IPA03-B-011
PROCEEDINGS, INDONESIAN PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION
Twenty-Ninth Annual Convention & Exhibition, October 2003
BP VIETNAM - BUILDING A VIETNAMESE COMPANY
Craig Deaves*
Brian Wood*
ABSTRACT
This paper describes the strategy BP developed and
the processes it used to build its Upstream Operation
in Vietnam. This strategy followed a simple 3-point
plan which covered recruitment, through training and
finally retention. It describes the processes used to
develop competency and provide assurance that BP
has the right skills in the right place at the right time –
both now and in the future.
The facilities include the Lan Tay offshore gas
platform, the Dinh Co Terminal and the Phu My 3
Power Station. BP has recruited and trained over 250
technicians and support staff over the past 3 years to
commission, operate and maintain these facilities.
INTRODUCTION
The BP Nam Con Son (NCS) Gas development
comprises combined upstream and midstream
projects, being managed by BP for the collection of
gas from the NCS Basin for use in power generation
in Vietnam. The NCS Basin lies some 370km south
east of Vung Tau on the southern Vietnamese coast in
125m of water. The upstream project is the Lan Tay
development with partners: BP, ONGC VIDESH Ltd
and PetroVietnam. It comprises 5 subsea wells,
subsea manifold, 13% Cr in-field flow line and the
Lan Tay PLQ platform for dehydration and
compression. The midstream project is the Nam Con
Son Pipeline with partners BP, Conoco and
PetroVietnam. It comprises a 370km, 26” diameter,
two-phase trunk line to the shore, a short 9km
onshore pipeline, a liquids extraction processing
terminal and a 25km, 30” diameter pipeline to a gas
distribution centre.
BP are also in partnership with Sembcorp Utilities Pte
* BP Vi etnam
Ltd, Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc and Nissho Iwai
Corp Machinery Co for the development of the Phu
My 3 Power station. This is a new, combined cycle,
715 MW electricity power plant which will use the
Lan Tay gas, thus encompassing BP's "Gas-to-Power"
involvement in Vietnam.
The BP Nam Con Son Pipeline project started in
1994, when commercial negotiations with the
Vietnamese government started down their long road
to eventual agreement, almost 7 years later, in 2001.
From that point, it took only 2 years to get an offshore
platform built and positioned 370km off the south
Vietnamese coast, lay a 370km sub-sea pipeline,
construct a liquid-extraction, gas processing terminal
at Dinh Co and a 9km pipeline linking into the
existing Gas Distribution Terminal for export of gas
into the Phu My Industrial zone. Building the
processing plant is the easy part and something BP
has done successfully in many regions of the world.
Commissioning and operating this plant safely and
efficiently with a Vietnamese workforce was
something very new for BP. This paper describes that
process.
BP Vietnam’s aim is simply stated - to have a safe
and efficient Vietnam Operation run by Vietnamese
staff. This includes staff at all levels in the
organisation. This paper describes the 3 point plan
used by BP to facilitate the development of a
Vietnamese run Business Unit;
1. Get the right people on the bus
2. Train them well and give them responsibility
3. Keep them
BP also needs to ensure it can attract and retain staff
for its further expansion in Vietnam in the future.
This paper further describes how BP has worked
together with local educational institutes to develop
programs that reflect the skills BP needs in the future.
METHODS
Get the right people on the bus
In his book “Good to Great”, Jim Collins describes
how great companies do well because they have the
best people. His research concluded that “great”
companies first made sure they had the right people
on board (and the wrong people off) their
organisational “bus” before figuring out how and
where to drive it. They got the “who” question
answered first before addressing the how and what.
Making sure you have the right people on board
comes before strategy, tactics, organisational
structure, etc. Having the right people on board, with
the right skills, motivation and attitude not only
enables you to get the job done, but removes the need
for rigorous rules, procedures, bureaucracy and
discipline so often found in large organisations. If
you get the right people on board at the start, you
don’t need procedures to stop people doing the wrong
thing – you can instead focus your efforts on helping
them perform, rather than making sure they don’t
underperform. The old adage “People are our most
important asset” is wrong. People are not your most
important asset. The right people are.
a. Cast the net wide
To man its offshore and onshore facilities BP
requires a team of 25 offshore technicians and 35
onshore technicians together with 50 support
staff including engineering, supervision and
operations management. BP has been in Vietnam
since 1989 and has built up an experienced
support team in Ho Chi Minh City with
competent staff in areas such as Commercial,
Finance, Human Resources, Sub-Surface and
Administration. A new departure was the need to
recruit and train operational staff, including
technicians, to operate and maintain its new
facilities. This paper focuses on the process used
to do this, leading to successful start up of
operations in 4Q 2002.
