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.

As part of our P&C Strategy and our ongoing transformation, developing our employees has become top priority. We need to find and integrate employees with a wider range of skills. We need to balance the reskilling of employees to develop new energy solutions with retaining and training employees with the skills necessary to support our legacy business.

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.

In 2023, we assessed specific learning needs. One aim of this was to increase knowledge of our Low Carbon Business in the Energy segment and strengthen the associated skills. We also wanted to expand know-how in our assets relating to operational management and refine awareness of our Sustainability Strategy among employees (see more below).

Each employee identifies 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.

Reskilling and Upskilling Employees

To develop our employees’ skill sets to meet the demands of our dynamic business and to pave the path to become a net-zero company by 2050, we are focusing on the following key areas:

• Upskilling our leaders on the newly implemented Transformational Leadership Competencies to enable them to drive the implementation of our strategy.
• To boost the knowledge of and upskill our employees on the topic of Sustainability in particular, the OMV Group offers a wide selection of online material. Learning Journeys are regularly added to better prepare employees for the evolution of our business.
• Specific initiatives to upskill employees in technical areas are being continued, e.g., focusing on transitioning to a low-carbon business.
• Initiatives to develop managers in our assets of our legacy business to drive operational excellence.
• With several initiatives in the area of data science (e.g., data camp) and digital development we provide our employees with the opportunity develop practical skills and excel in the rapidly growing field of digitalization.

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 initiatives 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.

2023 Actions

• In 2023, there was a focus on mandatory, legally binding, and business-critical courses for self-learning. Several Group-wide e-learning modules were launched, covering topics such as business ethics, human rights, and data and information security. With the rollout of the HSSE Basics e-learning, Life-Saving Rules e-learning, and g-learning for all employees, the HSSE offer was also expanded.
• In 2023, we updated our leadership programs with our new Values and Transformational Leadership Competencies that were designed to support both those employees who take on new management roles as well as current leaders who want to upgrade their basic knowledge of leadership. For identified talents at executive level, our dedicated Leading Ahead top talent program focusing on enhancing executive leadership skills was continued, as was our program for women in leadership positions.
• In terms of graduate development, we offered the second tailored graduate program in Fuels & Feedstock and continued with our long-standing Integrated Graduate Development (IGD) Program in the Energy segment.
• To support the development of future skills, we rolled out a global data science education platform. Its intuitive and user-friendly interface ensures that learners can develop practical skills and excel in the fast-growing field of data science.
• The Sustainability Academy was launched and offered our employees an ever-growing selection of curated learning material about sustainability-related topics. This supports our employees in expanding their knowledge on ESG topics and provides them with a foundation that is needed to understand their role in our journey to net zero. Focus topics for 2023 were ESG, Climate Change, Circular Economy, Sustainable Products, and Human Rights.
• To support the upskilling of technical employees, we offered specific training initiatives, for example training on low-carbon energy, geothermal, decision quality, and data science.
• With our Personal Skills Summer Challenge, we playfully encouraged our employees to continue developing their personal skills. At team level, we had a strong increase in team effectiveness training, which supported leaders and their teams in managing the transformation phase.

Outlook

Various ongoing projects started in 2023 will be ready for launch in the course of 2024. This will positively impact the overall user journey for learners, not only by expanding the content of the learning offer (rollout of specific learning paths) but also by providing a cohesive design and structure of learning touchpoints and improved tools for accessing learning.

• Besides focusing on mandatory, legally binding, business-critical, and HSSE training, we will continue to offer specific training initiatives to support the upskilling of our employees in our strategic focus areas, like training on low-carbon energy, geothermal, decision quality, and data science. The Sustainability Academy will continue to grow in 2024 with additional Learning Paths and focus topics.
• To help our leaders develop their leadership style so they can inspire, support, and empower others to thrive through continuous change and deliver our strategy, we will be launching the Transformational Leadership Program. Over the next three years, we want to equip our leaders with the necessary mindset, knowledge, and skills to lead with purpose and transform our company.
• To enable our employees to support the transformation, we plan to develop an interactive Campus. We will offer an engaging collection of learning material including e-learning modules, keynote lectures, microlearning, and other learning offers that leverage the expertise and knowledge of our network of experts.

Through initiatives like these, we are fostering a culture of continuous learning and development, empowering our teams to thrive in the evolving landscape of sustainable energy solutions.

Target 2030

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

Status 2023

• Average number of annual learning hours: 30

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