Aluminium Bahrain has won two prestigious awards in recent weeks, one for employee empowerment announced by the International Federation of Training and Development Organisations’ (IFTDO) and  the other for safety, given by the British Safety Council.

IFTDO awarded Alba the Global Human Resource Development Award 2009 for its paper on “The Smart Centre at Alba.”
Alba is the first organisation in the Arab world to have been selected for the accolade that honours breakthrough ideas in human resource development.
Smart centres at Alba were started in April 2004 as an effective way to strengthen motivation levels amongst employees by bringing the practice of strategy to the shop floor. The objective was to strengthen employee potential, stimulate creativity and create a sense of belonging, ownership and commitment, Alba explained.
Alba’s paper was awarded the prize in the knowledge management category.
There were 22 submissions from nine countries. The other categories were performance management and people management.

Safety awards
The British Safety Council’s international safety award for 2009 was the third consecutive win for Alba.
That was not the only award Alba has received for the third consecutive year. Earlier this year, it scored a hat trick after winning the RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Award 2009 for the third time in a row.
“Alba has clearly demonstrated its dedication towards improving performance in the area of good health and safety and the well being of its employees. Entering the British Safety Council Awards reinforces the message that good health and safety is good for business and that the organisation is committed to reducing the number of accidents and cases of ill-health at the work place,” an Alba statement said. 
“Alba has consistently maintained a high track record for safety, continues to enforce strict environmental guidelines and has surpassed production targets set for the year. It supports numerous community-oriented programmes and social activities that have underlined its status as one of Bahrain’s leading industrial organisations that remains fully committed to its corporate social responsibility,” it added.
Safety and security manager Abdulla Yaqoob Senan remarked: “Participating and winning the award for three years in a row is truly a reward for all our efforts in promoting good health and safety as well as in improving the work environment for our employees. This year we have converted to the OHSAS 18001 Version 2007, which places greater emphasis on health.  I would like to thank the management and all employees for their commitment and efforts to turn this into a reality.”
In other Alba news, the company announced that its acting general manager (calciner), Abdul Rahman Janahi had taken over as chairman of the Albaskan project which oversees the housing requirements of Alba’s Bahraini employees. He took over from Mohammed Mahmood who was recently promoted as chief operations officer at Alba.