Burns Flat, Oklahoma

This week's journeying has led me to Burns Flat, Oklahoma. A teeny little town in the middle of nowhere, population 1700. Not exactly the place I would have expected to find a district of the largest oil services company in the U.S. Nevertheless, Halliburton has a district here, and I ventured out this week to see what I could learn. My gracious host was Bridget K., an HR generalist who works 3 days a week in Burns Flat and the other 2 in Oklahoma City.

Bridget laying down the law.

While out here, I've been doing more research for my retention project. Staffing is very hard due to the low applicant pool in the area. As I said, Burns Flat is tiny, and there are few population centers anywhere in the area. Thus, managers and supervisors feel like they are forced to hire applicants that sometimes have marginal qualifications for the job. This leads to high turnover as many new hires quickly realize they are not cut out for the oil field.

Bridget has been working with management, helping convince them that they can afford to be more selective when making hiring decisions. Hopefully this will cut down a bit on turnover, and all the costs associated with it.

Bridget and Troy, a local supervisor, took me out on a frac job. Here are some pictures:

Troy, a man among men.

Filling out Hazard Observation cards.

More hazing. Look at the glasses they made me wear.

Bridget calls this well head configuration a "flower."

Note the "alternative energy" windmills in the background. Al Gore would be proud.