Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Middle Managers Forum
Remember my previous blog entry on this species of staff in my organization. Yes, the issues have not settled yet. The upper management still focuses on what they do miserably rather than their strenghts. All middle managers met at the 5-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur to discuss on middle managers' roles in achieving the Group Corporate Agenda. An old leader presented on leadership and his expectatio. He said if the middle managers could do this two things, the entire company will be better off. They are: MANAGE THEIR STAFF WORK PERFORMANCE and START DEVELOPING THEIR YOUNG EXECUTIVES. Well, it is easier said than done.
Assessment again – for panelmen this time!!!
In this organization, assessment is the most important tool in people development. Why assessment? Staff is assessed to check their current competency level and secondly and in fact more importantly is for promotion to the higher job grade. Passing judgement and making decision are part of HR Manager’s life, again I say. They are people assessors. They must observe people. They must listen to their stories actively. Stories about how they solve problems at work. Stories about how they manage difficult subordinates. Stories about how they react during plant emergency. Stories about how they react when their ideas are rejected. So on and so forth. HR Managers must listen to all this before determining their competency level.
Today I flew 1600 km from KLIA to another sister company who is running a methanol plant with the capacity of about 2000 metric tonnes per day, to listen to more stories, more than I could put in this blog.
Today’s assessees should have been senior plant operators and technicians, as I was informed initially by the organizer at the HQ. However, but those turning up for the interview was from all level of job grades – from the most junior to most senior and also couple of executives performance shift superintendent function. Another sin committed by HR peoples --- miscommunication ! Nevertheless I obediently did what I am supposed to do.
Most of our senior operators are performing panelmen function. They operate the process units (DEF: many process units make up a plant) by making changes and monitoring a computerized system called DCS (Distributed Control System). Data on plant performance are available to panelmen via DCS screens. If they need to physically check on something on site, they will radio the field operator who will go to the site and gather the data. SO you see panelmen are the most sought after people in oil and gas industry.
Operators and technicians are backbone to our operation and are trained to perform multi-tasks, vis-à-vis they are doing other task besides their core task. For example, an operator who does field work (or field operator) is also required to take samples for testing by laboratory technician. Samples are taken from products tank and tested for compliance to certain parameters before they (products) can be released to customers. Another example is mechanical technician. He also must know some aspect of electrical or instrument of the key equipments.
Back to my interview session. It is a competency-based interview where candidates must cite examples of actual experience to support the competency level achieved. Most senior operators had many evidences to share but not so for the junior ones. It is understood as experiences come with time. One senior operator, when asked “what is his biggest achievement this year”, said it was when he completed Company-sanctioned supervisory program which is mandatory for him to complete in order to get promoted to the higher grade. I was quite surprised by the response as I was expecting something technical and plant-related. So now I knew why operators are not good at paperwork. Everything on plant matters are all on their heads, rarely got documented elsewhere. But one thing for sure is that all my operators are very skillful and passionate about their job.
Today I flew 1600 km from KLIA to another sister company who is running a methanol plant with the capacity of about 2000 metric tonnes per day, to listen to more stories, more than I could put in this blog.
Today’s assessees should have been senior plant operators and technicians, as I was informed initially by the organizer at the HQ. However, but those turning up for the interview was from all level of job grades – from the most junior to most senior and also couple of executives performance shift superintendent function. Another sin committed by HR peoples --- miscommunication ! Nevertheless I obediently did what I am supposed to do.
Most of our senior operators are performing panelmen function. They operate the process units (DEF: many process units make up a plant) by making changes and monitoring a computerized system called DCS (Distributed Control System). Data on plant performance are available to panelmen via DCS screens. If they need to physically check on something on site, they will radio the field operator who will go to the site and gather the data. SO you see panelmen are the most sought after people in oil and gas industry.
Operators and technicians are backbone to our operation and are trained to perform multi-tasks, vis-à-vis they are doing other task besides their core task. For example, an operator who does field work (or field operator) is also required to take samples for testing by laboratory technician. Samples are taken from products tank and tested for compliance to certain parameters before they (products) can be released to customers. Another example is mechanical technician. He also must know some aspect of electrical or instrument of the key equipments.
Back to my interview session. It is a competency-based interview where candidates must cite examples of actual experience to support the competency level achieved. Most senior operators had many evidences to share but not so for the junior ones. It is understood as experiences come with time. One senior operator, when asked “what is his biggest achievement this year”, said it was when he completed Company-sanctioned supervisory program which is mandatory for him to complete in order to get promoted to the higher grade. I was quite surprised by the response as I was expecting something technical and plant-related. So now I knew why operators are not good at paperwork. Everything on plant matters are all on their heads, rarely got documented elsewhere. But one thing for sure is that all my operators are very skillful and passionate about their job.
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