OREANDA-NEWS. March 12, 2014. With Saudi Aramco and more than a dozen joint ventures expanding operations into new business areas, finding and retaining people with the right skill sets becomes ever more important. To help the company and its partners navigate the challenges, Saudi Aramco held its first Joint Venture (JV) Human Resources Forum in Dhahran.

Three administrative areas collaborated to organize this first JV HR Forum: Chemicals, Employee Relations and Training, and Marketing, Supply and Joint Venture Coordination. The forum brought together HR representatives from 13 different joint ventures, subsidiaries and affiliates including Aramco Trading, Aramco Gulf Operations, Luberef, SATORP, Sadara, Petro Rabigh, YASREF, Marafiq, SASREF, and SAMREF, among others.

In his welcoming remarks, Warren Wilder, the executive director for Chemicals, told participants that they are an integral part of the downstream family and “we gather today because we learn faster in groups.”

Wilder encouraged everyone to enrich collaboration and teamwork to improve the performance of company joint ventures. “Today is a step toward further strengthening our partnership,” he said. “Joint ventures have long been a part of the fabric of Saudi Aramco. Those of you here today represent billions of dollars of investment and thousands of employees all contributing to our performance. We not only supply the bulk of the Kingdom’s transportation fuels but also are critical to the economic diversification and growth of the Kingdom.”

Huda M. Al-Ghoson, executive director of Employee Relations and Training, underlined the importance of the event by saying that JVs’ employees are among the most valuable assets.

“For all the technological sophistication that shapes today’s world, developing people remains the source of sustainable competitive advantage and the real foundation for prosperity,” said Al-Ghoson. “The HR strategy for any organization must be defined by developing a culture of excellence, and creating the people advantage to enable the effective and impactful execution of its business agenda.”

Ahmed Al-Subaey, executive director for Marketing, Supply and Joint Venture Coordination, said Saudi Aramco and its joint ventures continue to learn from each other on how to find and retain talented employees.

“Building further human capabilities within our JVs will lead to greater success,” Al-Subaey said. “This can best be achieved by deepening the channels of collaboration between our JVs while maximizing the benefits they receive from Saudi Aramco’s established HR processes. Through collaboration and a willingness to share both successes and failures, our JVs will grow stronger and more capable of facing their HR challenges.”

Led by a trio of experts from international consultancy firms, the HR representatives heard speeches and panel discussions and participated in interactive workshops, all under the theme of “Competency Based HR Processes.” The goal was to gain a deeper understanding of the latest HR practices in selecting, retaining and managing talent according to competencies rather than resumes, and to provide important insights on how to better align employees’ values and goals with that of their employers.