Developing People through Mentoring to Transfer Knowledge and Technology

Abstract

Saudi Arabian Chevron (SAC) is continuously investing in human resource development and technology as an integral part of its business operations. Newly hired graduates go through a variety of training and performance management programs to enable them to be globally competitive members of the Chevron workforce. A comprehensive and structured manpower development program called “Horizons” is implemented within Chevron to accelerate the development of new graduate hires. A key enabler for delivering on SACs graduate development commitments is through its newly inaugurated Technology Center. The Technology Center is acting as the center of excellence for manpower development and technology transfer to SAC. The Horizons program consists of three key elements; a) technical training; b) rotating job assignments; and c) mentoring. Technical training, with a mix of both cross-functional and discipline specific topics, is designed to improve competencies of new graduates. Rotating job assignments allow participants to gain practical experience and petrotechnical skills by becoming involved in a variety of hands-on projects. The mentoring program assigns each young employee with a senior technical professional to enhance competency through knowledge sharing and to guide the career planning and development process. The SAC Technology Center provides technical support to the assets through various projects, including technology deployment, static and dynamic modeling, reservoir management and drilling and completions technology. A key objective in all of the Technology Center projects is to provide opportunities for the young national talent to learn through enganement in ongoing projects. This paper highlights key components of the accelerated development program and technology transfer process implemented in Saudi Arabian Chevron by the Technology Center. With a structured and focused approach to the development of national talent, SAC feels it will be able to achieve effective and reliable transfer of the Chevron corporate culture and knowledge to meet the future human resource needs of the Company.