Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Material Topic: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Actively seeking diversity of thought and experience, ensuring equal opportunities for all, and cultivating an environment of respect and psychological safety to enable all employees to be their full selves

Key GRI

• GRI 405: Diversity and Equal Opportunity 2016

NaDiVeG

• Employee and social concerns

Most relevant SDGs

Diversity is an enormous strength that we actively leverage to create business value. We strongly believe that 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.

Our DEI Vision states that in order to become an organization where our difference(s) are embraced, our diversity of thought and experience should be used as a catalyst for growth and creativity. We will actively remove barriers to provide equitable opportunities for each employee to grow and contribute to the success of our companies. We will build a culture of trust and respect by working together to ensure an inclusive and safe space for everyone to be their whole and authentic self. The OMV Group is therefore expanding its DEI focus to include a broader range of diversity aspects, such as age, nationality, and diversity of ideas. Ultimately, our goal 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 background (e.g., nationality, gender, age, social, and health).

Specific Policies and Commitments 

As stated in our Code of Conduct, employees and job appli­cants will not be discriminated against because of their age, race, faith or religion, skin color, nationality, ethnic origin, political or other beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, or family status. We have also developed a Group-wide People & Culture Ethics Guideline, which gives more details on our clear position regarding non-discrimination in the workplace. In line with this guideline, we aim to provide Group-wide complaint procedures and investigation principles for any misconduct in this regard.

The principle of equal opportunity is strictly observed in recruitment. Furthermore, to encourage gender diversity, our recruitment policy reflects our commitment to promoting equal opportunities; at least one female candidate is included in the shortlist for each position. Gender is one of the diversity criteria we use when selecting members of the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board. We encourage equal pay at all career stages, for example by setting standardized entry-level salaries that are reviewed each year in line with the local market situation.

Governance

Responsibility for the diversity topic is anchored at the highest level, as the achievement of diversity targets forms part of the ESG targets in the Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) in the Executive Board’s remuneration.
The OMV Group’s People & Culture (P&C) department is responsible for implementing the Group’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy. For more information on P&C, see Employees.

To work on our DEI strategy and reach the milestones defined in our roadmap, a governance team comprising P&C, Communications, and sponsors from Board level was formed in 2022. In addition, during DEI workshops, a volunteer team comprising OMV Group employees was formed and onboarded to provide support in achieving our DEI goals. The volunteer team aids our actions by promoting the initiatives within their teams, creating the voice of the DEI community, and increasing visibility.

Management and Due Diligence Processes 

We have embedded diversity targets into our people processes such as recruitment, talent and succession planning, learning, and leadership development. There is a preference for female candidates when identifying top talent. In order to strengthen our pipeline of diverse leaders, we have introduced the following measures:

• Providing advanced mentoring for women
• Launching the SHEnergy women’s leadership development program
• Running career aspiration talks across all our divisions in the OMV Group with the goal of giving talented female employees greater visibility and ensuring we better understand their support needs and individual career plans
• Encouraging leaders to create an inclusive working environment by making it part of our leadership competencies and performance evaluation of leaders
• Covering unconscious bias in our leadership programs (in its broadest sense, so not only gender but also generational, people with special needs, background, etc.)
• Offering interview training as part of our new manager training with the goal of teaching behavioral interviewing techniques, such as how to overcome unconscious bias and how to better structure interviews
• Including internationality in the criteria for assessing candidates when recruiting executives

The growing diversity of employees (e.g., gender, generations, and internationality) in leadership positions at OMV confirms the effectiveness of the dialogue and activities underway.

