Penspen’s CEO Annual Awards 2020

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2020 CEO Annual Awards; your efforts have been invaluable throughout a particularly challenging 12 months.

Our people are our key assets, so it is important to us that we recognise and reward their successes.

The past year has been challenging for everyone, which is why it is more important than ever to show our appreciation for one another.

Each year, Penspen’s peer led employee recognition scheme culminates in our CEO Annual Awards. This is the highest level of recognition and acknowledges the efforts of an employee or team who has been recognised by their colleagues as going above and beyond.

In January, we announced the recipients of Penspen’s CEO Annual Awards 2020, who have continued to demonstrate our Values every day.

Name: Sean O’Sullivan

Role: Technician

Value: Working Safely & Responsibly

How did you feel when you received Penspen’s CEO Annual Award 2020 for Working Safely & Responsibly?

I felt surprised to have received the award and I’m thankful to have been selected. It’s very satisfying to know that the work I do on a day to day basis is valued by the wider company.

I have been working in the industry for a long time and it’s nice to be recognised for the work that myself and my team carry out.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your work?

As I visit a lot of major factories, I need to take into account the additional restrictions that have been implemented when attending sites. These are in place for everyone’s safety. For example, there are forms to fill in and I have my temperature taken multiple times a day when on site.

The main way that the pandemic has affected me on a daily basis is the impact it has had on driving. I can easily drive up to 200 miles a day to move between jobs and there can often be a lot of travel involved in my role. Usually, there would be two of us and we would share the driving, however, due to restrictions, we now have separate vans, meaning the driving can no longer be shared.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

I have a lot of experience in the industry, so I enjoy sharing my knowledge and passing this on to some of the newer members of the team. At the minute, I’m working with two trainees and it has been really satisfying to see them grow in confidence.

Working with high pressure gas installations can be a lot of pressure, especially around safety. When undertaking this type of work, safety always comes first and I enjoy knowing that I have been able to make a difference.

Which of our Values do you feel aligns most with your role?

Working Safely & Responsibly. It’s important to work to our safety rules at all times, especially in the field. A lot of ensuring you work safely and responsibly is using your common sense.

I value safety in the work that I do and for myself and my colleagues. Implementing our safety procedures is part of my role that I enjoy.

Name: Andy Bond

Role: Director of IT

Value: Our People

How do you feel about receiving Penspen’s CEO Annual Award 2020 for One Penspen as part of the Global IT team?

I’m really pleased that the hard work and problem solving of the IT team that kept Penspen working throughout 2020 has been recognised.

How did the Global IT team overcome the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2020?

Penspen moved to a cloud first philosophy a couple of years ago, so we were already most of the way to enabling a global work from anywhere ability.

With the use of the Microsoft Azure cloud technology, Nasuni File system and virtual desktop environments, we were able to quickly expand our infrastructure and enable work from anywhere over the course of a week. The challenge was then communicating with everyone else and making sure that they had good connectivity and kit at home to continue to work.

What have you enjoyed most about your role over the last 12 months?

The last 12 months have been very challenging for everyone, technically and emotionally.  I’m most proud of the great team and their efforts in keeping people connected and maintaining focus throughout the year.

Which of our Values do you feel aligns most with your role and your work?

The value that I think most aligns with my work is Our People, as although there is a large amount of technical content to my work, most of what I do is working with both my team and the wider organisation. It’s important that we have the right people and that they are enabled to work at their best to help Penspen meet our goals.

Name: Vaibhav Mehta

Role: Project Manager, Engineering & Project Manager

Value: Our Commitments

How did you feel when you received Penspen’s CEO Annual Award 2020 for Our Commitments?

I am immensely grateful for the CEO Annual Award. My self-belief will be improved by this award and help me to do my best work within my team.

Thank you to Penspen management and the entire team who worked with me to deliver on our commitments.

Has the COVID-19 pandemic presented any challenges to your work and how did you overcome these?

The COVID-19 situation is particularly stressful because it’s hard to predict how things will develo, and our circumstances are changing rapidly. This left us feeling powerless, like we’re no longer in control of our own lives. As is the case in many aspects of our lives, there are things we can’t control in this situation. These include the actions and reactions of other people, how long the situation will last and what might happen in the future.

Although these things might leave us feeling helpless, in reality there are still a lot of things we have power over in our lives, even during these trying times. Redirecting our energy towards these things has helped us effectively deal with this situation.

What have you enjoyed most about your role in the past 12 months?

Through my experience at Penspen, I am exposed to many different managing styles. Team leads overcame barriers through collaborative and effective efforts.

