Employee Engagement
Y-Connect Engages the Youth
A new set of initiatives by Pipelines, Distribution and Terminals (PD&T) admin area to enable their young workforce and include them in the decision-making process.
As the company’s business grows and expands into new markets, so does its workforce. Today, more than 60% of the company’s employees are under 35 years old, which has inspired some organizations around the company to start their own youth-focused groups.
A platform for young employees
Last year, Pipelines, Distribution and Terminals (PD&T) admin area launched a series of initiatives focused on employee engagement under the stewardship of a steering committee. One of the key initiatives launched by the committee was “Y-Connect,” a team composed entirely of young employees that aims to engage this young demographic, seek their feedback, and prepare them to lead and inspire in their respective fields.
The Y-Connect program was one of two Ideas that were presented as “Ideas Worth Sharing” in the last Corporate Innovation Board Meeting held on September 8, 2021.
The Y-Gathering Event
The Y-Connect team recently held an event, which was attended by more than 200 employees across the Kingdom and they attended the event virtually from 11 locations across the PD&T operating areas.
“Employee engagement is crucial for PD&T to achieve its goals,” said Abdullah Al Mansour, vice president of PD&T. “There is always room for improvement and what better way than inviting young talent to improve PD&T Employee Engagement,” he said in his opening remarks.
The event included an open dialogue session where employees had the opportunity to direct questions to management and they also engaged in a brainstorming session as part of the PD&T Transformation Program.
“Part of empowering the youth and being synergistic with ongoing PD&T transformation, the event contained a workshop to let the youth participate in the decision-making process by taking their ideas and initiatives, and then incorporating them as part of the admin area’s input,” said Abdulrahman K. Al Juraifani, the Y-Connect champion.
Empowering the Youth
Usamah Al-Musabbeh, PD&T steering committee chairman, noted how quickly this program has come to fruition. “Y-Connect has rapidly grown from an idea to a pioneering program,” he said. “This is a direct result of empowering the young generation to be creative.”
The Y-Connect program was designed to target around 4000 employees aged 35 years and under, who account for about 70% of PD&T’s workforce.
The program is driven by 12 team members that represent the different departments within the PD&T admin area with diverse backgrounds and career paths.
The following are Y-Connect’s main activities:
- Y-Talent: a platform to reveal hidden talents of the young employees within PD&T, and to help them connect with people who share the same interests. On a monthly basis, a talented employee is recognized based on a combination of users’ “likes”and Y-Connect’s ratings.
- Y-Achievement: a program established for the young employees to submit their accomplishments in areas such as safety, revenue generation or contribution to the community in order to be recognized among the high achievers within PD&T.
- Y-Meeting: a platform for young employees to have one-to-one meetings with the Y-Connect team members to share ideas for their evaluation and action.
- Y-Forum: is a public platform dedicated for PD&T young employees to interact and discuss topics with the goal of enhancing operations in their place of work.
- Y-Media: an online portal that captures all Y-Connect activities as well as engaging employees through different means of media such as the periodic Y-Connect newsletter.
- Y-Study: a tool enabling PD&T to look deeply into possible youth related employee engagement opportunities and challenges through deep dive studies.
The successful deployment of the abovementioned activities has only been made possible through the Y-Connect website which was entirely developed in house by PD&T programmers.