The refining industry resembles Brobdingnag, the
country of giants in Jonathan Swift’s most
famous and enduring book, Gulliver’s
Travels. Comparing refiners’ socio-financial
metrics to other industries reveals enormously
colossal relationships. Refinery employees oversee
more assets per employee, produce more revenue
per employee, and achieve more profit per employee
than any other industry in the world. This extraordinarily
huge, financial impact has positioned refinery
human capital to a strategic priority.
Established in 1990 as a tightly focused, refinery
recruitment boutique, Kalvert Associates provides
human capital acquisition solutions to the premier
companies in the petroleum refining industry.
The firm has worked closely with candidates and
companies to complete search engagements in The
United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle
East, and Asia.
No sooner did Human Resource Managers finish playing
designated executioners during the refinery industry’s
massive consolidation than they were confronted
with a tight market for refinery skills, the magnitude
of which has not been seen since the oil boom
of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.
Recruiting refinery brilliance costs more than
ever while the criteria to determine who’s
right for the job have grown more extensive and
harder to assess.
In the twenty-first century’s ultra-lean
refinery industry hiring mistakes become obvious
sooner and cost more to fix. Today, hiring good
people is no longer good enough. Refinery professionals
must effectively work in teams that bring together
diverse people, skills, and talent. A great resume
no longer gets the job done. Refinery business
leaders now place much more emphasis on interpersonal
skills and the fit between the candidate and the
organization’s culture.
The firm’s personalized approach to the
market arises from the conviction that a recruitment
engagement is a three-way partnership consisting
of Company, Candidate, and Consultant.
The Consultant facilitates the two C’s
– Communication and Collaboration
– that bring the professional and cultural
fit into focus.
Dedicated to finding candidates who are not only
the best qualified, but also whose careers will
grow and prosper because of the search, the firm
optimizes two reciprocally interdependent objectives
– find the best person for the job while
introducing candidates to their optimal career
choice. The ultimate measure of a successful recruitment
engagement lies not only in successful placements,
but also in successful people.
Workforce issues continue to move to the top of
refiner’s agendas as it becomes clear that
people represent the only real and sustainable,
competitive advantage. Kalvert Associates’
continued mission focuses on helping refiners
build world-class organizations through the firm’s
distinctive competence to locate superior talent
and to nurture new relationships.
Head,
Hands, and Heart
On the surface, Kalvert Associates’ search
process resembles others. The firm has in-depth
refinery sector knowledge, a well-developed network
of refinery industry contacts and an executive
search, research function. What more could a client
ask for?
World-class recruitment consulting has more by
far to do with the tools, artisanship, and ardor
of its practitioner than with the technological
subtleties of the executive search process. Outstanding
recruitment consulting requires more than the
Head, a metaphor for the science, the
technical know-how of the executive search process
that in theory, would allow a bright person with
a few people skills to complete a recruitment
engagement. Recruitment performance of the caliber
provided by Kalvert Associates requires two additional
elements – Hands (art) and Heart
(passion).
The Hands represent the artistry to think
flexibly and imaginatively and to take what you
know and shape it into a unique and mutually advantageous
outcome that blends a new personality into the
organization. Most importantly, you must have
Heart, the intrinsic motivation and drive
to do something because it is interesting, involving,
exciting, satisfying, and personally challenging.
The Heart drives the Head and
Hands to deliver the virtuoso performance
expected by the firm’s clients.
The Head, Hands, and Heart behind
Kalvert Associates belong to the firm’s
founder, Art Kalvert. He conducts business within
a personal service business model that demands
delivering more value than the firm charges for,
demonstrates an unrivaled passion for the refinery
sector, and practices the art and science of nurturing
new relationships on daily basis. With over 25
year’s petroleum refining experience, Art
brings to the firm an informed judgment gained
from working as a senior refinery industry executive,
combined with implementing hundreds of successful
refinery recruitment engagements.
Art graduated from the Pennsylvania State University
with an M.B.A. complemented by a B.S. in Psychology.
He began his refinery career with Amerada Hess
Corporation where he functioned in a variety of
human resource assignments.
Prior to founding Kalvert Associates, Art served
as Senior Human Resources Executive for GHR Companies,
then the third largest privately held company
in the United States, a top 20 petroleum refiner,
and a top 20 natural gas producer. At GHR, he
was responsible for all facets of human resource
management with particular involvement in recruiting
and related organizational development activities.