Which of our Values do you feel aligns most with your role?

Our commitments and Technical Excellence.

Name: Andrew Pinchen

Role: Principal Integrity Engineer

Value: Technical Excellence

How did you feel when you received Penspen’s CEO Annual Award 2020 for Technical Excellence?

I felt proud that my contribution and dedication to the business in 2020 had been recognised and appreciated. I had made significant personal effort to ensure that Penspen’s high technical standards were maintained and that high quality outputs were delivered to the client.

Has the COVID-19 pandemic presented any challenges to your work and how did you overcome these?

Yes, I think COVID-19 has presented different challenges to everyone, no matter where they are, with many having to overcome much more serious and difficult challenges than my own.

In my case, I have been fortunate to have faced only minor challenges. I’ve had to change from working in and managing, teams with daily informal face to face contact, to full time remote working and Teams calls since March 2020, whilst maintaining delivery to our clients.

To overcome this required a significant amount of additional effort to organise structured, regular calls with the team and maintain the informal dialogue that came naturally from daily contact.

I’ve also had to juggle my working time whilst being a parent to two boys under the age of 5 during the various periods of national lockdown and school and nursery closures. To overcome this, I maintained a flexible approach to my working hours and altered my working time to fit around caring for my sons. Working in pockets of time using a combination of early mornings, late nights, weekends or when my youngest son had his afternoon nap. I am grateful to the company and my line manager for their support and flexibility here, as the alternative would have put me in a much more difficult situation.

What have you enjoyed most about your role in 2020?

I’ve enjoyed seeing the resilience and professionalism demonstrated by all of my colleagues throughout the pandemic. Thanks to their efforts, as a team we have been able to maintain our effectiveness and have continued to deliver to our clients without interruption throughout.

Which of our Values do you feel aligns most with your role?

Whilst it may sound contrived, as a Project Manager, Line Manager and Technical Specialist I have a very varied role and a number of very different responsibilities that combined, align directly with all of Penspen’s values.

As a Project Manager, my primary aim is to make sure that the project team are Working Safely and Responsibly in meeting Our Commitments to the client, whilst delivering to the scope and ensuring Commercial Success for Penspen as a business.

As Technical Specialist I try to ensure that Technical Excellence is at the core of what we do by delivering high quality outputs that use the latest engineering knowledge and best practices to deliver additional value to our clients.

As a Line Manager, I try to act in the best interests of Our People and make sure that my team have the support they need to manage their work/life balance and develop their skillset, whilst ensuring we are all Working Safely and Responsibly.

Name: Ahmed Hafez

Role: Project Manager, Engineering & Project Management

Value: Commercial Success

How did you feel when you received Penspen’s CEO Annual Award 2020 for Commercial Success?

Receiving the most prestigious Penspen award is an honour. I was thrilled to know that the commercial success of the projects I am managing are being recognised at the highest level in our organisation. This recognition belongs not only to me but also to the entire team working with me on these projects.

I am very grateful to each and every team member for the effort and dedication that contributed towards this achievement.

Has the COVID-19 pandemic presented any challenges to your work and how did you overcome these?

The COVID-19 pandemic presented an unprecedented challenge to me and many other people, on different fronts.

The uncertainty and constant worry are emotions that I had to learn how to cope with and not let them affect my efficiency at work.

My family lives in London while I am in Abu Dhabi and for 6 months I could not travel to see them, or bring them over to see me.

Workwise, the challenge was to minimise the impact of the pandemic on our commitments to clients. Work had to continue at the same pace, schedules needed to be respected, the quality of our work needed to be maintained and the costs needed to be controlled.

The pandemic hit the oil markets hard and subsequently, our clients appetite to spend on new projects was also affected. Having said that, I believe our business has done exceptionally well during the pandemic. A number of good projects were secured. IT infrastructure was put in place in a very short time to allow people to work remotely when needed.

Our team showed admirable commitment and dedication. I feel we rose to the pandemic challenge and made 2020 a successful year for our company.

What have you enjoyed most about your role in the past 12 months?

I have enjoyed many aspects of my role in the past 12 months but the thing I enjoyed the most was the teamwork and team spirit that I felt from everyone I worked with.

Which of our Values do you feel aligns most with your role?

I feel our Values come together in one package. We work safely and responsibly; we value our people and support them; we deliver on our commitments to our clients; we have a vast amount of knowledge and experience within our team that enables us to provide technical excellence to our clients; we manage risks proactively, and through all of that, we achieve commercial success for our business.