of Research
Technicians from its existing sources. In order to answer this issue, we will refer to the
discussions with the managers. As acknowledged, the recruitment process is done ad-hoc in
Netherlands. The first option adopted in Shell globally is internal resoucing, thus bringing
Research Technicians from other sub-departments within Shell. The second option is external
recruitment either through Hogescholen or agencies. In conclusion the needs can be met with
the existing sources but it is not the most efficient way. As observed by the managers there
were situations when they recruited from certain Hogeschools more than once in a month
because of a bad coordination between departments. They lack a global view and run the risk
to repeat activities such as recruitment because they are not well informed. In the
recommendation section, a solution to this issue will be given.
Lastly, the attraction and retention of key staff is not considered a difficulty since Shell
is perceived as a very good employer and therefore the Research Technicians have many
benefits. Moreover, from the quantitative analysis presented in the first section of the paper
results that only two Research Technicians left the company in the Netherlands and the United
States in the past five years because the type work was not challenging enough. However,
attracting new candidates requires an extra effort. The description of the company should be
followed by a thorough presentation of the departments where the Research Technicians work.
To sum up, it is important to respect all three phases of HRP in order to obtain the best
results. Furthermore, in order to sustain the HRP, a series of recommendations will follow.
Often recommendations are future ideas that a resource plan could take into account in order to
reflect a particular situation, in this case, the situation of the Research Technicians.
48
9. RECOMMENDATIONS
The purpose of this paper was to propose a resource plan. The quantitative aspect of the
resource plan has been analyzed during the first section followed by a qualitative analysis in
the second section. The section that followed presented a Human Resource Plan based on the
literature review and on the quantitative and qualitative analysis. This section will focus on a
series of additional recommendations on the content of planning.
In both the Netherlands and the United States, it has been observed from the discussion
with the managers that recruitment is viewed as a weak point. To support this idea, a
recommendation is that PTD and PTI are assigned a skill-pool manager who centralizes all
sources that could provide Research Technicians of high quality. These sources should include
Hogeschools, Universities (where the case), or agencies. A centralization is necessary because
the Research Technicians’. A centralization of all recruitment sources would also mean
cooperation and a higher interdependency, between the two departments. During the
interviews it was observed that the managers rarely know the activities of the other subdepartments, making it very hard to encourage the Research Technicians to move along the
sub-departments in order to develop better their skills and even make a career progression.
Interdepartmental communication is essential in order to understand the business as a whole,
how and to what extend each sub-department sustains the business and in many cases each
other. In this regard, the skill-pool manager could make a contribution. He or she could also
identify, advise on, and stimulate job rotations.
A second recommendation for the recruitment process concerns the selection of the
candidates. In order to filter the best candidates a standardized process should take place, thus
all candidates should be selected using the same requirements. However, in order to obtain the
best results, each manager should be involved in the selection process for his own department.
They know the requirements, skills and attitudes a future Research Technician should posses.
HRP influences the business strategy by drawing attention to ways in which people could be
developed and deployed more effectively to achieve business goals and make the necessary
contribution.
Thirdly, in order to develop and deploy Research Technicians effectively, a common
training based on a generic model of competencies should be implemented. All new Research
Technicians should develop a set of technical skills that can be used in different departments.
This way overspecialization of jobs will be avoided. Specialization stands in the way of people
49
moving between different assignments in different departments. An additional point is that that
higher the specialization the higher the difficulty to replace the Research Technicians when
needed.
A skill-pool manager can advocate limiting specialization to just where it is
absolutely needed and can encourage the implementation of a new generic model of
competencies. A consequence will be improved mobility and deployability of staff leading to a
more uniform spread between the different sub-departments. This will also avoid major gaps
in the long term on the availability of people and will reduce the excessively long training
periods of 1 - 2 years that are currently independently managed by each sub-department. Team
deployment resides at the center of resourcing process as it determines the success of the
project, which in turn determines the competitiveness of the organization (Dainty et al, 2009).
We should pay attention however to the promotion prospects for the Research
Technicians. If we take a look at the division of these employees it can be seen that the
majority lie in JG 6. This shows that the promotion of Research Technicians from JG 8 is very
fast and therefore they remain for long periods of time in JG 6.
Furthermore, a fourth point can be made regarding the motivational level of the
Research Technicians. It could be a skill pool more actively managed. These employees feel
excluded from activities and exercises because of their JG level. The majority of mangers
raised this issue across PTI and PTD. The groups with years of experience 15-40 for instance
do not feel recognized, questioning whether the company realizes that they play a developing
role for the business. In this regard, public recognition of their work could answer this issue.
