People

The six Oil Search Leadership Behaviours describe how we expect our employees and contractors to work. We incorporate these behaviours into all employees’ annual performance assessments, graduate training, leadership development and recruitment guides.

Oil Search provides employees with valuable opportunities to gain experience, skills and vocational qualifications. Investing in employee development enables us to attract and retain talent with the skills, experience and capabilities to achieve our business and growth objectives, and provides a pipeline of people who are ready to sustainably transition into leadership roles.

We recognise that workforce agility, empowerment and innovation are critical to our success, especially during periods of change, so we are committed to developing the knowledge, skills, competencies and attributes of all our employees.

Our 2020 Employee Development Strategy is designed to support business success and the Company’s licence to operate through workforce capability and engagement and to develop a pipeline of future leaders at Oil Search, through targeted development initiatives.

Employee development at Oil Search includes online, face-to-face and external courses; on-the-job training; secondments; mentoring; coaching and higher education support. We adopt a 70% self-directed, 20% social and 10% formal course approach to individual development.  Each employee is encouraged to develop and work towards an individual Career Development Plan with their manager and to seek learning opportunities throughout their career. All our employees participate in an annual individual performance review process.

Organisational development specialists oversee our training and development activities. Formal staff development programmes ensure clear career pathways for current and future business leaders, and help us to recruit and grow new entrants to the industry. They are designed to reinforce and develop the Company’s leadership capability and diversity, and to instil values and behaviours that support the delivery of our Company Strategy. Our programmes also help to build a pool of skilled and experienced talent at all levels of the industry in PNG and are an important component of our socio-economic contribution.

We promote new role opportunities through our internal job site. Where we are unable to find the right skills internally, local employment is encouraged as the next option whenever possible.

Our Company-wide learning management system captures training course participation and enables employees and contractors to identify their role-specific training needs. Key indicators on succession depth are reported regularly to the Board People and Nominations Committee.

Leadership Development

Oil Search offers a range of leadership programmes to support personal development and build organisational capability to deliver on our Business Strategy. Our programmes deliver world-class content and practices in engaging formats to make sure the learning experience is valuable.

Coaching Our Way

Coaching Our Way is an organisation-wide programme for people and technical leaders across the Company. It is delivered as a 1.5-day workshop with pre- and post-work requirements. Participants are equipped to engage team members and create an environment where people can reach their potential, with skills to conduct effective coaching conversations and provide meaningful recognition and feedback.

The Accelerated Development (ADP), Citizen Development (CDP) and Leading our Way for Women Programmes are focused on developing our current and future leaders.

Accelerated Development Programme

The ADP identifies high performers with leadership potential and develops them through an 18-month programme that includes residential workshops and executive coaching sessions. Each participant has a customised development plan and is teamed with two Executive General Managers as mentors. Discrete projects (often outside their immediate responsibilities), on-the-job learning, 360-degree feedback and personal reflection are an integral part of the development experience. This programme facilitates cross-departmental understanding and communication, and gives current and future leaders a broader awareness of the Company.

Having a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the areas where we operate strengthens our capability and resilience. We aim to provide an equal opportunity work environment that’s free of harassment and bullying and promotes decision-making that is unbiased and free of discrimination and victimisation.

As outlined in the Oil Search Diversity and Inclusion Policy, diversity encompasses, but is not limited to, gender, ethnicity, age and culture. The Diversity Policy, the Oil Search Code of Conduct and our Human Resource Standards make it clear we will not tolerate discrimination, harassment, bullying or other victimisation, and outline how we approach a discrimination allegation.

Our 2020 Diversity and Inclusion Strategy aims to leverage a diverse, inclusive and representative workforce to achieve top quartile business results. The Strategy focuses on increasing:

• Female representation in senior leadership roles.
• Female representation in our Graduate Development Programme.
• PNG national representation in PNG leadership roles.
• The “Inclusion index” result of the employee engagement survey year on year.

We report our progress towards these objectives in our annual Social Responsibility Report.

Our approach includes applying candidate gender diversity requirements for all external roles and removing diversity marker information from resumes. This improves the diversity of candidates being considered and reduces the risk of personal bias during recruitment. We also conduct unconscious bias training for our senior managers.

Both gender and ethnicity are elements of our selection criteria for participation in our Accelerated Development, Citizen Development and Graduate Development and Apprentice Programmes. For further information on these development programmes,see Training and Development.

Flexible working

Our parental leave offering aims to create and maintain a work environment that accommodates the needs of our employees with non-work responsibilities. Flexible working arrangements are available, and employees can purchase up to two weeks’ additional leave each year to help balance their personal and professional commitments.

We also continue to pay superannuation payments to men and women who take unpaid parental leave, a point of difference for our Company in both Australia and PNG. In Alaska, we offer flexible start and finish times to support our employees with personal commitments outside work.

Women's empowerment

We recognise the impact gender-based violence can have on the wellbeing and productivity of employees and as such, we provide a safe environment and support to employees who are subject to violence. Our principles of support are outlined in our procedure governing family and women’s protection.

Our Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) Strategy, which includes elements of our Company processes and community-based activities, is overseen by the Board HSS Committee and the Oil Search Foundation Board. It is delivered by a dedicated WPE project manager and supported by an employee group, the Women’s Protection and Empowerment Steering Committee.

The Oil Search Women’s Network provides an informal opportunity for women across the Company to support and learn from each other.

Reporting 

To the extent that the law permits, we collect data on workforce age, nationality and gender to support our diversity efforts. Our drive to provide a workplace free of discrimination and victimisation of any kind aligns with or exceeds local legislative requirements in each of the countries where we operate.

