Skills Development and Training

Providing a culture where our employees can learn and continuously improve their knowledge, competencies, and performance to meet our business objectives and to develop necessary skills for the future is extremely important to the OMV Group.

Our functional and technical training courses focus on maintaining a skilled and capable workforce. Our business skills training courses help employees understand OMV and how to work safely and effectively within the organization while adhering to all applicable rules. Through our leadership training courses, we support managers in efficiently and professionally applying our OMV tools and processes, and inspiring and leading their teams. Our personal skills training courses help our employees develop their soft skills to increase their personal impact at work and provide a framework for understanding and demonstrating OMV’s values.

Management and Due Diligence Processes 

Needs Assessment 

Training is planned and delivered annually in line with our workforce requirements. It is planned by the business units according to business needs. Employees identify their learning needs through a combination of localized training matrices. These assist them in creating development-oriented action plans linked to career paths, compe­tencies, and professional goals. The four key competencies we encourage our employees to further develop are functional and technical skills, business skills related to effective work at the OMV Group, personal skills, and leadership skills.

All learning activities should be linked to clearly defined learning and development objectives and agreed with line managers. There are different ways to learn: 70% of what we learn is through on-the-job tasks, 20% involves learning from others through coaching or mentoring, and 10% is from courses. Courses are developed and offered whenever a structured foundation for skills and knowledge is needed.

Types of Training 

OMV provides mandatory training for all employees in areas such as business ethics, cybersecurity, and data protection, as well as mandatory training depending on the job, for instance within HSSE. In addition, we offer a wide range of optional training for all employees, ranging from technical training (e.g., low-carbon initiative and sales training) to personal skills training such as managing change or effective communication.

We encourage the use of online resources for training. The expansion of our online learning content enables employees to access more consistent training content and enhances its accessibility for our offices globally. We also highly encourage employees to pursue further education to enhance their various skills.

Evaluation of Training Programs 

Training processes include structured requests for feedback, which are conducted after training events in order to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and success of training measures, and to implement improvement measures. In addition, our overall training metrics (participation, costs, training hours, training topics, etc.) are reported in a training dashboard at a global level every quarter.

2022 Actions 

• In 2022, there was a focus on mandatory, legally binding, and business-critical self-learning (e.g., e-learning, online learning through our partnership with LinkedIn Learning, and virtual courses/webinars).
• Due to the disruptions caused by COVID-19, we again concentrated on virtual training delivery, as in 2021. All measures to support employees in the virtual and hybrid environment were therefore continued. This included the delivery of virtual health webinars, virtual training of facilitators, and an updated personal skills SharePoint, among other things.
• Leadership training focused on first-time leaders, women in leadership, and how to manage remote and hybrid teams. For identified talents at executive level, a dedicated talent program focusing on enhancing executive leadership skills was implemented.
• New ways of working also continued to be a focal point, for example through the integration of agile ways of working and the newly introduced Project Management Certification Program.
• In terms of graduate development, we expanded our portfolio offering to include a tailored graduate program in Refining as well as continuing with our long-standing Integrated Graduate Development (IGD) Program in E&P.
• As part of our wider Company transition to a circular economy, decarbonization, and sustainability, and on our way to becoming a purpose-led organization, we conducted our first Group-wide Purpose Learning Week dedicated to Advancing Circular. Incorporating a broad range of learning resources available to all employees across the OMV Group, the week was designed to help cultivate a deeper understanding among employees of a circular economy and key enabling technologies. To achieve this, we shared Group-wide examples on this topic to spark interest and enable employees to learn more about how the circular economy is embedded into our business. We held nine MS Teams live events with more than 1,800 participants focusing on circular economy, reuse and decarbonization, renewable products, recycling, and circularity in action. Each day was dedicated to a specific topic and was kicked off with a virtual live keynote by senior leaders and external speakers. This was followed by a virtual Spark the Interest event, where our thought leaders and experts shared concrete examples on that topic. Furthermore, a dedicated SharePoint page was set up with more than 30 additional learning resources focusing on these topics. To help employees implement what they had learned over the course of the week, an interactive initiative was launched to provide tips on how to reduce individual waste and how to correctly dispose of packaging so it ends up at the recycling facility.

Outlook

In 2023, we anticipate that we will continue to operate in a largely hybrid working environment. Therefore, we will again focus on digital learning, remote leadership, and virtual facilitation to further support our employees through this ongoing transition. Additionally, we will continue to focus on initiatives to support our employees with their health and well-being.

To achieve the OMV Group’s Strategy 2030, we will roll out dedicated global initiatives on Purpose and Values and a new transformational leadership program. We will also set up a Sustainability Academy that offers an ever-growing selection of varied, pre-selected learning material to support our employees in expanding their knowledge and enhancing their mindset when it comes to OMV’s journey to net zero. Additionally, we plan to offer specific training initiatives to support the upskilling of technical employees, for example training on low-carbon energy, geothermal, decision quality, and data science.

Target 2030

• Increase average number of annual learning hours to at least 30 hours per employee

Status 2022

• Average number of annual learning hours: 23

Most relevant SDGs

SDG targets: 
4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of young people and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship
8.2 Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading, and innovation, including through a focus on high value added and labor-intensive sectors