How do you retain great geoscientists and keep them on your team? How do you motivate them? AAPG is offering an e-symposium by Dr. Frank Wantland, to be held April 12 at 10 am (CST). For more information and to register, click the link.

Retention of petrotechnical talent is now a strategic issue according to leading industry business analysts. Meeting the looming talent shortage requires rethinking strategies about the development of the talent pool. This seminar focuses on the role geoscience leaders and mentors play in retaining top talent. Local leadership plays a critical role in retention because they control the climate and culture of the local environment, the match between individual’s talents and technical challenges and the vision, hope and plans for the future. This program addresses the skills required to fill these roles successfully. The seminar will broadly outline the dimensions of a climate and culture for retention. Then the focus moves to establishing the best possible fit between talents and challenge and finally to the skills to help leaders anticipate the future to create a compelling vision of the future to influence talent to stay. The significant bonus is that the effort to retain talent can also contribute to higher levels of individual performance. The skills presented are low tech and high touch, in-depth and long-term. All examples and stories are drawn directly from experience leading and coaching geoscience professionals.

Bonus: One of the challenges to every professional today is to bring something extra to the organization. This is particularly true of mid-career professionals who experience limited promotional opportunities and technical competition from younger professionals. Mentoring is a role that can have great impact on the future of the workforce and be a satisfying and valuable role for the more experienced professionals. Compete for People offers key skill development for mentors.

Key Words and Concepts

• Retention as a Strategic Issue
• Leadership Roles
• High Performance
• Challenge vs Skill
• Essential Conversations
• Career Profile
• Scenarios of the Future
• Management by Happiness

Audience: Geoscience managers, leaders and mentors; geoscience professionals who have a stake in retention of top talent. This program will prepare leaders and mentors to retain top geoscience talent in the face of a looming technical talent shortage. It puts the tools for retention in the hands of those closest to the problem and most likely to affect the outcome.

Bio: Dr. Frank Wantland earned MS and PhD degrees in Geology from Rice University and a BS in Geology from the University of Cincinnati. He managed the geologic research group and was Director of Technical Human Resources for Cities Service, and served as Director of the School of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Oklahoma. He has over thirty year’s experience managing and coaching geoscientists. He wrote nearly 100 columns for the AAPG Explorer on change transition and career self-management. He is currently a Leadership and Career Coach living in Tulsa, Oklahoma.