Our people drive the Company: they are our competitive advantage; our strength. ROC believes that an important key to success is a strong corporate culture. Elements of our corporate culture include;
- being bold in our approach to business;
- being open in our communications;
- pursuing excellence in all our activities; and
- respecting our team, partners and stakeholders.
ROC is an open working environment where our people are valued and their achievements recognised.
Education and professional development
The senior executive team believes that education and professional development are important parts of maintaining a motivated workforce and acknowledge that by investing in ROC’s employees, they are investing in the Company’s capability to take on new challenges and manage risk.
Specific technical training, leadership development and HSE training are among the areas of focus for us in ensuring employees achieve their full potential.
All employees are required to set personal education and training objectives for the year. These are discussed and agreed with their immediate supervisor during a meeting at the beginning of each calendar year. The process is designed to provide a constructive environment whereby balanced and effective feedback can be given and individual education and training needs identified. This planning process helps to schedule future requirements.
Attraction and retention of talent
We recognise that our success relies on identifying, recruiting and retaining a talented and motivated workforce.
ROC is active in continuing to ensure it remains competitive in the market place and in attracting and retaining a highly skilled workforce. This can be demonstrated by ROC carrying out its annual remuneration review whereby workforce salaries are benchmarked against national data specific to the oil and gas sector. This review forms part of our Performance Management Process and ensures that our people are in the correct roles and identifies where they are placed in terms of remuneration relative to the industry sector.
In order to ensure that ROC remains an employer of choice and continues to remunerate its workforce fairly and competitively, we will be undertaking a comprehensive review of our compensation levels in 2012 as part of our human resources strategy. This will identify areas for improvement and continued excellence in the overall salary package management and will help to develop staff to their full potential.
Where appropriate, we have provided opportunities for staff to transfer between ROC offices on secondment assignments. For example, we appointed one of ROC’s Chinese-national employees, a consultant well geologist who has worked on the Zhao Dong project in China since May 2007, into a full-time position in our Malaysian operation.
We have also continued to work proactively with local schools and universities by providing work experience for school students and internship opportunities to university graduates. In 2011, we placed a year 10 student from a local NSW school into ROC’s legal team for three weeks and an international Chinese student into our new ventures and business development unit for a period of 10 weeks.
Diversity and gender equality
ROC is committed to recruiting, training and promoting individuals based on competence and skills, regardless of gender, age, disability, ethnicity or cultural background.
We recognise that employee and cultural diversity encourages a broad range of skills and ideas, which helps give ROC a competitive advantage in the countries in which it operates. We actively recruit locally in the countries in which we operate and invest in mentoring and capacity-building initiatives. This process also helps to create a vibrant and inclusive workforce that reflects the localities in which we operate. As a consequence, ROC has a diverse, inclusive and open working environment in which its people are valued as individuals and their achievements are recognised accordingly. We are committed to supporting all employees and it is management’s responsibility to develop and encourage a diverse and inclusive work environment.
In May 2011, the Board adopted a Diversity Policy to apply across all operations and staff of ROC. This policy was updated as part of the review of all corporate governance policies and was approved by the Board in January 2012. Additionally, ROC has an Equal Opportunities Policy which sets out that all employees should enjoy good working relationships with each other and management, in an environment free of discrimination. These policies work together to ensure that not only is diversity encouraged.
Employee wellbeing
The wellbeing of our staff continues to be a key priority and focus at ROC. Encouraging and promoting choices that lead to a healthy lifestyle amongst staff demonstrates ROC’s commitment to its people alongside the benefits of a healthy work force.
Initiatives include support in key areas such as physical and emotional assistance. Every year employees are encouraged to participate in wellbeing practices ranging from fitness programmes and activities through financial subsidy; to influenza vaccinations, mandatory medical screening for international business travel and complimentary personal medical health evaluations.
In 2011, 68% of the Australian staff base utilised the fitness subsidy benefit to contribute towards their personal health and well being; fitness and sport-related activities and equipment; and health programmes including alternative medicines. In China, when ROC Bohai moved to its new Beijing premises in early 2011, it signed a corporate gym membership to encourage employees to pursue a more active fitness regime. Representatives of the gym have held in-house seminars to promote a healthy lifestyle through fitness and diet. ROC staff participation rates at the gym are increasing with more than 50% of staff registering.
The focus on healthy eating is equally as strong at the Zhao Dong offshore facilities with the combined annual food festival and healthy eating programme concentrating on education and increased motivation of staff to improve their health.
Work-life balance
At ROC we believe one of the main ways to ensure employee well-being is to provide a work-life balance. We recognise that employees have a wide range of personal obligations that can have an impact on their ability to balance personal and work demands. We therefore endeavour to accommodate flexible working arrangements where necessary. We have several policies that formalise areas where employees typically require help such as: educational sponsorship and parental leave.
Employee health checks
The health of our people is paramount. All employees travelling overseas are required to have a health check. Influenza vaccines and other inoculations are also provided. In China and Australia, we have established a database to monitor our system of annual health checks and to track the health of our employees. In 2011, 48% of the Australian based staff benefitted from some form of professional medical screening; the purpose for which was a mix of compliance with Company policy in respect to international business travel, and employees opting to utilize the personal health evaluation benefit.