Hello and welcome to the column of Global HR Services (GHRS), PETRONAS 

Since its 1974 establishment, PETRONAS represents Malaysia’s national oil and gas resources custodian, securing a prominent global presence that surpasses 50 countries. With a workforce comprising 49,000 employees worldwide, PETRONAS differentiates as the only Malaysian company reportedly ranked among FORTUNE Global 500 corporations. Today, PETRONAS constitutes a fully integrated global energy solutions partner, transcending the traditional oil and gas energy space with its proliferating portfolio. Ultimately, PETRONAS aims in its driven mission to enrich lives for a sustainable, utilitarian purpose that benefits all.

Beginning June 2010, the Human Resource Management (HRM) Division of PETRONAS redefined its HR role as a strategic partner to facilitate business. By reducing the transaction-based nature of HR, PETRONAS enhanced its HR Operating Model to expedite HR delivery outcomes with greater effectiveness and efficiency. Consequently, this transformation, which transpired in 2012, culminated with PETRONAS’ first HR Shared Service Center (SSC).

When GHRS commenced its operations in 2012, PETRONAS became our first group of clients, as we wrapped our wings around them and their 47 Malaysian based subsidiaries. Since then, we focused on solidifying our foundation. Our initial services in 2012 included Data Management, Payroll Services, and Call Centre. As we materialized, building traction with trust from clients, the momentum catalysed expansion, allowing us to diversify our client demographic. Those expanded operations now encompass both domestic and international operations. As our client base blossomed, expectations respectively burgeoned with the business. Suddenly, our core-services alone failed to suffice—high time for broadening operations. But HOW and WHAT; doubtless, mind-boggling questions…

All the considerations from these questions yielded solutions residing with industry experts. Hence, our eye-opening benchmarking journey began. We visited well-established Shared Services Organisation (SSO) in India, Philippines, and China. We adopted and adapted the multiple practices gleaned from them. We expanded and enhanced our services through improvement projects and value-added services, anchoring on customer centricity to the services provided. To date, we implemented more than 200 improvement projects. By 2020, our services expanded to 65 companies within PETRONAS. We also added new services which include Recruitment, Record Management, Benefits Management, and Mobility Services.

The Bigger Agenda

Even as the industry now faces a ‘great reset’, PETRONAS continues to reshape its business portfolio— Moving Forward Together 50.30.0—progressing with resilience, growth, and sustainability amid this shifting global landscape. Such changes summon PETRONAS to refashion its end-to-end talent journey. Some redefining themes include combining core capabilities with the latest innovations. These strategic plans to redefine operations help retool the human capital equation by ensuring our talents thrive in any environment consistent with supporting business priorities.

Our recent HR transformation project ‘emb.arc’ aspires to improve talent experience in PETRONAS through the New Ways of Working (NWOW). NWOW fuels the human capital needs of our team. Additionally, the new HR Operating Model with its clear demarcation of roles aligns with our three pillars, namely, HR Partners, Expertise, and Services. This transformative process—which required a high-level of strong, self-driven ownership—now embodies our talents for further empowerment.

As an HR service provider, GHRS positions itself in leadership to leverage technological transformation. Our expanded role integrating the following Services Pillar aids this process. Accordingly, the leadership we exude emboldens us in driving an agile workforce of tomorrow for both our organization and clients. 

Doodling Our New Journey

Services Pillar aims to deliver superior HR Services for PETRONAS’ employees. Through this transformation, our scope of services also encompasses other HR roles including Remuneration, Account Manager, and Analytics. Despite fledgling familiarity with Analytics as the newest function in its formative phase, we know our HR data custodianship extrapolates meaningful insights for informed decisions—proving resourceful to tactical and operational HR areas.

Most importantly, to accommodate expanded roles, we prioritized the greatest asset of indispensable value—investing in our People. Therefore, to ensure upskilling proficiency, we designed a ‘structured yet flexible’ learning and development (L&D) journey as codified in our Capability Development (CD) framework. This system serves to synchronize meaningful, transparent, cross-functional communication and accountability among teams. The self-learned metacognitive approach also serves to accelerate our team members’ core competencies.

Currently, as of this article publication, we transition into the latest integration in our HR platform transformation journey, promoting an empowered, agile, and enabled (EM.A.N) workforce.

The Road Ahead

Change remains the only constant in our SSO life. Accordingly, we look forward to our future together, and delight in your participation, “doodling along” through the lasting journey you share with us.