Petronas to ensure returns from investment in staff development

EXCERPTS from an interview with Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) president and group chief executive officer (CEO) Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin. the manpower, we looked at areas where there could be overlaps.

We had to let go of about 2,300 staff members due to overlaps so that we could become more efficient and have simplified processes. Most of them were contract staff but there were also a few hundred permanent staff we had to release.

If you ask me, that was the hardest decision to make. I am guided to do what is best for the organisation. And I am very clear on that in my mind.

But having done that, we also decided not to cut spending on manpower development. One of the threats to any organisation, when times are bad, they will really cut back on talent development.

We said we were not going to do that. We said we were going to maintain our scholarships that we give every year.

We said we will still spend on staff development, but we will look at the efficiency of spending. We want to ensure that every dollar we spend on staff development will give us the return.

With the current business size, I think this is the right manpower size. However, if our business shrinks or grows, this may change. Our theme this year is pace, collaboration and going digital. We are one of the few oil and gas companies to have appointed a chief digital officer this year to orchestrate the whole digital initiatives in the group and this will continue, and I think it will provide a lot of potential and will improve the bottom line.