BP’s strategy was to have a fully competent
Vietnamese team start up the offshore installation
and onshore facilities in 4Q 2002 with minimal
expatriate staffing on site. A tall order indeed.
To make this happen they needed to make sure
they got the right people on board – both
Vietnamese and expatriate. Both have a crucial
role to play.
In a country of 75m people – how do you find the
right 70 technicians for your company? How do
you know what to look for and how do you make
sure you put them in the right job, one that makes
best use of their skills and strengths? One that
fully enables them to contribute to your
organisation.
The first step BP took was to make sure they
knew what they were looking for. How do you
know when the right person walks through the
door if you don’t know what you are looking for
in the first place? This sounds like simple
common sense but is a step skipped past with
alarming regularity because “we’ve done this
many times before”, in many countries on many
projects. However, not in Vietnam, not on this
project.
To help define the profile of a Vietnamese
technician BP started with a process originated in
the UK – CMAS, Competence Management
Assurance System. CMAS is simply a list of
skills and knowledge an individual needs to
perform their role in a given environment. This
is built into a profile for a given role at a specific
location. To construct the profiles for BP
Vietnam’s technicians the operations team,
together with training support, discussed exactly
what a Production Technician (or Electrical,
Instrument, Mechanical Technician) needed to
know or be able to do in order to perform their
role on the Lan Tay platform or at the Dinh Co
terminal. BP did not start with a blank page but
with a generic technician profile designed to
cover any plant, anywhere and were able to
quickly delete anything that was simply “not
applicable” and add in any skills that were
specific to the Vietnam operation. This included
not only the technical skills required for the role,
i.e. how to start a pump or maintain a transmitter,
but also the safety elements of the role including
mandatory safety training as well as a wider
perspective of the process and their role within it.
This key step enabled BP to build a precise
picture of a BP Vietnam technician – a key step
in ensuring they got the right people on board.
Having defined what they wanted, how did BP
go about recruiting the right people? The first
step was to cast the net wide to attract as many
applicants as possible. The process to filter down
from the many to the few consisted of 4 main
stages and is described below.
• Pre -screening
Candidates were pre-screened for interview
based on set criteria from application forms.
• Information Day
All candidates were invited to a half-day
session explaining the process, tests,
interviews and structure of the assessment
centre. They were also given information
about BP and the terms and conditions of
their employment.
• Assessment Centre
One day event consisting of four aptitude
tests, a technical test paper, an English
language test, a technical/behavioural
interview and a group exercise.
• Selection Board
Review of all applicant scores from the
assessment centres and selection for further
interview or job offer.
Pre-Screening
Key pre-screening criteria were developed and
applied to all applications. The criteria were kept
simple to ensure we did not eliminate any good
candidates. The primary criteria of a technical
qualification and 2 years experience were
rigorously applied. Each application form was
reviewed against these criteria and scored
accordingly. Applications were received in both
Vietnamese and English.
All applications which passed the minimum
acceptable criteria (technical qualification and
industrial experience) were passed on to the
operations team for review. Those selected to
progress were invited to attend an Information
Day and Assessment Centre.
Information Day
This was a half-day event designed to ensure the
applicants knew exactly what to expect on the
forthcoming assessment centre. It was identified
that many of the applicants had not experienced a
structured recruitment process before, so the
Information Day was used to give them the
chance to see and practice the tests and
interviews we would use. We also took the
opportunity to give a brief overview of BP in
Vietnam, the Nam Con Son Gas Project and the
terms and conditions they could expect if they
were successful. This had the additional benefit
of answering any questions applicants had about
salary, progression, training, relocation, etc., up
front.
Assessment Centre
A common problem in recruitment and selection,
especially with large numbers of candidates and
selection staff, is the consistency of methodology
used and the reliability of the traditional
interview. A problem compounded by the
requirement to carry out interviews often in a
second language. BP decided to use a structured
process of candidate assessment which included a
wide variety of assessment methods in addition
to the traditional interview. This enabled us to
collect a range of objective data on each
candidate, making the final selection process
more informed. Assessment methods used
included;
• Aptitude tests: Mechanical Comprehension
Spatial Recognition
Fault Dia gnosis
Numerical Reasoning
• Composite Technical Test paper
• Combined Technical/Behavioural Interview
• Group Exercise
• English Language placement test
A maximum of forty candidates were invited to
each assessment centre.
