Goodyear Dunlop Presents Employee HR Gongs

Goodyear Dunlop has presented Pan-European development awards to two associates in the West Midlands. One of the Midlands’ top employers, the company aims to encourage development and recognition within the workplace, supporting employees who train in new areas and develop their roles within the organisation.

As part of their drive towards being “First with People” (the firm’s branding of the initiative), Goodyear Dunlop has developed the Pan-European award. These awards are presented on a yearly basis to those employees who have made a difference or special contribution to the company within the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. 35 associates out of over 30,000 within the EMEA region are selected.

This year the UK team, based in Birmingham, has proudly announced that two of its employees have received an award: Peter Wayte, of the Tyre Technical department and Cliff Hickman from IT. The manufacturer has called the gongs a “great achievement not only for the individuals but also for Goodyear Dunlop UK and Ireland. It highlights the company’s dedication to associates and the investments made.” Arthur De Bok, Goodyear Dunlop EMEA president, travelled to the TyreFort headquarters in Erdington with Darryl Milburn, vice president of HR for EMEA to present the awards.

Product support officer Peter Wayte is based in the company’s Wolverhampton office and deals with customer queries. For many years Wayte has gone over an above the call of duty, training 150 associates on a course called ‘An Introduction to Tyres’. The course, which has mainly been crafted by Wayte, assists Goodyear Dunlop associates in understanding all the elements of a tyre, from how to read a tyre size to the technologies behind car, motorcycle, truck and farm tyres.

This is not part of Wayte’s day to day job; he has developed the programme to help build a more efficient organisation. “With over 22 years of experience with the company Peter has an array of knowledge to pass on to other associates. We have roughly 200 customer facing associates in the West Midlands and for Peter to have trained 150 of these alone is such an achievement. Peter is very passionate about educating people about our products and has a real flair for helping others understand complex tyre technology” said Steve Colman, customer services manager.

Cliff Hickman has been a senior supply chain designer for over 30 years, starting in manufacturing. He has been responsible for developing and standardising processes across the whole region from production receiving, warehousing, including the first truly Pan European Order Entry tool. The company’s IT team has benefited greatly from his commitment. Goodyear Dunlop says that, “He epitomises the First with People ideal, he is hugely respected through the whole organisation for his ability to create flexible and complex solutions in a very demanding area of the business that really add value and drive down cost.”

Ian Smith, IT Business Process manager, Supply Chain, said, “Cliff’s flexibility, professionalism and problem solving skills have contributed hugely to the continued support and good working relations IT has across all areas of the business and all associates from Tyre Builders to Directors. Cliff spends many hours travelling to support his customers including assignments in Luxembourg and Germany.”