Saica Group

Raúl Elgarrista

We cannot deny that attracting and retaining talent constitutes one of our greatest challenges, and finding a solution to this challenge depends on numerous factors, both internal (company) and external (market and business). We use numerous tools to address this challenge. At Saica, a family-owned industrial company employing more than 10,000 workers and operating in more than 10 countries. Growth has been key to our strategic planning, and therefore, our young, innovative and trained talent allows us to take on projects, developing the skills of our current workforce, supporting the transfer of resources with extensive experience, and preparing the future of our human capital.

The Graduate Expert Programme, which has been the framework for recruiting talent in our company at a global level for more than two decades, has gradually evolved and is currently based on a dual goal:to train experts in specific areas or divisions and to recruit future managers.

The profile is very clear: university graduates with a maximum of 2 years of experience, fluency in English and with international experience. The Graduate Expert will follow a 2-year training programme to gain training or expertise in a specific division or area, supported by 3 experts who will support and advise them throughout this process under different roles (supervisor, tutor, and mentor) through regular follow-up evaluations. The whole time, the graduate is doing a real job with responsibilities to challenge and develop them in the workplace. After that period of time, an evaluation will be carried out to determine how to continue developing their skills, either in the technical field or as prospective managers of the company.

“The Graduate Expert Programme, which has been the framework for recruiting talent in our company at a global level for more than two decades, has gradually evolved and is currently based on a dual goal”

In the first case, the Graduate Expert will be involved in the existing corporate Development and Training Plans and in the second case, the Graduate Expert will follow a specific training programme focused on "management" and leadership skills, which will be developed with the support of external Training Institutions and focused on 9 modules.

Over the last years, hundreds of Graduate Experts have completed the Programme, allowing the company to renew its talent with new skills, providing an international and complete vision of Saica to this new human capital (training for 2 years may require spending time abroad in countries other than the country of origin) and allowing the corporate growth, by releasing its own experienced resources for the projects and by creating a talent pool to cover both structural and operational management or technical positions based on Saica's corporate training culture.

The Programme is so important that the People Group identifies the programme as a KPI for monitoring our Strategic Plan 2025, aimed at reaching a target of 1.5 percent of our workforce as Graduates Expert. Likewise, we reflect our values, we care, we value and we challenge, with a programme which takes care of talent, values talent and challenges talent.

In 2023 we have embarked on recruiting new positions in different countries, areas and divisions starting with the annual event held in Zaragoza on 18 January. It commemorated the Graduation of the last batch of Graduates Expert in the Group and included a motivational speech by Toni Nadal as part of the event.

This year Saica celebrates its 80th anniversary and our Graduate Expert Programme will continue to be a leading force in attracting, training and developing young people who will help make the challenge of talent an integral part of our daily management.