English Language Test
Each candidate sat a short (40 min) English
language placement test. This was not used as a
primary selection criteria, but was used to give an
indication of language proficiency amongst the
applicant group.
Saville & Holdsworth (SHL) Aptitude Tests
BP used a selection of standard SHL aptitude
tests. These tests are internationally accredited
and have normative data available for candidate
comparison. The tests were selected from the
SHL Technical Test Battery and reflect the basic
skills that a technician should possess, i.e. basic
numeracy, problem solving/fault diagnosis,
spatial recognition and basic mechanical
understanding.
Technical Test Paper
This was a composite technical test paper
designed to assess a candidate’s technical
knowledge in a ll areas of plant operation and
maintenance. It was customised in-house by BP
Vietnam. The paper is a mixture of multiple
choice and open questions and was in dual
language (English/Vietnamese). Candidates
could answer in either language.
Interview
All interviews were conducted by BP staff in
pairs – one technical interviewer and one
behavioural interviewer. Interview pairs
comprised one Vietnamese BP staff member and
one BP expatriate. Interviews were conducted in
either English or Vietnamese depending on the
candidate’s English language skill.
A specific interview form was developed and
used for all interviews. A bank of questions was
given for each competency. To ensure
consistency throughout the interview process and
amongst the pairs of interviewers, a one-day
interview workshop was held. This workshop
ensured that all interviewers used the same
questions and questioning style, scoring process
and completed the interview forms in a consistent
manner – essential for the follow up selection
meetings. The Vietnam BU ran this course in-
house.
Group Exercise
This was a collaborative exercise in which
groups of up to 10 candidates had to solve a
problem and ensure the whole team completed
the exercise. This was facilitated in both English
and Vietnamese. The observers were given
guidelines on what to look for and were given up
to 3 candidates to observe and comment on
throughout the exercise.
Final Selection Board
The total scores for each of the assessment centre
elements were tabulated in a spreadsheet for each
of the candidates. This was reviewed by the
assessment centre team in a combined meeting
shortly after the assessment centres had been
completed. The combination of data allowed
informed decisions to be made on each candidate .
The spreadsheet allowed different weightings to
be applied easily to key areas like technical
ability or experience.
In addition to the selection of Vietnamese staff,
the selection of the right expatriate staff was
equally important. BP uses expatria te staff to
provide skill, experience and assurance in areas
where it cannot be sourced locally. However, in
addition to their role as a technical expert, an
expatriate’s primary role is to train, develop and
assess national staff. Selection of expatriate
staff who have highly developed coaching skills
is therefore crucial to the successful development
of national staff on site, as much of the training
and development is done at the work site, on the
job. BP ensures that all its expatriate staff are
recruited not only on the basis of their technical
skill and experience, but also on their
demonstrated ability as a coach.
b. Developing the Recruitment Process Further
In 2003 we plan to extend BP’s current
recruitment and skills assessment program to
include some basic skills training for candidates
and ‘ability to learn’ assessment. This will allow
us to better position successful candidates to
grow within BP after hire, meet our Global
Social Investment (GSI) ‘engagement and
investment’ goals in Vietnam, and build
curricula capacity with local training and
education institutions. The objective of this
effort is to build on BP’s existing recruitment and
assessment program to help screen for and select
candidates who demonstrate the technical skills ,
work habits and learning capabilities necessary
for long-term success within the organization
c. What have we learned and what could we do
better?
In reviewing our process and experience over the
past year BP identified areas to focus on for
improvement;
• When in doubt, don’t hire – keep looking. To
meet (artificial) deadline dates for recruitment BP
lowered its standard or cut off line for an
acceptable candidate. In other words they hired
some “wrong” people. This was in spite of some
clear comments from interviewers or clear data
from testing to indicate otherwise. Key message
here is listen to what the data is telling you.
• We have learned that a recruitment mistake is
very difficult to correct. The bad 20% of people
can take up 80% of your time , not only in time
and money but in the motivation and
performance of other staff.
Train them well and give them responsibility.