Also in support of our diversity and inclusion efforts, we lodge an annual public report with the Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA). The WGEA report covers our Australian workforce employed by Papuan Oil Search Limited. Click here to view the latest copy.

Our diversity and inclusion performance, including instances of discrimination, is monitored on a quarterly basis by the Board People and Nomination Committee, and is included in Key Performance Indicators for some executive managers.

See People and Organisation in our Data Centre for more information.

A well-structured performance management programme, paying people fairly for the work they do, and providing competitive benefits and incentives are key elements that enable Oil Search to attract, retain and motivate the right people to achieve our business objectives.

We are committed to providing market-competitive remuneration and benefits that are above the minimum wage, and to rewarding sustained high performance in the form of consistent achievement against Individual Performance Goals.

All our employees receive a market-competitive total fixed remuneration package. We benchmark remuneration annually against relevant local market salary surveys conducted by independent third parties.

For information on Board members' and senior management's remuneration, see the remuneration report in our latest Annual Report.

Incentive schemes

Our permanent employees participate in a STI scheme that rewards individual contributions to team, business unit and overall Company performance (assessed using an STI scorecard). The STI scorecard consists of a range of operational, financial and business growth measures directly linked to our objectives, including: safety, production, cost management and profit, resource discoveries and achievement of strategic initiatives. We determine individual allocations from the STI pool with reference to individual performance against job requirements and individual performance goals, as well as our leadership behaviours.

Total Recordable Injury and Process Safety represent approximately 10% of the overall scorecard weighting. If one fatality occurs, the overall safety outcome is reduced by half, and if two fatalities occur, the overall safety outcome reduces to zero.

Provided they’ve demonstrated an acceptable level of personal performance, each permanent employee can participate in our Long-Term Incentive plan. This gives the Board the flexibility to grant employees equity incentives such as performance rights, share rights, and restricted shares, providing them with an opportunity to share in the long-term growth of the Company.

The Long-Term Incentive plan rules set out the key terms of equity incentives granted to employees under the plan. These rules include an express prohibition against any hedging (including any dealing with a derivative instrument intended to “lock in” a profit relating to a an equity incentive awarded under the plan, and any other transactions in financial products that operate to limit the economic risk associated with holding that equity incentive).

Employee benefits

We offer a range of market-competitive employee benefits in addition to local statutory entitlements. For some benefits, Oil Search provides a minimum global standard, regardless of the local market or local statutory requirements. Examples include paid parental leave, continuing superannuation contributions for primary care-givers during periods of unpaid parental leave, and an annual leave purchase scheme which allows participants to purchase up to an additional two weeks of annual leave per year.

We provide other benefits based on their relevance to the location, including local market practice. Generally, these benefits are available to all permanent employees, subject in some cases to a minimum service requirement.

• In PNG, such benefits include: the provision of health care; education and housing allowances; superannuation; life insurance; transport to and from work; and a first home ownership scheme.
• In Australia, such benefits include novated lease vehicles and salary continuance insurance.
• In Alaska, they include the provision of retirement benefits through a 401(k) plan and health and welfare benefits, including the provision of subsidised private medical cover and other insurances.

For further information on Board members’ and senior management’s remuneration, see the remuneration report on our latest Annual Report.

At Oil Search, we recognise that the key to sustainable competitive advantage is our people. We are committed to engaging in good communication and honest dialogue with all employees so we can understand and address their concerns, encourage continual improvement and ensure their actions and outcomes are directly aligned with our broader business objectives.

We encourage two-way communication. Informal engagement occurs regularly between our employees and between employees and their line managers, including during lunch and learn sessions or during job start or other team meetings.

We also provide regular opportunities for formal engagement, such as participation in Health, Safety and Sustainabiilty (HSS) Groups, discussion forums and performance reviews. We also arrange additional opportunities to discuss key issues during periods of significant change. See Stakeholder Engagement for an overview of all the engagement methods we employ.

We measure employee engagement to understand whether our employees feel Oil Search is an inclusive workplace, where they feel like they belong and have the freedom to speak their mind. These feelings of inclusion are recognised as a key contributor to the emotional connection an employee has to their work, which drives business performance and a positive attitude. We use the Gallup Q12 survey methodology and the Gallup Inclusion Index to assess employee engagement, working with Gallup to administer and analyse the survey results.

Our employees and contractors have access to our on-site health facilities and medical services. Should they or their family members need support to resolve work or life challenges, or improve their health and wellbeing more generally, they can access the Employee Assistance Programme, an externally provided, confidential counselling service. Our procedure on family and women’s protection outlines the support we provide should an employee experience family or sexual violence, including allowing them leave to move to safe accommodation or attend appointments.

We work respectfully with employee representative bodies and trade unions. The principles in our Code of Conduct, Social Responsibility Policy and Human Resource Standards also support the creation of a workplace environment in which employees can meet without discrimination, harassment or retribution.

We respond to disputes or complaints about workplace practices fairly and transparently, and our Human Resources team works directly with the employee’s immediate manager to address the grievance. If they cannot resolve a grievance, it is escalated to the senior management team and, if necessary, the Board.

Our approach to workforce management is outlined in our Human Resource Standards and Code of Conduct. These address topics such as open communication with employees, remuneration and benefits, diversity, leave entitlements, anti-discrimination, grievance resolution, and performance management.

Our Human Resource Standards are tailored to represent requirements of each country in which we operate. The Standards meet or exceed the requirements of the PNG Employment Act and other local equivalents. This mitigates the possibility of forced or underage labour within our direct workplace. However, we have identified that some labour disputes — such as the timely payment of superannuation and wages — are an area of potential risk in our supply chain. Such risks have been considered in our Responsible Supply Chain Strategy.

Click here for our most recent people performance information