Since joining Petroleum Service Corp. (PSC) in 2007, Director of Texas Plant Operations Brian Camp estimates he's participated in 25 new job start-ups for product handling and site logistics services at chemical plants, refineries and terminal operations across Texas. These new operations have added more than 1,000 new employees to the company's payroll.
"We don't come in as a maintenance company. We take an operations approach, looking at the work like the customer would if using their own personnel," Camp said. "We leverage all our knowledge and expertise in plant operations and logistics and work to meld our team into the plant's operations to best meet the customer's needs."
PSC has performed a transition, on average, every six weeks for the past decade. The operations have ranged in size from a few positions to more than 150.
"When it comes to rail and truck loading of hazardous materials, dock and warehouse operations, plastics operations and rail switching, these work areas are integral to the overall success of the plant, and they have to run right," said PSC Vice President Houston Haymon. "We recognized we needed to make transitions a point of excellence and have worked with customers to develop a process that minimizes risks. Our customers are often not as experienced with this kind of operational transition, so we lay out the process and give them the confidence of knowing what to expect."
Building a strong multidisciplinary startup team is a key part of that process. "We will bring in staff from our safety, HR, training, operations and compliance departments," Haymon said. "The team members evaluate the processes under which the work is currently being performed and compare those to the best practices in use at some of the top-performing, safest plants in the industry."
"The caliber of our start-up teams is what really sets us apart from the competition," Camp said. "We use seasoned supervisors and technical experts and transfer in people from other sites who already know our processes and understand our company culture. They help to feed our culture into the new sites."
The transition planning begins months or even years before start-up. "A lot of our startups now have a longer runway, so we bring in leadership resources very early into the process," Camp said.
Supervisors and safety leaders for the new operations are typically hired months in advance. "During the time leading up to the start-up, we have these new leaders visit other sites, where we do similar work, to build rapport with the leaders there and get a good understanding of our work processes, training methods and safety procedures," Camp said. "This also gives them a feel for our family-focused company culture."
Another critical part of the process involves staffing for the new operations. When the transition involves taking over the work from another contractor, PSC's HR team works to retain the best of those incumbent employees and educate them about what PSC has to offer.
"Experience tells us employees can be uneasy about the impending changes when they don't know how the new company will treat them," Haymon said. "We advise our customer on these communications because it is very beneficial for employees to see the plant and PSC are in alignment. In most cases, we honor their service time and provide other support to employees who transition to us."
For more information, visit www. petroleumservice.com or call (281) 991-3500.