Serving the Teesside Business Community | 31
Transforming – SABIC is taking on 50 new staff this year as part of an ongoing process to ensure the firm remains at the cutting edge of the chemical industry.
Investing in people and facilities
“ I see a real sense of purpose, optimism and ambition to a far greater level than I’ ve known in my 18 years with the business”
- Daren Smith
SABIC is set take on up to 50 new staff for its Teesside operations during 2018 whilst continuing to make further multi-million pound investments in its assets at Wilton and North Tees.
The recruitment drive is a part of the company’ s ongoing challenge to transform its workforce without losing the inherent skills and knowledge of its most experienced staff.
Meanwhile, the financial investment will ensure the chemical firm continues to maximise the manufacturing potential of its Teesside facilities, including the Olefins Cracker that has already seen multi-millions invested in upgrades over the last two years.
SABIC’ s Teesside site director Daren Smith revealed:“ We will put further significant investment into the site this year to make sure we continue to get the most out of our assets.
“ The optimisation, debottlenecking and re-lifing of our assets will ensure they are fit to operate for the next 20 years, keeping up with all legislative requirements and seeking to gain further competitive advantage
“ These are the investments you need to make to sustain the organisation – it’ s about retaining a licence to operate plus enhancements.
“ SABIC has committed to these enhancements in addition to significant investment needed for the next turnaround in two years’ time, so there is absolutely no doubt it’ s a big deal for our Teesside operations.”
“ There’ s no substitute to actually spending time on the job with an individual who can pass on that experiential knowledge”
Meanwhile, more than 500 skilled individuals were recently interviewed at a major Teesside recruitment event that resulted in the first of what could be up to 50 new staff joining the company.
Smith said recruiting skilled new staff was essential to ensuring the company’ s ongoing success.
“ We are very fortunate to have SABIC employees who have 35 or 40 years of experience within our business,” he explained.“ The inherent knowledge those people have of our operating assets is priceless.
“ But we also recognise that many of our valued employees are starting to plan for retirement, so we have an ongoing need to replace them by bringing in new talent and a chance to bring in fresh perspectives.”
Smith added:“ The trick is to have an exchange of knowledge and experience between our new starters and our most experienced employees, as this can add tremendous value to our business. We have excellent procedures, training modules and classroom-based exercises but there’ s no substitute for actually spending time on the job with an individual who can pass on that experiential knowledge.
“ So we’ re working hard to ensure we employ new people in advance of those retirements, so that there is a transfer of knowledge over several months.
“ I’ m pleased to say that on Teesside our industrial heritage means we recruit many of our employees from across the region. My ambition is to grow our local industry to keep that proud tradition going.”