Every fifth Statoil employee to be gone before 2017

Statoil offices Fornebu.Photo: flicker.com

Statoil started downsizing and cutting costs before the huge drop in oil prices began in 2014. By the end of the year they expect to have 20 percent fewer employees.

When we started doing this almost three years ago, there were few people, both inside of and outside of Statoil, who understood why we started doing this. Two and a half years after we see that virtually the entire industry is going with the same processes, says HR director Magne Hovden Statoil to TU.
The level of costs for the company was so high that several projects did not pay off immediately when the oil price was at $ 100 a barrel. By the end of 2013, Statoil had approximately 23,400 employees, two years later, the figure dropped to 21,600. The company aims to reduce its number of employees to less than 20,000 by the end of  of 2016. The aim is that contracted and permanent employees will go voluntarily, without layoffs and forced retirement.
According  to Hovden , the employees have eventually  agreed with the moves made by the company , even though it has caused anxiety and frustration inside the company that so many colleagues have quit their jobs.

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today