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Our success as a company starts with our employees; they drive our performance and set us on the path to sustainable growth. To build the workforce we need to support our growth ambitions, we recognize that we must offer a consistent employee value proposition and maintain our standing as an employer of choice.
BUILDING A LEADERSHIP PIPELINE
Economic challenges, geopolitical tensions, climate change and resource scarcity, new disruptive technologies, demographics and social change, and increasing urbanization: these are just some of the trends (and “megatrends”) that are transforming both internal industry conditions and our external operating environment. To thrive, we aim to remain agile, proactive, and visionary – and this, in turn, requires a leadership ethos that is embedded in our values throughout our organization. In 2022, our leaders at all levels stepped up their strategic engagement, focusing on transparent communication, authenticity, and our employees’ wellbeing.
To allow leaders at all levels, individually and collectively, to reach their peak collective potential, we emphasize culture transformation through our overarching leadership framework, the SABIC Leadership Way (SLW). To support SLW, we refreshed our in-person core leadership offerings in 2022. The new curricula were delivered for the first time in a hybrid format to 140+ future leaders in partnership with world-class business schools. Alternatives to formal classroom training have also accelerated development including self assessments, 360s, detailed talent review processes, and strengthening talent pipeline through cross-functional talent communities.
We place a strong emphasis on growing internal talent through the continuation of our mentoring program and the development of in-house coaching capability. The Global Mentoring program grew in 2022 with over 650 formal relations being tracked while an additional 14 professional in-house coaches were accredited by the International Coaching Federation.
2022 also saw our dedicated Asia Leadership Acceleration Program (ALAP), a two-year program in the Rest of Asia that has become SABIC’s flagship leadership development program. This year, the second cohort of enrollees graduated from the program.
A CULTURE OF ENGAGEMENT AND EMPOWERMENT
The COVID-19 pandemic and the emerging “post-pandemic” context have pressed home the importance of the intangible elements of a working life. We have been transforming the way we work to prepare ourselves for a more global and collaborative future. In 2022, for example, we embedded flexible working benefits and a globalwork-from-home option into our global policies.
We also instituted several initiatives that promote employee wellbeing on an individual level. One of the most important is our Benefits Tour 2022 in the US, where we work to create a culture of care and elevate the mental/emotional, physical, and financial wellbeing of our employees. With that in mind, SABIC launched an internal campaign in China in April to help ease anxiety and lift morale of our employees during the prolonged lockdown in Shanghai. We created a website for our global employees that provides access to all information on available benefits in health, wealth, wellness and work/life balance. Also, emphasizing our belief in mental wellbeing, we partnered with the Tabuk Mental Health Conference 2022 to help promote mental health in the region.
We also continuously engaged with our employees through a variety of methods such as the Global Employee Town Hall, held in Riyadh and virtually in January 2022 for employees from all regions.
U MATTER 22 – SPOTLIGHT ON EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
U Matter 22, a global roadshow, conveyed a simple, underlying message to our employees – that we are constantly striving to make SABIC a friendly and rewarding place to work.
The roadshow traveled to SABIC’s global locations to inspire employees with a deep sense of connection and belonging and encourage engagement with all event initiatives designed to enable them to thrive. It reminded employees that SABIC is committed to developing the talents of its people to enable them to make valuable contributions to the SABIC growth story.
EMPLOYEE SURVEY
We also carried out the 2022 SABIC Employee Survey, which was open to all SABIC employees across 12 Survey Dimensions including teamwork and collaboration, career development, team leadership and a learner mindset.
Three employee engagement initiatives – Empowerment Program Portal, SABIC & YOU Empowerment Campaign and Collaboration Roadshow – were launched with the aim of enhancing empowerment perception and joint efforts with all employees in creating a more empowered organization with agility. We worked to empower our employees by launching an internal campaign titled “Empower Yourself, Empower Others!” and also empowered more than 4,700 non-technical professionals at our Career Choices program, Tamkeen, to apply for positions as high as managers and senior managers.
REWARD & RECOGNITION
SABIC’s Reward & Recognition program is another important strategic talent initiative that builds a culture celebrating performance and role model behavior. In 2022, 45% (14,096) of our employees across all functions and regions were recognized, resulting in 27,825 awards in total.
PIONEERS PROGRAM
Our unique SABIC Pioneers program builds ongoing communication links with our retired employees, enhancing a sense of belonging for the nearly 2,500 retirees while calling on their expertise and knowledge. In this way, we aim to build continuity and retain tacit knowledge within the company, and create support networks for those who have served SABIC over the decades.
TOP EMPLOYER
We were again named “Top Employer Asia Pacific” for the ninth consecutive year, our Mexico sites were awarded “Best Places to Work”, and we received the 2022 STEP Ahead award because of our progressive work in global employee engagement.
Diversity in our workplace is reflected in this U Matter 22 collage
DRIVING DIVERSITY IN THE INDUSTRY
SABIC is focused on increasing female participation rates in the global petrochemicals industry. At the heart of our efforts is the SHE Network, which plays a key role in SABIC's recruitment, retention and promotion of women. Four employees from the Americas region were honored with the “Women Breaking the Mold” annual award for their inspirational work.
On International Women’s Day 2022, we celebrated with our global female employees and recommitted to empowering women and ensuring that all employees, irrespective of gender, have equal opportunities to advance and engage in a challenging career.
Our fourth batch of female employees attended the ExSABIC program, which is a NUSANED™ initiative pillar. The aim is to enable Saudi Vision 2030 to increase women participation in the labor market, develop local workforce and enhance the quality of national cadres. The six-month on-the-job training by SABIC experts from various fields will cover several sectors within SABIC.
SABIC Mt. Vernon (Indiana, USA) received the Mayor’s Celebration of Diversity Leadership Award, in recognition of our efforts in diversity.
HOUSING PROJECTS
SABIC is building high quality, sustainable housing facilities for its employees in Saudi Arabia. On the lines of our successful housing experience in Riyadh, Jubail and Yanbu, two housing projects been completed and handed over to employees during 2022. Al-Matrafiya Housing Project in Jubail Industrial City comprises 2,701 villas, with advanced structural specifications and features. The second housing scheme, Al-Jaar Housing Project includes 500 villas, is in the Yanbu Industrial City, offering a range of contemporary facilities.
BUILDING CAPABILITY
The capabilities of our people are a textbook example of mutual interest: for SABIC, it determines the level of innovation and creativity within our organization; for our employees, it creates pathways for professional development and career advancement. And our approach to capability and capacity building goes beyond our employees to reach stakeholders in the communities in which we work.
Since our inception in 1976, we have always invested heavily in human capital and the future: Our work has had such wide-reaching impact that our “SABIC Leadership Way” inspired two customized leadership programs titled “The Impactful Leader” for Yanbu governorate’s top leaders. The four-day program was aimed at providing SABIC's practical experience in improving leaders and enhancing the level of human competencies.
Our activities over the year include training SABIC scholarship students (future potential employees) on safety, honoring the Saudi team that won at the International Science and Engineering Fair 2022, and signing a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Regional Center of Quality and Excellence in Education (RCQE), which works under the auspices of the UNESCO, to collaborate on developing human capabilities in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, SABIC signed a memorandum of cooperation with the High Commission for Industrial Security (HCIS) to provide a framework for the exchange of experiences and develop a mechanism for collaboration in areas related to industrial security.
SABIC Young Leadership Council (SYLC) empowers SABIC’s future leaders and young talent to engage with SABIC’s executive leadership team and influence future business decision. SYLC priorities were updated in 2022 to include People Engagement, Organization Behaviors, and Business and Industry Engagement.