Once BP had the right people on board, it had to
make sure they had the necessary knowledge and
skills to perform their role. The training strategy
leading through to start-up of the operational facilities
had 3 key components;
• Baseline assessment of technical skills
• Innovative, competency based training
• Putting staff in roles early
The strategy is designed to ensure BP Vietnam can
operate and maintain its facilities with national
Vietnamese technical personnel who are safe, well
trained, experienced and competent. The strategy not
only addresses training requirements but also the
assessment techniques employed to ensure staff can
demonstrate their competence and knowledge in a
practical work environment. Key elements of this
include:
• the adoption and implementation of the BP
Competence Management Assurance System
(CMAS) as a framework for our formal skills
identification, assessment and assurance process
for operations and maintenance staff.
• recruitment of qualified and experienced
expatriate staff in key management and
supervisory positions to provide coaching and
mentoring of Vietnamese staff.
• a top-down commitment to development of
critical safety and technical skills through an
exceptional on-site coaching capability, to
supplement both foundation and specialised
training. This is enabled by a structured coaching
model for coaches and trainees, supporting
developmental training, and an HR policy which
recognizes the value of coaching, encouraging
qualified staff to pursue this as a core career
development experience.
• access to a shared set of BP Group-wide learning
tools to assist those tackling organizational
development with practical tools, shared services
with 3rd parties and a single integrated set of
training and learning materials.
• assessment of and proactive co-operation with our
partners, vendors and local market place
capability in the area of training design and
delivery utilising existing resources and materials
where possible
• a commitment to develop BP Vietnam as a centre
of learning excellence, with direct access to BP
international resources, to underpin learning pace
and introduce new staff to our desired culture and
behaviors.
• Use of BP’s “Competence On Line” model to
provide developmental frameworks for discipline
engineers, operations and maintenance
supervision and operations management. BP’s
online resource, “Competency On Line” will be a
primary tool through which gap analysis and
development programs will be established.
a. Baseline Assessment
Following an initial induction program BP
completed a technical baseline assessment of all
technicians. This assessment was completed
through a combination of interviews, individual
practical assignments, group projects and written
assessment papers. This enabled a
comprehensive gap analysis to be completed for
each individual. The resulting technical skills
gaps were then addressed through the subsequent
training program.
The data in this skills assessment was gathered
using three distinct methodologies;
a) Each trainee’s trade knowledge and
experience was assessed through an
individual three-hour interview. Recruitment
 data for each trainee formed the basis for the
interview.
b) Each trainee’s aptitude and practical trade
skills were assessed during assigned practical
tasks performed in a controlled lab/workshop
environment. A range of practical tasks was
pre-developed, with selection of appropriate
skill level challenges consistent with
outcomes determined during the interview
process. Assessors were able to shift
complexity of assigned tasks in direct
response to trainee performance.
c) Trainees were assessed during participation in
small-team exercises that focused on problem
solving related to a specific system. These
exercises were designed to reinforce previous
practical skill assessments.
b. Innovative competency based training
A theme throughout the training program has
been “business unusual”. BP strived to challenge
traditional training methodologies, import best
practice where available and utilise innovative
techniques wherever possible to accelerate
learning. The training program for technical
operations staff had several key components:
• Induction and Safety Training
• English Language
• Technical Training
• Discipline specific, specialised skills
• Vendor Training
• Active involvement in Factory Acceptance
Tests, Site Acceptance Tests and
commissioning activities
• On the Job Training and experience on site
in Vietnam and at other BP facilities where
required
• CMAS - individual gap analysis and training
programs
The key program elements are described below.
There is ongoing competence assessment through
CMAS to ensure candidates are able to
demonstrate not only knowledge and
understanding of the material but also practical
ability to perform tasks effectively.
Induction and Safety Program
This program is designed to give the candidates a
thorough orientation to BP in Vietnam and
worldwide within their first few weeks of joining
the company. This includes an overview to the
organisation, its corporate vision and values and
how they impact operations locally in Vietnam.
The working culture in BP Vietnam, mandatory
safety programs and the candidates own training
program are covered.
English Language
Language training is an integral part of the
program to ensure staff attain the required level
for their role as quickly as possible. This may
take the form of intensive immersion training at
one level or top up training at another. Language
training will continue to be an element of the
training program throughout an employees
development to further utilise the benefit of BP’s
wider global training resources. All staff
completed a Learning Contract which showed
their target English language level and the
program in place to achieve it. The purpose of
the contract is to ensure commitment and support
from the trainee, the line supervisor and the
training provider.
