Halliburton Finds The Best Talent in Every Country and Culture

by Cindy Bigner

Director of Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives
Halliburton

Halliburton is a leading energy services company with 60,000 employees working in 80 countries. Our employees speak more than 200 languages, and they range from field operators to engineers, scientists and managers. This variety creates great opportunities for us to build diversity and inclusion into all aspects of our business.

Each country and region presents a unique business challenge. Halliburton’s customers are oil and gas operators, and these can be international oil companies (IOCs), independents, or national oil companies (NOCs). Each customer type has an interest in our diversity practices, but NOCs in particular have complex needs that offer opportunities to foster diversity.

NOCs’ goals reflect the governments’ long-range desires for their countries, and offering promising careers to their citizens is typically at the top of the list. Halliburton’s workforce, including managers, is overwhelmingly made up of citizens of the host country. To further this trend, Halliburton has formed alliances with local leading universities to help prepare graduates for careers in the oilfield. In addition, Halliburton has established regional training centers where employees in early or mid career can broaden their skills and increase their opportunities. And we often work closely with our NOC customers to develop local training opportunities and help build local education programs.

“My job is to drive our global diversity and inclusion strategy, including culture, talent, workplace and marketplace initiatives.”

NOCs are also interested in developing their economic infrastructure and look to us to help nurture local businesses. We take special pride in working with local firms that can supply services and materials. This is a diversity goal, and it is a business imperative as we diversify and decentralize our supply chain to create robust and flexible sources.

Similarly, Halliburton is decentralizing technology and manufacturing. We have recently established research centers – in Pune, India and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – that will be staffed by regional scientists to develop solutions for the technical challenges characteristic of those areas. There is no better way for Halliburton to produce the constant innovation that keeps us at the top of the industry. In manufacturing, we have also created regional centers, for example, in Mexico and in Singapore, to employ local workers to make products and tools for regional needs.

This year, Halliburton created my position – Director of Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives. My job is to drive our global diversity and inclusion strategy, including culture, talent, workplace and marketplace initiatives. Our senior management is solidly behind this effort, and we hold our leaders accountable for support and ownership of our diversity targets.

The work in energy services can be hard, and demanding, and it is often done in harsh and remote environments. It takes special people to do this work well, and we are committed to finding and developing them from every country and every culture.

This article has been sponsored by:
Halliburton