Community Liaison Officers - Generating pride and enabling engagement

Murphy H.; Valiyev T.; Paredes D.A.; de Leon M.D.; Edwards E. · Society of Petroleum Engineers - SPE International Conference and Exhibition on Health, Safety, Environment, and Sustainability 2020, HSE and Sustainability 2020 (2020)

Resumen

IPIECA's Community Liaison Officers team building and management guidance and toolkit, published in October 2018, assists community relations managers in planning their community liaison teams and recruiting community liaison officers (CLOs). The Guidance aims to enable managers to systematically manage the CLO role, improve companies' understanding and organizational integration with CLOs, as well as providing tools and training resources. It provides practical guidance and support for a critical but often neglected set of employees, who can often feel vulnerable and unsupported. Prior to the development of the Guidance, there was limited research or guidance available to help oil and gas companies in this area. A mini survey conducted by IPIECA members in 2017 found that there were challenges around CLOs' relationship to company systems and processes, skills development, training and recruitment of CLOs. IPIECA resolved to help offer solutions to these challenges by developing guidance and a supporting toolkit. The Guidance is based on the results of a global online survey, commissioned by IPIECA in 2017, of more than 120 CLOs based in 31 countries, representing more than 25 companies, and covering all stages of the project/asset lifecycle. The Guidance covers four phases of CLO team management: assessment; planning; recruitment; and evaluation. This is accompanied by a six-part toolkit which is designed to help deliver these four phases. The toolkit is designed to be flexible and for use in any global context. This paper will provide an overview of the content of the Guidance and how it was developed, as well as the context and background for CLO management and recruitment. Additionally, some IPIECA members (BP Mauritania & Senegal, Repsol Peru, and Shell) have been piloting the Guidance throughout their operations and have shared case studies on the effectiveness of the toolkit.