During the last decade there has been an increase in discussion about “The Big Crew Change” and how to prepare the industry’s young professionals (YPs) for this outflow of knowledge and how to recruit and retain new talent. The war for talent is at a frenzy but, industry has not given much emphasis to empowering the young professionals themselves to take a greater responsibility in developing and shaping their own organizations.

Halliburton has hired over 16,000 people in the last two years with a 136% increase in the number of managers under the age of 35. As a new manager and a young professional, how do you establish a network and learn how to be successful in the organization? The authors of this paper worked in the same building but never met until an outside introduction. The benefit of connecting with someone internally with similar industry experience became clear, and the idea for iMPACT, the company’s young professionals organization, took shape. We discovered YPs were looking for a way to make a difference and were hungry to connect for networking support, career management advice, and ways to engage in the organization.

The iMPACT program was uniquely developed by Halliburton young professionals. For YPs the group fosters networking and career development through a dynamic program of speakers and events. For Halliburton, iMPACT has become a tool to identify up and coming leaders. Senior leadership views their local iMPACT groups as a vehicle to discuss company strategy, identify new talent, mentor others, foster innovation and get feedback. Today iMPACT has 9 locations globally giving YPs a voice in the organization, critical training, career coaching and allowing Halliburton to harness the energy and innovation in its next generation of leaders.