Talent Attraction and Retention

The OMV Group is committed to building and retaining talent for international and integrated growth. Effective succession planning contributes to managing business continuity risk by ensuring the preservation of human capital – OMV’s most valuable asset. As described in our Code of Conduct, OMV strives to build long-lasting employment relationships and to employ people from the countries in which we operate.

Management and Due Diligence Processes

Talent Acquisition

Our employees are selected exclusively on the basis of their qualifications, suitability, and professional experiences. Internally, we focus on job rotation, promotions, and skill development to tackle challenges and develop innovative solutions to enhance our workforce. Together with Borealis, we use joint internal job boards to offer a wide range of internal job opportunities to our employees.

Externally, we concentrate on building robust talent pipelines through cooperation with key universities in our locations. In addition, both OMV and Borealis offer internships and apprentice programs, which are mainly focused on the technical and commercial aspects of our business. To dispel the negative perceptions of the oil, gas, and plastics industries, it is important to proactively inform the public and our target groups (such as potential future employees) about the benefits of the products we produce as well as sustainability challenges and how we address them. Being visible on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn enables us to show potential candidates the inner workings of OMV and Borealis, including what it is like to work for our Company and the fact that joining us means being part of the solution for a more sustainable future.

Performance Management and Career Development

OMV strives to maintain a uniform organizational structure that provides clarity and transparency with regard to responsibilities and the hierarchical classification of positions. We have developed Company-wide career paths that outline the experience and skills required for a position.

OMV has an annual review process in place to support our employees and managers through structured, systematic planning of performance and personal development within the Company. Employees, together with their managers, set performance and development goals, review their progress, evaluate achievements, and are ultimately rewarded and recognized annually.

“Personal Impact x Potential” is used as an evaluation tool to provide structural feedback in performance reviews and in succession planning. Managers evaluate their employees on personal impact and potential and identify successors for business-critical positions. Based on this, an employee’s development plan is created to improve the skills needed for his or her future role.

Rewards

In order to promote and support OMV’s strategy optimally, OMV aims to ensure competitive compensation and benefits packages within relevant labor markets in the oil, gas, and chemical industry. Annual remuneration reviews are conducted to ensure this.

OMV continuously monitors market trends and international best practices in order to attract, motivate, and retain the best-qualified talent from around the world. Base salaries are set in accordance with internationally accepted methods for determining market levels of remuneration and comply with the relevant legal regulations, for example, collective agreements. Base salaries are market oriented, fair, and tailored to the position and expertise of the employee. OMV encourages salary equality at all career stages, for instance, by setting standardized entry-level salaries that are reviewed each year in line with the local market situation.

OMV strives for long-lasting employment relationships. We ensure fair and objective evaluation of positions consistently across all divisions and countries by applying a clearly defined methodology and process. The outcome of the evaluation is the basis of the remuneration decisions for every employee. The remuneration includes a balanced and transparent mix of fixed and variable monetary and non-monetary components.

As part of the annual performance review process, Company goals, including the achievement of sustainability goals (e.g., HSSE, GHGs, diversity), are cascaded down to employees in the relevant departments and form part of the annual evaluation and subsequent bonus awarded. Individual monetary and non-monetary awards are granted on top of this for extraordinary achievements.

The portfolio of benefits is additionally customized for each of the countries in which OMV operates to meet the needs of the local employees. Depending on local circumstances, additional incentives may include the following: retirement plans, subsidized cafeteria, health centers, kindergartens, summer kids camp, and anniversary payments.

Talent Retention and Leadership Development

One of our People Strategy priorities is to strengthen leadership capabilities. We aim to ensure that our leaders continually grow and develop. To this end, we have leadership programs in place that are designed to support both those employees who take on new management roles as well as current leaders who want to upgrade their basic knowledge on leadership. We also offer mentoring to provide employees with guidance on key career issues.

Employee Engagement

We involve our employees in key HR strategies via programs such as quick polls and employee events with Executive Board members and other senior management. Topics of engagement include flexible working arrangements; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and performance management. This is a key part of our due diligence to ensure our strategies are meeting employees’ needs.

2021 Actions

The COVID‑19 pandemic again defined 2021. During the coronavirus pandemic, many new employment-related measures were implemented to protect the health, well-being, and economic situation of our employees.

• By closely monitoring the constant legislative output, we succeeded in maintaining full labor law compliance while also offering our staff new options to help with their pandemic-induced personal situations and needs. Employees were offered various new solutions (depending on the local jurisdiction) to combine work duties and care obligations more flexibly. All employees were provided the option to work from home where practically and technically feasible.
• In order to ensure organizational agility and excellence and to make OMV a great place to work during these times, we developed virtual collaboration programs and remote leadership capabilities. This year we continued our journey to shift development toward more global and virtual programs that are easily accessible and can be facilitated in-house. Our new manager training was delivered completely virtually, and a new program called Remote Leadership supported our executives and managers in managing remote teams of employees either working from home or in a different country. OMV’s culture and performance was safeguarded by growing our leaders’ virtual and remote collaboration skills.
• We developed the Working from Home Guide, which is a virtual guide containing tips and tricks for improving virtual teams through the use of technology. Learning collections were provided to assist employees with leadership during times of crisis as well as managing stress and virtual work. Information and advice are regularly provided on all employee-relevant questions. Reliable internal processes mirroring new administrative processes were promptly implemented. Free psychological support was offered to all employees, enabling them to talk to a professional about coping with the pandemic.
• At the end of last year, we ran a quick poll on how employees were coping during the pandemic. The response was positive, and our staff expressed the wish to keep working from home as the “new normal.” Based on their feedback, a flexible home office policy was introduced in 2021.

Outlook

We are working on a new HR strategy and a new HR purpose in line with the Company’s new strategy. Over the past year, the HR teams from OMV Petrom, OMV, and Borealis have collaborated increasingly to share best practices and find a common way forward. Great synergies have been unlocked in recruitment, provider sharing (e.g., LinkedIn digital learning), and training programs on the oil, gas, and chemical industries. The future aim is a shared HR Group Strategy.