Generic Skills and Safety
This is designed to give staff a complete
overview of the operation. It covers the
operational design, facilities, maintenance
strategy as well as generic technical, safety and
communication skills which are common across
all disciplines. This is primarily a combination
of classroom and workshop based tuition and
assessment to ensure candidates have a solid
understanding of the operation. Practical training
is used as required. Safety training will be
integrated with this program as the employee
progresses.
Discipline and Specialised Skills
This includes new technology and discipline
specific skills training as required and as defined
in CMAS job profiles for that discipline. This is
delivered through a combination of classroom
and workshop based training, supplemented with
on-site training where appropriate.
For its offshore and onshore technicians BP has
used a number of resources within the region to
deliver this training. For example, the Technical
Training Institute at Rajamangala University in
Bangkok was used to deliver a number of
technical courses which required specific
practical facilities. For production and control
room technicians, extensive use of PC based
process simulation tools was a key factor in
making training as practicable as possible. The
project also developed a plant process simulation
tool which was used both as an engineering
design aid and a process operator training aid.
The program also included specialised skills
training including vendor specific training, to be
provided as required by equipment suppliers or
designated third parties.
Commissioning Experience
To gain experience in the commissioning and
construction on the process facilities the
technicians were sent to participate in the project
activities in Ulsan, Korea at the Hyundai
construction facility. This enabled the
technicians to gain first hand experience on their
process plant before it was sailed over to
Vietnam and established on site.
On-The-Job Training
Although the core, or generic, skills required by a
technician were addressed through training prior
to start up, a major difficulty for BP was giving
new technicians exposure to a live facility whilst
our plant was still under construction. Through
working with regional colleagues BP was able to
give technicians short term assignments at both
Nanshan Gas Terminal on Hainan Island, China
and Pagerunan Island Gas Terminal in
Indonesia. This allowed staff to gain experience
on a live BP facility before the Vietnam facilities
were complete.
Vendor Training
On an ongoing basis and especially prior to start-
up, vendor training provided a key part of the
training delivery. This was delivered either at the
vendor training facility or on site in Vietnam,
depending on availability of equipment, cost
effectiveness and impact on project schedule.
Competence Levels
The CMAS program defines two levels of
competence;
• the individual is competent
• the individual is not yet competent - this may
include situations where there is insufficient
evidence to make a judgement
The purpose of competence assessment is to
ensure that only competent staff are employed to
carry out tasks at their operating sites. The
program ensures that staff are trained and
assessed in the workplace on a regular basis.
Assessment is carried out in accordance with the
standards given in the CMAS procedures and is
recorded in an online CMAS database.
The CMAS job profiles for each position at an
operating facility clearly identify those skills or
tasks an employee needs to demonstrate
competence in, along with the required training
associated with that skill or task. The Vietnam
CMAS profiles are customised to reflect the
specific operational requirements of the Vietnam
BU.
Developing a Safety Culture
BP Vietnam has a clear objective for its HSE
performance. No accidents, no harm to people
and no damage to the environment. It applies the
following principles;
• ALL accidents are preventable
• No activity is so important that it cannot be
done safely.
• We meet or exceed the requirements of
applicable HSE legislation, regulations and
BP HSE expectations.
• HSE performance depends on everyone in our
BU; we are all responsible for working safely.
A feature of the “business unusual” training and
development program has been challenging
convention, being innovative, creating new ways
of looking at problems and developing creative
solutions. This has been done in a way that is
sensitive to the local Vietnamese culture and
builds on rather than smothers local experiences.
One of our biggest challenges has been safety.
Our first commitment is no harm to people. We
want to start up and operate our facilities with a
100% safety record. Two programs in particular
illustrate how BP took a different approach to
developing a safety culture and behaviours in its
new technical staff.
The general attitude to safety in daily life in
Vietnam and the behaviours exhibited by people
as they go about their business are not in tune
with the attitude and behaviours we want to see
on an offshore platform or onshore gas terminal.
Developing a mindset and the correct safety
behaviours for an oil and gas facility was clearly
going to take a great deal of work. Only once
this had been done could BP introduce the
policies, procedures and systems used to provide
a structured approach to safety on site. We
tackled this through the following innovative
interventions :
Hazard Photo-Workshops
Before we introduced some of the safety
processes, procedures, rules and regulations
common to all BP facilities across the world, we
had to develop a basic understanding of hazards,
the risks associated with them and their possible
results. As part of a series of Hazard Photo
shops, every technician was given a 35mm
camera and asked to go and take pictures of
people either at home, at work, travelling, or at
play who in their view where placing themselves
at risk. We then brought these photographs into a
series of workshops and discussed them in
groups. What is the hazard? How could we
remove or reduce the hazard? Could we
eliminate the risk entirely? The response was
tremendous with hundreds of photos providing
rich dialogue and discussion. Pictures of people
on motorbikes were of course common: people
driving the wrong way down the street, people
with TVs, refrigerators, mirrors, etc. on their
motorbikes, and not a crash helmet to be seen.
