MUSCAT -- A RO 1.2 billion worth seven year programme (2011-2017) between PDO and Special Technical Services (STS) and Tebodin & Partner (STST), the JV that runs the EMC North contract covering Omanisation, SMEs development and In-Country Value (ICV) initiative, has been proceeding expeditiously. Salim Abdullah Hammed Ali al Kindy, Managing Director, Tebodin & Partner Oman LLC, says, "The STST, through its joint venture partners STS and T&P, has the ambition to contribute to EMC's In-Country Value targets to the maximum extent possible by providing challenging and fulfilling job and career opportunities to Omani nationals; and by engaging and developing LCCs and using local products. Further, within the contract "we help and train local companies to develop themselves and contribute their part within the EMC contract".
As for the achievements so far, Al Kindy says STST is currently employing more than 2500 Omani staff in different categories, which is almost double the number of Omanis at the beginning of the contract (around 1300 Omani staff). However despite the fact that the semi and unskilled work categories can absorb high number of Omanis, "our focus was different in the start. We have around 60 per cent Omanisation for the semi-skilled and 100 per cent for unskilled labour, which did not change much for the last few years. Our focus was on the high end categories where we have made a growth up to 40 per cent where technical professionals are our target".
Further within Tebodin 50 per cent of the Omani staff are engineers. This is an evidence of the effort made to recruit top talented Omani engineers who can perform or will be trained to perform within the industry requirements. More than 50 per cent of "our engineers are still in their first working year of their career life as we recruit many fresh graduates and train them to develop themselves to be full-fledged professional engineers with the field of Oil and Gas. Also 15 per cent of the Omani staff have completed more than four years of working experience. This explains the importance of having a good development and retaining programme which is one of "our key drivers and area of focus", adds Al Kindy.
The focus on recruiting engineers is because of "our belief that they will be the feedstock of future specialists and managers. We strongly believe that competency based growth of our people is the key success factor for any Omanisation process and for our business". About the programmes currently underway and in the pipeline, Al Kindy says "Recently, we carried out a recruitment campaign where 120 engineers have been selected to join our family. We have adjusted our payment scale last June, and we keep reviewing looking into market dynamics".
With regard to development, each fresh engineering graduate must go through a base competency program which allows them to grasp the basis of "our business requirements". However, in order to get them to the industry professional level, "we have also adapted the four years development programme. Of course, we tune it to suite engineering and construction requirements. One of the target of this development scheme is to have Omani engineers acquiring TA3 (Technical Authority) once completed". One of the main challenges is to retain these skilled Omanis after their development. Hence, "we worked on succession planning with the purpose of creating room to grow for Omani potentials. One of the improvements still in progress is to identify Omanis for cross posting opportunities".
Further "we have many examples of staff who have been given the opportunity to develop within our organisation and achieving their passion for work excellence. For example Ahmed al Brashdi is a chemical engineering graduate from SQU who joined our engineering section eight years back. He is today a lead concept engineer for multidisciplinary projects". Together these efforts provide the Omani staff the right exposure to be the future business leaders in Oman. Asked how many people will benefit from this programme for Omanisation, ICV and SMEs development, Al Kindy said, "STST direct hires are more than 2,500 Omani staff and the number is still growing. Further we work currently with more than 20 LCCs and SMEs whom we are supporting to grow and to develop them to higher levels of service and technical quality".
© Oman Daily Observer 2014
