Engineering firm Worley has made digital and technology a specific focus for its management team as it seeks to capitalize on a larger digital transformation than it is underway.
The company, formerly known as WorleyParsons, is also striving to equip its workforce with new digital and data skills, with a learning program having already reached 11,700 employees globally since August last year. .
The two and more initiatives are contained in the ASX-listed company’s FY21 report.
In its annual report [pdf], Worley notes that he made specific changes to his “group leader” to ensure a top-down buy-in to digital and technology investments.
“As of July 5, 2021, the group leader has been realigned to take on dedicated roles in direct response to achieving our goal and implementing our strategy: sustainable development, digital and technological solutions,” said the company.
“Digital will enable the transformation of our business through digital technologies and customer-centric data solutions.
“Technology solutions will expand our portfolio of process technologies, capitalizing on our unique knowledge and intellectual property to leverage technologies that will enhance and differentiate our sustainability-focused engineering offerings. “
The leaders of the company group will remain the same; they will now have to lead digital and technology within the framework of their mandate.
Adoption of digital technology is seen as a way to “improve margins and deliver high value-added solutions to customers”, while technology investments should target “areas of growth in which Worley has knowledge. of the domain ”.
The annual report also notes that executives are making more virtual site visits using technology developed by Worley’s “digital acceleration” team, which is now being marketed as a product in its own right.
The first internal use of the technology was for “a virtual site visit to Latin America with four board members” in November of last year.
The technology uses a “specialized tool linked to a camera to clearly visualize field activities and simultaneously observe security practices.”
“While this has kept us connected during the pandemic, we see this as a long-term opportunity to improve the connection of senior leaders to sites,” the company said.
Worley is also focusing on upgrading staff skills in digital and data as part of its transformation.
“An integral part of our strategy is the digital transformation which requires all of our employees to strive to integrate digital skills and technologies into the way they work, improve efficiency, challenge the norm, adopt innovation and provide a competitive advantage, ”he said in a statement. separate sustainability report. [pdf]
“To support this, the ‘digital passport’ has been developed for everyone within Worley to begin their digital journey.
“By completing the ‘digital passport’, each employee can develop their learning on how they can be part of our digital transformation and use digital skills and technologies in their own role to save time, be more efficient and be more valuable to Worley as a whole. “
Worley said more than 11,700 people completed the “digital passport” in the first year, including 5,600 people in the first two months after launch.
“Building on its success, we are now introducing ‘stamps’ that delve into specific digital topics such as data science, AI and data literacy,” the company said.
“As a result, our employees can direct their own learning to the topics that are most relevant and useful to them. “
Generally speaking, Worley said he had to be a “leader in the application of digital technology” in order to “stay at the cutting edge” in the engineering industry.
In FY21, the company posted statutory net profit after tax and depreciation of $ 161 million, compared to $ 252 million the previous year.