Work life also came into regular focus with
people working at heights, in water, with
electrical power or in confined spaces. These
workshops laid the foundation for future sessions
below and built a common understanding of
hazards and risk in a simple yet powerful and
effective way.
Golden Safety Rules Interactive Workshop
BP’s Golden Safety Rules are a list of 8 simple
rules describing how we work safely in a variety
of situations. These rules are strictly enforced to
ensure the safety of our employees and the
communities we work in. The Golden Rules
describe conditions for energy isolations,
confined space entry, working at heights, lifting
operations, ground disturbance etc. They provide
a foundation for our technicians to work from –
however, simply issuing a set of “rules” was not
going to achieve the behavioural change we
required. Having bombarded them with the usual
poster campaigns, presentations and pocke t
books we developed and ran a series of highly
interactive 2 day workshops led by a team of
actors. These sessions really brought the rules to
life. During this workshop the technicians
developed TV adverts for each of the rules and
acted them out, designed a Golden Rules Game,
watched Mr. Bean break nearly all the rules,
developed newspaper headlines to illustrate each
rule and analysed a role play based scenario
where they analysed “what went wrong”.
c. Putting staff in roles early
The purpose of training and competency
assessment is not to produce experts, but to make
sure staff have the minimum skills required to
carry out their roles. They then go on to develop
proficiency in that role through experience on the
job, additional on site coaching and
troubleshooting. An analogy is completing a
course of driving lessons to pass a driving test.
The lessons are there to ensure the student
understands the rules of the road, road signs, the
fundamentals of driving, how to use a vehicle’s
controls, braking distances, coping with
emergencies, etc. The driving test is designed to
assess whether the student has gained a minimum
required level of both knowledge and practical
 skill to allow him/her to drive unsupervised on
his own. He/she is not an expert driver at this
stage, but will develop both proficiency and
expertise through further practice.
Following competence assessment, BP put staff
in their roles as early as possible to allow them to
gain this proficiency and experience. The CMAS
profile was designed with two key sections to
facilitate this process. Section 1 was completed
before a technician started work on site, and
Section 2 provided a framework for subsequent
training over the following 2 years. The program
ensured that staff completed Section 1 before
participating in project construction and
commissioning activities both in Korea and on-
site in Vietnam.
d. Developing a strategy for the future
As one of the major employers in the process
industry in Vietnam, BP is faced with the
ongoing challenge of recruiting suitably skilled
staff to operate and maintain its operational
facilities. In the next few years BP will recruit
further skilled staff to accommodate its own
aggressive succession plan targets and staff for
future expansion projects. Over the past 2 years
BP has worked extensively with local institutions
both in Vietnam and overseas to provide
appropriate technical training for our staff.
Throughout our recruitment, selection and
subsequent training programs we have developed
a clearer understanding of the skills and training
available in Vietnam.
In November 2002 BP took the lead in setting up
a Vietnam Process Industry Consortium, VPIC.
The main reason for establishing such a
Consortium was to discuss and establish our
collective needs, and work with educational and
vocational training institutions to help Vietnam
develop a suitably skilled workforce that can
staff the process industry competitively in years
to come.
The anticipated need for technical workers in
Vietnam’s oil, gas, process, manufacturing and
power sectors will lead to a dramatic skills
shortage unless more Vietnamese can receive the
technical training needed to prepare them to fill
these positions. We believe the Consortium can
help to:
• Define industry specific workforce and skill
needs, both now and in the future;
• Define the skill standards required by workers for
specific jobs in the process industry
• Give Vietnamese educational institutions
industry information to help them develop
effective train ing and education programs;
• Provide opportunities for collaboration between
industry and education in developing and
delivering industry specific curriculum
• Connect state and local initiatives to promote
education and training of Vietnamese for jobs in
the process industry.
At the Sixth Communist Party plenum, in July
2002, the Central Committee focused specifically
on education and training, calling for increased
investment in this area and identifying raising
education and training standards as being one of
the country's key goals over the next decade.
