Tullow Oil plc Annual Report 2011 - The Group

Corporate responsibility continuedOUR PEOPLEBeing a rewarding, challenging and great place to work2011 highlights 26% increase in total workforce (employee and contractors);29% increase in employees 3.2% staff turnover rate for 2011, which is a modestincrease on the prior year and within our baseline targetof less than 5% Over 84% participation in our global employee andcontractor feedback survey, ‘Talkback’ 81% favourable engagement score in Talkback, which issignificantly higher than the industry benchmark 371 new people joined Tullow in 2011, 36% of which joinedour African operations Our total workforce increased 26% to 1,548 by year-endSince 2007 our employee numbers have more than trebled, inline with our transformation as a business. Much of our successhas been based on the adaptive and entrepreneurial nature ofour culture, with organisation & culture forming a key part ofour business model, as outlined on page 26 of this report. Ourculture is also reflected in our values.One of our key people challenges is the need to develop andimplement systems and processes that provide both rigour andcontrol but ensure that we continue to foster a values basedentrepreneurial culture throughout the organisation.Talkback: global employee andcontractor feedback survey‘Talkback’ provides a voice to employees and contractors globally.In 2011, the survey received an 84% response rate. Our overallengagement score was 81% favourable, significantly above theenergy benchmark defined by the survey intelligence provider,Sirota. Our employees feel our strengths are in the areas ofsafety, responsibility, innovation, empowerment and teamwork.The main areas for improvement are the obstacles we face as agrowing company in achieving more efficiency and effectivechange management and in the increasing challengeswe have in managing a diverse international pool of talent.There are also regional variations in responses that we willneed to address. One of our 2012 objectives is to consult widelyand to create action plans to further improve our employeeengagement and address priority issues. Overall, 71% ofemployees responded that they intended to stay with Tullowfor four years or more, indicating strong and very encouragingretention. Detailed results from the survey will be published inthe Corporate Responsibility Report.Significant organisational growthIn 2011, we set up operations in Kenya, Ethiopia and Singaporeand expanded our offices in Mauritania, the Netherlandsand Dublin. We created new specialist teams such as theSubsurface Technology Group and the Global IS Service Desk.We also reorganised the business into regions supported bya strong Group centre and sought to maintain a sharp focus on‘business as usual’ despite significant uncertainty in Uganda,one of the Group’s major projects.Our HR function facilitates informal communication andinvolvement on matters that affect employees. Communicationand employee consultation form part of our change managementapproach and we seek to involve stakeholders as early as possibleon any new initiatives. Our Global Share Option Plan provides allemployees with the ability to have a stake in the success of Tullow.In addition to this, we have expanded our reward benchmarkingin countries where it has not previously existed.Maintaining our cultureMaintaining our culture was a key Board-level corporateobjective in 2011, and we continue to take a number of clearsteps to manage this objective. At the recruitment phase welook for people with the requisite skills who align with ourvalues. We reinforce this through our induction process,employee handbook and universal performance managementsystem, where we seek evidence of our values in individualperformance. Through our leadership development andcoaching programmes we help people to live our values everyday at work and to provide support to their teams to do so aswell. Our values are outlined on pages 3, 47, 61, 75 and 111.We also track staff turnover as one of the Group’s KPIs. Ourstaff turnover in 2011 was 3.2% (2010: 1.3%). We are consciousof this increase despite staff turnover remaining low relative toour industry. Continuing to offer competitive remuneration,providing people with development opportunities and trackingwhere we can improve our employee engagement will help usminimise staff turnover. We seek to learn from each personwho leaves Tullow to help us to improve our employment offer.Staying connectedTullow has operations in 22 countries and 45 nationalities ofpeople managing our business from different cultures andbackgrounds means we have to work hard to stay connected,informed and engaged as a group, in all locations and at all levels.We have an Internal Communications team that are primarilybased in London, but have local representation in Uganda andGhana. The team is tasked with keeping everyone involved andengaged with the Group’s initiatives and activities. We manage avariety of channels ranging from our Intranet, videos, Townhallmeetings, informal meetings with Senior Management ande-newsletters. Our Intranet, ‘TullowNet’, is accessed by over1,000 people per day and provides employees and contractorswith regular updates on our business and people stories as wellas social and corporate responsibility news. Over 300 storieswere published during the year.68Tullow Oil plc 2011 Annual Report and Accounts