Rawabi Holding Magazine Issue 31

Rawabi Holding Events
Rawabi Holding Events
Rawabi Chairman Opening Speech
I am honored to open the
ceremony today in recognition of your
efforts during the year 2012—a ‎strong
motivator for you to continue to give
and overcome obstacles to success. One
year ago ‎we stressed the importance of
transparency in order to strengthen our
bonds and respect our ‎relationships. ‎
Rawabi Holding was recognized
this year for being one of
the “Best Saudi Companies
to Work ‎For” by AlIqtisadia
Newspaper and Team One
Consultancy. This competition
allowed us to ‎streamline our
ongoing efforts under the
umbrella of “enhancing our work
environment”.
Day in and day out our employees
report to work and give their all to
making our company what ‎it is today—a
company that strives to be better with
every step we take. Better with our
‎customers, better for our partners, better
in our industries and better for our
communities.‎
Today I have the opportunity to thank you
for being part of the thirty some years of
growth, ‎putting Rawabi Holding on the
map as one of the leading conglomerates
and fastest growing ‎companies in the
region. As we grow, we continue to move
forward in our approach, and ‎recognize
that we must remain dynamic in order to
attract and retain the most valuable of
our ‎assets: our employees.‎
Today I would like to touch upon three
main components that set Rawabi
Holding apart from our ‎competitors: our
focus on people; on people development
and corporate social responsibility. ‎The
Internal Communications Department
plays an active role in organizing a
variety of different ‎activities. This
year, we continue to prioritize internal
communications to maximize employee
‎comfort and satisfaction, while also
introducing a range of different initiatives
to continuously ‎move this effort forward. ‎
This year’s newly launched Lunch with
CEO initiative has made it possible
for employees across ‎the company
to attend an informal meeting with
top management, allowing for the
free-flowing ‎of information and ideas.
Another effort to ensure that voices
are heard and employees of ‎different
levels are given a chance to experience
decision making and strategy setting is
the ‎establishment of the Shadow Board
of Directors. Other measures are ongoing,
such as ‎mandatory orientation sessions
for all employees and a company-wide
re-orientation session, ‎conducting various
visits to all business units near and far,
and continuing with our employee ‎events
such as this one today, as well as the
Open Days for employees and beyond. ‎
May I just take one moment here to
remind you that your opinions and
suggestions are the root ‎of company
activities. The work environment is only
as comfortable as you find it, so I urge
you ‎to communicate your concerns and
ideas to those who are responsible for
executing them.
Rawabi Holding’s Human Resources
policies rely heavily on measuring
employee ‎responsiveness to training and
development programs. These efforts
aim to improve the ‎performance of all
employees and offer compensation to
employees based on merit, eliminating
‎all discrimination based on gender or
nationality. Rawabi Holding encourages
employees to ‎pursue higher education
and offers scholarships to outstanding
performers.‎
This year, our training program has
expanded to offer a ‎total of 370
training hours. We recently launched
the company’s Health, Safety and
Environment ‎committee which will
further the amount of training and
knowhow employees have across the
‎group. We strive to ensure that our
employees are given opportunities to grow
within a safe and ‎secure environment and
continue to move forward in areas that
allow us to do so. ‎
Last January we were placed in the
top 20 of 115 companies in the
Saudi General Investment ‎Authority’s
Responsible Competitiveness Index
(SARCI) and it secured the #1 spot in
the ‎category of Building a Nationally
Competitive Workforce in the prestigious
King Khalid Award for ‎Responsible
Competitiveness. This award was in
recognition of our efforts to empower
both our ‎employees and youth as a
whole. ‎
Finally, I want to touch on one of the
company’s core values: corporate social
responsibility. ‎Rawabi Holding is unique
in its encouragement of employees
to participate in corporate social
‎responsibility activities empowering
them to become active and responsible
members of the ‎communities in which
they operate. 2012 has seen much
advancement in this realm. We ‎continue
to encourage and support employeeled
initiatives such as the Annual
Blood Donation Campaign ‎and various
environmental initiatives such as the
National Day “Pick It Up” Event this
year. We ‎are also proud to continue to
support the empowerment of youth in our
community.‎
CSR in Rawabi Holding has gone beyond
pure philanthropy towards contributing
to sustainable ‎development. We have
cooperated with the HRDF to train many
young Saudis and participated ‎in the
Second Annual CSR Forum in Riyadh. ‎
Our sustainable community contributions
focus on youth programs that help them
discover their ‎passions and focuses on
youth between 16-24 years old through
various activities and programs. ‎Since
its inception, our Annual Talent Exhibit
has reached over 21000 students across
the ‎country—bringing youth a few steps
closer to making more informed decisions
about their future ‎through career storytelling
and exposure.‎
Our internship program has expanded
and evolved to be one of the most
competitive and ‎exciting for youth in the
region. The experience of two students
is particularly important to be ‎shared.
It is no secret that the successes of
our CSR efforts are dependent on our
employee ‎contributions. Our CSR team
continuously monitors, measures, and
enhances the program in ‎order to focus
on making a sustainable difference and
this also plays an essential role in the
‎success of the internship program.‎
This year’s 2012 Summer Internship
Program witnessed a 48% increase in
the number of interns ‎hosted across the
Rawabi Holding Group, over last year.
Furthermore, 90% of the Group was
‎involved in the training and development
of the summer interns - 37 young men
and women. ‎From day one, the interns
worked at the company over a two month
period as if they were ‎‘employees’ as
opposed to ‘interns’. ‎
Two KFUPM engineering interns were
recruited to work on a unique product
development ‎project at Rawabi United
Safety Services, Limited (RUSS). The
project involved configuring a ‎secondgeneration
gas detection system (the
Guardian II) that had been originally
designed in ‎Canada. The set-up was
complicated as it involved 3 electrochemical
sensors, a ‎microcontroller,
wind monitor and sensor, lights and siren
alarms, and GSM and Radio ‎Frequency
communications.‎
The majority of the parts were imported
from Canada, and the interns were
required to assemble ‎8 systems,
debug integration and communications
problems, add features, install a
fully ‎functional system per client
requirements, and produce all
engineering documents, all in a time
‎span of 2 months. One computer
engineering intern proudly remarked “this
was such an ‎important and rewarding
exercise for me personally, knowing that
this Guardian II gas-detection ‎system
is a more sophisticated system than its
predecessor, the Guardian I and will be
placed ‎near the Saudi Aramco residential
compound at drilling sites to identify and
alert a response unit ‎in the unlikely event
of a gas leak; it’s an experience I will
never forget”.‎
Thank you to our employees for sharing
your know how and experiences with
the employees of ‎our future. It is by
harnessing our collective strength,
experiences and know-how that we
can ‎build momentum and capture
this moment in our history. You have
represented the opportunity ‎that
our company has to create unique
opportunities for development and
progress for years, ‎and I am proud
to be part of this family. Thank
you for your dedication, and I truly
look forward ‎to working with you to
shape our future success.‎
6 Rawabi News Issue 31 Oct-Dec 2012
Rawabi News Issue 31 Oct-Dec 2012
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