Speaking at the meeting, Party General Secretary
Nong Duc Manh made a clear link between
planned changes in education and training and
the demands of the labour market, saying that
improvements must be measured in terms of
"increased productivity, competitiveness and
economic growth".
One area for concern is Vietnam’s current
provision of skilled labour, which is very poor.
Consequently, foreign companies operating in
Vietnam rely heavily on expatriates to do jobs
which in nearby Thailand and Malaysia would
very often be performed by locals. Furthermore,
employing expatriates is not generally an option
open to local firms with skills shortages. Two
recent surveys capture the scale of the skilled
labour shortage problem:
• A Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and
Social Affairs (Molisa) survey of 5 million
workers revealed that by far the majority
(83%) had no technical skills. Just 4.2% had
graduated from university.
 • Another survey, which looked at domestic
companies in Ho Chi Minh City, Haiphong
and Da Nang, found that 89% were unable to
find suitably qualified skilled labour.
Moreover, skilled labour is lacking in a wide
range of areas, including engineering,
telecoms, biotechnology and information
technology (IT).
To tackle the skills shortage, the government is
overseeing a major expansion in vocational
training centres. According to Molisa targets, the
plan is to raise the number of places available at
vocational schools to 1.07 million by 2005, rising
to 1.46 million by 2010. Last year, just under
900,000 students enrolled at vocational schools.
Moreover, there has been an increase in
investment to match this, with 1.07 trillion dong
of public money targeted at vocational schools in
2001 compared with 523 billion in 1997. Over
the last few years, there has also been an increase
in foreign aid projects tackling deficiencies in
vocational training, although private investment
is still quite sparse. Despite these efforts,
vocational training courses remain unpopular,
with many schools unable to fill places.
Ho Chi Minh City estimates it will need about
200,000 skilled workers in 2002-04. However, it
turned out only 6,000 vocational graduates last
year. Why vocational courses are unpopular is
not entirely clear; part of the answer may be that
many vocational schools continue to offer
outmoded courses with out-of-date equipment
which bear little relationship to the positions
employers are seeking to fill.
A key function of VPIC is to provide a
coordinated voice to the educational providers so
that future vocational training is more directly
relevant to our industry’s needs. It can also help
promote careers in the process industry as
attractive to students.
Keep them
Once any organisation has spent time and effort
choosing the right people, training them to perform
their roles effectively, it wants to try and keep them.
How do you ensure your best staff don’t jump ship at
the next opportunity? BP utilised a three element
approach to ensure it provided an attractive total
package to staff;
• Get the basics right
• Make sure you reward good performance, and
handle poor performance
• Make the package distinctive
a. Get the Basics right
Much research has been done on the link between
reward, salary, retention and motivation. In their
paper “Human Motivation in the Workplace :
What Workers Want”, Sirota Consulting Corp.
identified a “Three Factor Theory of Human
Motivation in the Workplace” which asserts that
the 3 primary goals of people at work are Equity,
Achievement and Camaraderie.
Equity - to be treated justly in relation to the
basic conditions of employment. There are
certain minimum requirements which are
expected simply by virtue of being employed.
These are a safe working environment,
reasonable job security and compensation, and
being treated with respect by a credible
management team. BP aims to provide this
through a continued focus on safety in the
workplace with a stated policy of zero accidents,
zero harm to people and zero damage to the
environment. It offers a reward package which is
annually reviewed to ensure it is competitive in
the marketplace and provides a structure where
staff can feedback their issues and concerns
directly to management.
Achievement - to take pride in one’s
accomplishments by doing things that matter and
doing them well. A sense of basic equity in the
employment relationship serves as the foundation
on which high employee morale can be built.
The powerful need to feel proud of one’s
accomplishments and those of the organisation is
then freed to drive behaviour toward high
performance. BP strives to provide this through
challenging roles and work activities, continual
learning and training to develop new skills,
providing a strong performance oriented culture
where high performance is recognised and
rewarded as well as being a company whose
values and ethics and products benefit society as
a whole.
 Camaraderie - to have warm, interesting and
cooperative relations with others in the
workplace. Human beings are social animals
who require positive interaction with others. We
often neglect the extent to which an organisation
functions not only as a business entity, but also as
a community that satisfies the social and
emotional needs of its members. BP tries to
address this issue through a number of initiatives
designed to promote positive interaction and
teamwork. This includes provision of funds for
social and recreation clubs within the
organisation, team building activities for
individual departments, informal meetings after
working hours, seasonal parties, etc. The intent
is to provide an environment which is seen as a
fun place to work.
b. Reward good performance and handle poor
performance
BP employs a number of internal processes to
manage and reward individual performance on
the job. These global tools are designed to help
staff identify what their personal objectives are
on a year by year basis, what their long term
aspirations are, what their strengths and
weaknesses are and what training and
development they require in order to perform
their role more effectively or prepare them for
transition to another role.
