“I disagreed with how the company was run,” says Eirik. “We had little opportunity to influence decisions, and that made me want to move on.”.
It wasn't long before Eirik was asked to take the job as general manager of Fishbones. Fishbones delivers stimulation technology to increase oil and gas production, thereby adding great added value to operating companies.
Eirik enjoyed his new job from the first day.
– I had a great influence on the decisions, and I had the opportunity to work with new technology.
But the job turned out to be far more demanding than he had imagined.
– The market was conservative, and we had to spend a lot of energy convincing the major players to adopt innovative technology from a challenger.
But Eirik and the team were skilled, and the company grew.
“When Fishbones grew, we needed a number of support functions,” he says. Among other things, we needed HR expertise.
He explains that the company was not large enough to justify its own HR function at the beginning.
– Even if we had hired someone full-time, the person would not have the necessary expertise, because the HR field is broad. You have to be an expert in a lot of things.
Eirik Renli (Photo: Fishbones)
Eirik went into the market to find a supplier of HR services, and that's how he came into contact with BUHR.
– I brought in references, and then we had a meeting with them. We liked what we heard in the meeting.
BUHR works independently of industry, with everything from challengers like Fishbones to large oil and gas companies like OKEA.
In OKEA, BUHR is a supplement to OKEA's own People & Organisation department, responsible for specific deliveries within recruitment, hiring and onboarding, course bookings and administration, maintenance, control and updating of data in various systems and registers, as well as administration of HR-related processes and documents.
Bente W. Nordeide (Photo: OKEA)
– We at OKEA are extremely satisfied with the good cooperation we have with BUHR, says Bente W. Nordeide, Vice President People & Organisation at OKEA. For a growing company, there is at times an additional need for both administrative support in various processes as well as for specialist services that support our internal P&O department. We find that BUHR delivers services of very high quality and that they have competent resources that are easy to work with.
When Eirik started at Fishbones, he was employee number three. Fishbones now has 38 employees and is owned by founder Rune Freyer, as well as AkerBP and Equinor Ventures.
– Now BUHR is our HR department, says Eirik.
Photo: BUHR
Eirik says that it has been challenging to recruit in an oil industry with great pressure.
– We have been relatively lucky in the years we have been in business, but we have also had to replace some people along the way. And then it is a challenge to keep the good people. There is low unemployment and a high demand for skilled people in the oil industry. It is important not to just become part of the salary spiral. We must work to create a workplace where people want to stay. Here, BUHR has been a good support. They assist in everything from recruitment to building a framework for HR.
Eirik says that he uses lessons learned from the large international corporations when building Fishbones.
– I have understood the value of investing in people, he says. We therefore offer both internal and external courses. Two colleagues recently took further education at BI. Before this, one of them took an additional master's degree as an engineer in Germany. With us, people are gold, concludes Eirik.
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