An example of public recognition is to organize reunions for all Research Technicians in a
certain location and choose the employee of the month. This can make them feel that the
company is interested in them and this can contribute to an increase in their level of
motivation. Public recognition emphasizes that Shell is using different motivational methods
rather than just a high salary. Also if there is a common training based on a generic model of
competencies Research Technicians would have more opportunities to do challenging work
and take different assignments. A more interesting work can lead to higher level of motivation.
Moreover, the breadth of job assignment is an important aspect in the Research Technicians’
job because it determines their professional development. If the job is not varied enough the
corporate productivity will also diminish, leaving unmotivated Research Technicians behind.
Finally, the last recommendation concerns the linkage between business and human
resource plans. Human resources and line managers of PTD and PTI should work jointly to
develop business plans and determine human resource needs, analyze the work force profile in
50
terms of future business strategies, review emerging human resource issues, and develop
programs to address the issues and support the business plans.
10. CONCLUSION
More organizations are recognizing that their human resources provide a source of
competitive advantage (Greer, 2003). This recognition is also based on a great pressure to
control costs, changing environment and increased governmental regulation. As a result, it can
be noted a growing involvement of human resource management in strategy formulation. As
argued in this paper, human resources have a critical role in providing valuable input at a
corporate level in the strategic planning process. Another important linkage provided by the
strategic HR is with the organizational strategy. In this regards, it provides input on the
availability of critical labor, shortages and surpluses of employees (Greer, 2003). At the next
level of strategy formulation, strategic HR help align personnel policies practices, and
programs with the overall company strategy so that the employee roles will support different
strategies at a corporate level (e.g., innovation, cost reduction) (Greener, 2003).
Traditionally, there has been a weak one-way linkage between business planning and
human resource planning (Armstrong, 2007). Business plans, where they exist, have defined
human resource needs, thereby making human resource planning a reactive exercise.
Supporting this idea, the paper analyzed both the quantitative and the qualitative aspects of the
Research Technicians’ skill-pool. At the end of the two sections a guideline HRP was
proposed. It is important to answer all the questions proposed by the resource plan as accurate
as possible in order to take the best decisions.
The quantitative analysis showed some gaps in the age distribution of people from both
the Netherlands and the United States. The qualitative analysis pointed out a highly
disorganized recruitment process. Moreover, a low attrition rate confirmed the quantitative
analysis whereas the monotony of work, trainings and job opportunities added value to the
former analysis. The human resource plan focused on the numbers more predicting the
experimental work for the next 5 to 10 years. The recommendations were also part of the
human resource plan and propose future actions for the skill-pool analyzed for both the
Netherlands and the United States. They are based on the managerial interviews and personal
observations and include the centralization of recruitment sources, the existence of a skill-pool
manager that would actively look after the Research Technicians’ performance, opportunities
51
and job rotations. Furthermore, a common training should be implemented so that the
Research Technicians can develop a core of skills and knowledge that they can use in
rotational assignments. This way the deployability will be favored and less gaps in
departments will appear. Moreover, the motivational level of the studied skill-pool could be
boosted through public recognition and finally, a clear link between the HR and the business
should be facilitated through an integration of HR planning at all levels of the organization
with the business plan. The integration of human resource planning into the business is
important for long-range planning efforts. With the recognition of the contributions of human
resource planning, line managers have taken on greater responsibilities for the planning efforts
(Greener, 2003).
All in all, the Human Resource Planning for the Research Technicians is generally
similar for the two countries studied regarding the use of contractors, the job content the
attrition rate or the training. This shows a uniform policy implemented by Shell for this skillpool. However due to cultural and micro-environmental differences, it has been found that in
the Netherlands the recruitment of Research Technicians is done independently by each
department whereas in the United States an implication of the HR department was found. In
both locations the need of recruiting more Research Technicians is present however in the
United States the urge is higher. Furthermore, in the Netherlands the accent for recruitment is
on “make” policy whereas in the United States the “buy” policy is implemented. Although the
paper only focused on a single case study, it has been pointed out that the importance of a
Human Resource Plan is crucial for any multinational. Planning is an activity that should not
disregard any level of a company. It must show consistency and clearness, involving both the
line management and the HR department.
52
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12. ANNEX 1
Interview Questions
1. How many Research Technicians do you have?
2. Do you consider you have an overcapacity/under-capacity of Research Technicians?
3. What is the attrition rate concerning this skill-pool?
4. What is the normal length of the contract? On what depends the length of the contract?
5. How many do you think should be hired as contractors, internship full contract, part
time, or other form? Which of these forms you consider is more important?
6. Is the amount that you need changeable in the next 5years? What about the next 10
years? What would you propose in terms of number of Research Technicians in the
next 5- 10 years?
7. How was their recruitment approached so far? Who established contacts with them and
followed up with them?
8. Do you think the approach is good or needs improvement?
9. What kind of study do they have?
10. What kind of study would you need?
11. What is the period that you consider optimum to train the Research Technicians?
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