2022 Actions 

We strive to continuously develop new initiatives and measures that cultivate a culture of diversity and equal opportunity within the OMV Group. Some of the key activities carried out in 2022 included:

• An employee survey on diversity, equal opportunities, and inclusion was launched at the end of 2021. Through this, the OMV Group was able to further strengthen the culture of listening to unheard voices in our Company, and collect feedback from employees on diversity, equal opportunities, and an inclusive environment in the Company. The survey’s findings played an important part in developing OMV’s new Group-wide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy 2030, which was launched in 2022.
• OMV is committed to ensuring fair treatment and equal opportunities for all employees and has zero tolerance for discrimination and harassment of any kind. In line with our commitment to equality and non-discrimination, we began working on a formal non-discrimination policy in 2022. This will be introduced in 2023.
• International Women’s Day is a day to focus on equality and women’s rights worldwide. In 2022, the motto #BreakTheBias directed the focus toward prejudices that still stand in the way of women’s equality. OMV fully supports this approach and therefore organized events in March 2022, such as a presentation of DEI quick poll insights and a discussion around it, and hosting guest speaker Victoria Schnaderbeck (professional soccer player, Austrian national soccer team).
• In spring 2022, the OMV Group introduced a program specifically designed for expecting parents called the New Parent Program. The aim of this is to support expecting parents by equipping them with all the things they need to know, for example planning their parental leave, their return to work, financial aspects of part-time working models, etc. The program consists of two workshops (Planning your parental leave and Preparing your return) and is aimed at both male and female expecting parents. The workshops are accompanied by various internal and external guest speakers, who share their expertise and own experiences of being a working parent.
• The DEI Awareness Month took place in October 2022, with various events focusing on the topics of interest as deter­mined by the DEI survey conducted in 2021 (gender, generations, parenting, disabilities, and unconscious bias). The month started with the topic of gender, with a theater play based on the fascinating biography of OMV’s first female Board member Margarethe Ottillinger, followed by a panel discussion on female role models. The keynote speech about generations by Tom Palmaerts, futurist and trendwatcher, explored the topic of different mindsets and the behavior of different generations. The next event focused on the challenges parents face in the workplace, with guest speakers from OMV, OMV Petrom, and Borealis. The Dis­abilities Information Event aimed to inform employees and decision-makers about an inclusive working environment and to present best-practice examples. The month ended with a panel discussion with OMV, OMV Petrom, and Borealis Board members on unconscious bias.

Outlook 

In 2023, to help achieve the goals set in our People & Culture Strategy 2030, we will:

• Regularly report on age distribution to identify gaps and foster intergenerational collaboration
• Implement DEI in leadership programs
• Launch an ethics and non-discrimination policy, and design a grievance process
• Create a roadmap to improve support for employees with special needs
• Establish a global DEI Board/Council
• We are also committed to continuously monitoring gender, age, employee background, seniority, and salary equality to ensure fair treatment and equal opportunities at all career levels. In 2023, we will measure our gender pay gap for the first time across the OMV Group.

Targets 2025

• Increase share of women at management level² Management level: executives and advanced career level to 25%
• Maintain high share of executives with international experience³ International experience: equal to or greater than three years of living and working abroad. Executives are defined as Senior Vice Presidents. at min. 75%

Targets 2030

• Increase share of women at management level to 30%
• Min. 20% female Executive Board members⁴ Members of OMV, OMV Petrom, and Borealis Executive Boards considered (stretch target: 30%)
• Increase share of international management⁵ International is defined as non-Austrian citizens. to 65%
• Maintain share of executives with international experience at min. 75%
• Increase support for employees with special needs at our main locations

Status 2022

• Women at management level: 21.6%
• Female Executive Board members: 21.4%⁶ Data as at December 31, 2022. The data is for the OMV, OMV Petrom and Borealis Executive Boards combined. The decrease as compared to 2021 (26.7%) was because OMV had 5 board members, thereof one female, for the majority of 2022. Elena Skvortsova left the board on October 31, 2022. In February 2023, OMV again gained a female board member in Daniela Vlad. Thus. as of the date of publication of this report, the percentage was again 26.7%.
• International management: 59.5%
• Executives with international experience: 67.4%
• Roadmap until 2030 has been developed, with detailed initiatives in place for 2023 and 2024

Most relevant SDGs

SDG targets:
5.1 End all forms of discrimination against women and girls everywhere
5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life
8.5 By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value
10.2 By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic, and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, or economic or other status