Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 2022

Diversity is an enormous strength that OMV actively leverages to create business value. OMV strongly believes that culturally diverse teams are more creative, resourceful, and knowledgeable, and that they generate broader perspectives, ideas, and options. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), therefore, have a strong impact on people and teams, improving engagement and job satisfaction, and directly contributing to the Group’s profitability and sustainability.

The OMV Group is therefore expanding its DEI focus to include a broader range of diversity aspects, such as age, nationality, and special needs. Ultimately, the goal of OMV is to encourage and support all forms of diversity in the workforce and create an environment of respect where all employees are valued. This means having an inclusive culture in which the same opportunities and level of psychological safety are in place for all people to feel supported and be successful, regardless of their nationality, gender, age, or social and health background.

As a company active in an industry with a strong technical focus, it is particularly challenging for OMV to achieve a satisfactory gender balance in all fields of business activity. OMV is committed to supporting women’s advancement to managerial positions. The aim is to increase the proportion of women in management roles from 21.6%*Advanced & Executive Level currently to 25% by 2025, and to 30% by 2030, through a number of initiatives such as mentoring, succession planning, specific training, and those that promote a healthy work-life balance.

The proportion of women in the Group as a whole is 27% (2021: 27%). A total of 21.6%*Advanced & Executive Level (2021: 20.9%), of employees in management and executive positions are female. In OMV’s leadership development programs, the proportion of women was 49% in 2022 (2021: 49%). In OMV’s Upstream integrated graduate development program for technical skill pools, the proportion of women was 21% in 2022 (2021: 31%). Diversity has been incorporated into all leadership development programs and embedded into the OMV People & Culture Strategy.

In 2022, a DEI Governance team was formed with representatives from OMV, OMV Petrom, and Borealis, and the new Group-wide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategy 2030 was launched. Group-wide work streams have been set up to give the actions of OMV in the areas of gender, generations, people with special needs, caregivers, and LGBTQI+ more momentum and visibility.

OMV has also developed a Group-wide People & Culture Ethics Guideline, which gives more details on our clear position regarding non-discrimination in the workplace. In accordance with this guideline, OMV aims to put in place Group-wide complaints procedures and investigation principles for any misconduct in this regard.

Throughout 2022, several events were organized to increase awareness of and ambition to focus on our DEI goals. In March, OMV hosted an International Women’s Day and in October, the DEI Awareness Month featured several panel discussions and keynote speeches from the Executive Board and external experts.

OMV further strengthened its training programs, such as SHEnergy, a blended learning program for women at OMV, to promote women’s leadership skills. This program focuses on active inclusion skills and also emphasizes the power of mentoring and networking in developing female leaders.

The New Parent Program started in Austria, focusing on equipping future parents with information on parental leave and part-time models, associated long-term financial aspects, and things to consider when returning to work. The program’s target group includes both male and female employees to encourage more equal distribution of childcare responsibilities.

OMV promotes talents from different backgrounds, thus ensuring the best mix in diverse teams. OMV especially supports the recruitment and development of women in technical positions.

OMV’s headquarters in Vienna has two company kindergartens attended by children of OMV employees.

The Executive Board and Supervisory Board consider the described measures and programs for fostering the diversity of the workforce as a key factor in strengthening the diversity of the internal pool of Executive Board succession candidates. The Presidential and Nomination Committee concerns itself at least once a year with the identification and development of high-potential employees. In addition to internal succession planning, the Supervisory Board also makes use of external recruitments in order to best fill open Executive Board positions. When selecting Executive Board members – be it internally or externally – special attention is given to the balance of gender, age, and international experience, in addition to professional skills.

Until the resignation of Elena Skvortsova on October 31, 2022, there was one woman on the Executive Board of OMV.*Following the resignation of Elena Skvortsova, the OMV Executive Board has once again included a woman, Daniela Vlad, since February 1, 2023. Currently, the Executive Board members of OMV Aktiengesellschaft are between 48 and 58 years old and are from four different nationalities (see also “Events after the balance sheet date”). At this point in time, the Executive Board members of OMV Aktiengesellschaft were between 52 and 60 years old, came from three different countries, and had acquired extensive international management experience.

With regard to the election of Supervisory Board members, the selection of potential candidates is based on various criteria, particularly the candidates’ professional skills, personal integrity, independence, and impartiality. In addition, diversity aspects such as the representation of both genders, a balanced age distribution, industry and technical expertise, and internationality of members is taken into consideration.

On December 31, 2022, the Supervisory Board of OMV included six women, corresponding to a share of 40%. In line with the strategic orientation of the Company, particular focus will be given to further strengthening industry-specific expertise and the internationality of the Supervisory Board. With members aged between 42 and 70, the Supervisory Board’s age structure is balanced.