The Benefits of Reciprocal Mentoring in the Oil and Gas Industry

As the Oil and Gas industry looks for ways to better manage its increasingly age diverse workforce, reciprocal mentoring (RM) has become a necessity. Industry veterans are nearing retirement. Young entrants to the workforce are knowledgeable in technology, but lack industry experience. These two circumstances, along with other factors, helped create the perfect storm – the Great Crew Change. RM can pave the way for a new standard of open dialogue in business, stretching far beyond technology. Ideally, learning and information sharing would cross all lines of seniority and responsibility. Everyone knows that mentoring can be useful to a young employee. However, there is a lot that junior employees (millennials) can offer as mentors themselves. Senior employees were trained when technology transfer was slower and less sophisticated. They learned to give presentations without the aid of PowerPoint and other media available today. Often, they relied on a flipchart for a presentation, so they have well developed soft skills and interpersonal skills. Millennials recently graduated, have more experience in technology transfer, and recent applications and technology developed, and are more inclined to communicate through email, text, and social media. RM acts as a powerful tool to help both junior and senior employees strengthen specific skills. Reciprocal mentoring can create dynamic teams utilizing the overall strengths of both millennials and senior employees. These two-way conversations become avenues where employees can discuss insights from both perspectives and gain valuable knowledge from one another in an environment of trust. With the increasing number of Millennials joining the workforce in the oil and gas industry, management must incorporate new ways of mentoring them. The increase in the age gap between senior employees and millennials creates a challenge to keep the workforce engaged. Differences in perspective, attitude towards work and different motivation can result in friction and an unwillingness to collaborate. This is the role of reverse mentoring which is detailed in this paper. With the "Big Crew Change" we are experiencing a shortage of younger more experienced technical professionals. Reciprocal mentoring is a way to bridge that gap.