ExxonMobil Chemical is celebrating becoming the 500th organisation in Hampshire to achieve Investors in People status.

Hampshire Training and Enterprise Council presented the award to the Fawley-based company at a special ceremony during national Investors In People Week - and in doing so underlined its own position as one of the top performing TECs in the country.

ExxonMobil Chemical - one of Hampshire's largest employers - has 550 staff based at Fawley, near Southampton, and produces 800,000 tonnes of chemicals annually.

Chairman Michael Lane received ExxonMobil's award at a special presentation ceremony at the Botleigh Grange Hotel to mark national Investors in People Week.

Receiving the award from Hampshire TEC chairman Robert Hillier, Michael Lane said : "Investors in People has played a significant part in our success. Since starting the programme in May 1999 the company has achieved record production, increased profits and produced its best ever safety and environment performance. I'm not saying this was all attributable to IIP, but this certainly helped."

ExxonMobil Chemical was originally unsure about whether IIP would improve on its own internal systems, but was soon convinced otherwise. "We thought we had an excellent system already in place, but an employee survey revealed that staff were not particularly satisfied with training and did not feel we kept them informed on business matters. We decided we needed a framework to build on to show us where we could improve - managers were pleased to find the IIP process was much less time consuming and bureaucratic than they feared and results were rapid."

ExxonMobil Chemical was one of 30 Hampshire organisations to receive IIP awards at the ceremony. Others included the county treasurer's department of Hampshire County Council, BAE Systems Avionics of Fareham; Sainsbury's supermarkets and Eastleigh-based Southern Tourist Board.

Commented Robert Hillier: "It was very fitting that in national Investors in People Week, Hampshire TEC should also be celebrating its 500th recognition. We congratulate ExxonMobil Chemical and all the other successful organisations - they prove that investment in training linked to business objectives delivers tangible benefits.

" Nationally, more than 19,000 organisations - large and small - have achieved the IIP standard and Hampshire can proudly say that it has made a significant contribution to that number and to the health of the regional economy."