Mr. Ali Akbar Moshtaqi holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and is in charge of planning, procurement and training of manpower. In a short interview with the Public Relations Department, he said:
All proposals and criticism coming from colleagues in all fields and also every help from the personnel to increase productivity and quality of the company’s performance will be welcomed.
Mr. Moshtaqi said the main goal of the company was to have efficient and superior manpower, adding, “The most important assets of every organization is its manpower and due to the emphasis put by the managing director, Mr. Gharibi, and director of administration on the importance of manpower and goals set by them, we have been trying to take effectives steps in this regard.”
He added, “Most of the new personnel of the company have been chosen out of top university graduates. After going through interviews (professional and psychological as well as explanation of work conditions, scrutinizing abilities of the applicants as well as studying their interest and suitability of their academic degrees to our job) and after the managing director gives his viewpoint, their posts are communicated to the National Iranian Gas Company and they are employed on the basis of a contract after making sure about authenticity of their degree and medical tests. These steps usually take 4-6 months. Another duty of our department is to see to the situation of employees who want to change their work location.
As for planning, in view of the long-term goals set by the 20-Year Vision Plan and in line with long-term human resources strategies of the oil industry, necessary steps are taken. Manpower management is, in fact, a tool for management of human resources. Therefore, on the basis of performance reports of the personnel, conditions for obtaining posts as well as the needs of the company, posts are assigned to the employees. Also, appointments and agreement to promotions are done in view of personal competencies of every individual.”
Asked about manpower training, Mr. Moshtaqi noted, “Since education is a complicated process and needs good planning to be effective, we need to follow a proper process in education. Therefore, in line with strategic statement for educational performance, empowerment, effectiveness, unification of activities, processes and standards and reduction of financial and human waste, we formulate plans for every employee on the basis of their activities and occupational preferences and so plans are carried out according to occupational education standards to increase skills, knowledge and organizational abilities of the employees. Also, continued education is done by holding conferences and seminars in the course of the year as the need arises.”
“The education is divided into general, managerial (general, project), technical and specialized, cultural, safety, health, and environment categories. The important point is the issue of assessment. We take ISO 15001 as standard for assessment in order to find about satisfaction of our employees about educational activities and to base further education on them.”
Explaining about inauguration of a new library at the Gas Engineering and Development Company in 2008, he added, “Due to the need for using up-to-date scientific resources in order to increase the knowledge of our personnel and since there were old books at the library, we decided to upgrade our library and provide digital copies of books to make them available on our intranet. That system will be launched in a month to be used by our personnel both inside and outside the company.”
The official further noted that due to extensive contacts between manpower and administration, a large part of the activities of participation quality and productivity system secretariat, are done through this department and they have established specialized working groups on productivity and meritocracy.
Head of the manpower planning, procurement and education department said shortage of personnel was the main problem with his department, adding, “We have only three people working for us and since they have a lot to do and because of high number of company staff, our job is difficult, but we have done our best to update our plans.”
He stated that manpower was the most important factor for correcting consumption pattern, saying, “If our manpower is adequately skillful and motivated, it would be able to gain enough knowledge through education and increase productivity as a prelude to correction of consumption model.”
Moshtaqi stated that the most important activities of his department in 2009 were as follows:
Organizing about 10,000 person-hours of technical and specialized courses,
Organizing 3,456 person-hours of project management courses,
Holding 4,000 person-hours of seminars and conferences,
Studying 12 research projects,
Holding 9,720 person-hours of English education,
Activation of participation, quality and productivity system secretariat, and
Holding 6,250 person-hours of ICDL education.
F. Helisaei
Public Relations Department of the Gas Engineering and Development Company