Recognising good performance is easy to do. Its
great to be able to tell an employee they’ve done
a great job, thank them personally or recognise
them in front of their peers. A simple “thank
you” or “well done” can often make a huge
difference. Individual high performance can also
be rewarded through Spot Bonuses, which can be
either monetary or non-monetary rewards. These
can be made at any time throughout the year,
rather than waiting for the annual salary review.
Promotions through salary grades can also be
used to reward high performance and to
recognise high potential staff within the
organisation. Poor performance is however,
equally important to deal with and the most
difficult. Poor performance, if not recognised
and dealt with, is effectively condoned.
Management of poor performance, if not done
properly, can quickly turn into a major problem
and can consume a disproportionate amount of
time.
BP uses the same performance management
processes to recognise and deal with poor
performance. This may initially be due to many
factors such as lack of training, location or
personal circumstances. Every effort is made to
rectify these issues before further action is taken.
Ongoing poor performance is then dealt with
through conversations held by line managers
which may result in disciplinary action, 0%
salary increase and even dismissal.
c. Make the package distinctive
BP does not try to retain its staff through simply
being the highest payer. Rather it strives to
deliver a remuneration package which is both
competitive and distinctive in the marketplace.
This package is made up of a combination of
cash and benefits.
Cash : This is broken down into 2 main elements
– Base pay and Variable pay. Base pay aims to
be between 50th and 75th percentile in the
specific market segment. BP surveys the market
annually to ensure it is still within these
guidelines. Variable pay consists of an annual
bonus payment based on the Vietnam BU
performance against specific targets and the BP
Group performance worldwide. The Vietnam
BU targets are based on key elements such as
safety performance, production, efficiency, etc.
Benefits: This is where BP tries to make its
remuneration package distinctive in Vietnam.
Specific benefits given to employees include;
• Medical and dental cover (very attractive in
Vietnam)
• BP share scheme (new for BP Vietnam in
2002, very few companies offer this)
• Recreation and Social funds : employees can
get access to funds for recreational or social
activities such as football teams, bowling,
tennis, etc.
• Free lunch provided on site
 • Transportation to/from work
• On site facilities – gym, social and recreation
area, play area for children, tennis courts
• Free motorcycle crash helmet
In addition, BP actively promotes the career
opportunities available to staff and the training and
development made available to staff throughout the
organisation. The availability of further training and
the structured frameworks that BP offers for
individual development are very attractive to the
Vietnamese staff as they are very keen to learn. This
is a strong cultural dimension within Vietnam that BP
has made great efforts to focus on.
CONCLUSIONS
This paper describes the 3-point plan used by BP to
facilitate the development of a Vietnamese Company.
Simply stated this is
1. Get the right people on the bus
2. Train them well and give them responsibility
3. Keep them
If an organisation does not have the right people on
board, and have them in the right jobs, then no
amount of strategy, business objectives, re-
organisations, procedures or processes will make it
into a great company.
BP recognises this fact and has put in place a clear
and structured process to ensure it has the right people
in its organisation in Vietnam. This includes having
clearly identified roles, an objective and well
structured recruitment process (for both Vietnamese
staff and expatriate staff) and rigorous selection
criteria.
Training staff to ensure they have the right skills for
the right job at the right time has been one of BP’s
key early success stories. Use of tools such as
Competency on Line and CMAS have enabled staff to
identify key skills required for their role, identify their
own individual skills gaps and then address these
gaps through further training. An innovative
approach to training, challenging traditional
assumptions and modes of delivery have also enabled
BP to accelerate learning in many areas. The
development of a forum within the country to address
longer term training issues within the wider process
industry environment is key in addressing BP’s needs
in the future.
Finally, the development of a distinctive remuneration
package together with an attractive working
environment has enabled BP to have an attrition rate
as low as 1% throughout its time in Vietnam. The
development of this package is an ongoing process.
REFERENCES
Collins, Jim. 2001. “Good to Great”. Harper
Business.
Sirota, David. 2002. “Human Motivation in the
workplace: What Workers Want”. Sirota Consulting
Corp.