SPE 110332

Creating a Great Place To Work: The Result of Clear Strategy and Leadership
Development
Sue MacDonald and Mike Horgan, Marathon Oil; Sam Gomersall, Fast Frog; and Margaret Brown, Optima Training
and Development

Copyright 2007, Society of Petroleum Engineers

Introduction

This paper was prepared for presentation at Offshore Europe 2007 held in Aberdeen,
Scotland, U.K., 47 September 2007.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of
information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as
presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to
correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any
position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at
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Abstract
In August 2005, Marathon Europe set a clear forward
vision and strategy, building upon a rich history and
addressing long term direction for the Europe business
unit (EBU). To support the implementation of this
strategy and to ensure an appropriate focus on our
people, five areas of focus, or Pillars, were created:
Leadership, People, Values, Delivery & Growth.
These Pillars have provided focus and balance in all
aspects of our business and served as a communication
vehicle. Appropriate investment has been made in softer
areas to develop leadership excellence and to support
the development of people. A clear strategy has
provided balance between short term delivery and long
term growth. The management issues involved are not
unique to the upstream oil & gas sector and by
participating in surveys across industry sectors, we have
identified and addressed areas of weakness and built
upon areas of strength.
The results have been an increase in employee
engagement and significant progress in achieving the
long term vision for the EBU. The externally measurable
th
results have included the achievement of 54 position in
the cross sector UK Sunday Times top 100 best
companies to work for 2007, the Ireland Top 50 best
places to work and a staff turnover rate of only 2.6%.
We challenge others to participate in the Sunday Times
top 100 and similar surveys, in order to enhance the
reputation of the upstream oil & gas sector and to create
more organisations which are great places to work.

In 2005, companies were adjusting to the reality of

higher oil prices and the impact this had on the oil & gas
environment. Whilst delivering enhanced returns for oil &
gas companies, the environment presented difficulties of
higher costs, capacity constraints such as rig availability
and a shortfall of trained personnel to enable growth
opportunities to be delivered.
It was as a result of these environmental factors and a
desire to position the EBU for growth, that Marathon
established a clear EBU vision and forward strategy.
Among the key objectives of the strategy developed,
were an increased focus on people issues, to include
both staff and contractors, intended to move beyond a
traditional oil company perspective and to create a truly
great place to work.
The vision established provided clarity to staff across the
business unit in terms of direction and focus. The vision
is, quite simply, to grow a leading European energy
business and be Marathons international hub; With each
employee taking responsibility to make it happen.
Supporting this vision is a clear, much more specific
strategy with elements for each country in the business
unit and for regional growth. Of relevance to this paper is
the strategic objective to be the top energy company to
work for in Europe.
At this time Marathon EBU had a strong existing culture
built on common corporate values, a strong sense of
identity with the organisation and informality in
relationships. There was a history of quietly delivering
major projects and making technological advances
without much song and dance.
Part of the strategy was to build upon this culture to
further develop leadership excellence, focus on people
and re-appraise our approach to growth, while
maintaining our values focus and continuing to deliver.
This approach led to the creation of our 5 Pillars:
Leadership, People, Values, Delivery & Growth.

www.petroman.ir

SPE 110332

The Pillars serve as a communication vehicle for

strategic material for staff and help provide focus and
improve balance. Annual performance objectives at all
levels are now structured around the Pillars to ensure
that everyone has an appropriate balance of objectives,
including People and Leadership, as well as the more
typical Delivery objectives.
In order to further clarify and demonstrate consistency in
Leadership, we developed a series of common
Leadership Commitments for managers and supervisors.
Our Leadership Commitments are that we will:
Pursue a clear strategy
Support individual performance and personal
growth
Create an environment for innovation
Communicate openly, listen and admit mistakes
Enable the correct resourcing to deliver
maximum value always considering work life
balance
Celebrate success and recognise achievements
In combination, these elements of vision, strategy, pillars
and management commitments have provided the basis
for our implementation effort and leadership development,
aimed at creating a truly great place to work.
Leadership development
For the organisation to be recognised as a top
performing company, and to attract and retain the best
employees, it is vital that managers at all levels are
aware of perceived issues and demonstrate to
employees that they are prepared to listen to views and
opinions, then provide feedback and action on these.
Without this demonstration of active two-way
involvement, there is the danger that employees will see
little point in putting forward ideas, that may indeed
dramatically improve the efficiency and success of the
company. They are, after all, often at the sharp end and
therefore may see more clearly what really needs to be
done!
It is becoming widely recognised across all industry
sectors that employees who are directly involved in the
running of the business will perform better and remain
more loyal to their companies. This makes sound
business sense in many ways.
Obviously, it is very costly to constantly attract and train
people, especially if they leave and talk badly of that
company. A bad reputation costs dearly, making it ever
more difficult to attract good people.
If employees feel that their contribution is not recognised
or they are not listened to, they will generally do enough
to get paid and no more. There is a vast amount of
untapped potential in most workforces, knowledge and
ideas that could save money, improve efficiency and
further develop the business.

Recognition of just how critical effective leadership is to

the organisation becomes evident when case studies of
top-performing companies are analysed. Examples of
best in class organisations cite the differentiating factor
as engagement with people. Technical excellence could,
in some cases, be equal to their competitors but the
financial growth over a measured period of five years
was greater in those companies that had a superb
reputation for inspirational leadership and involvement of
employees.
It was recognised that the success of all five pillars and
thus the vision and strategy, hinged around the
Leadership Pillar; in that leaders create the environment
for People to Deliver, which in turn leads to the Growth
of the business. As with any group of people, unless
there are sound Values, there will be lack of trust,
potentially leading to communication breakdown. Within
Marathon these values form a clearly understood,
company-wide working culture demonstrated by leaders
within their daily activities.
In the first instance, the Marathon leadership team
requested an independent assessment of the Europe
Business Unit based on the perceptions of staff.
Feedback was gathered from as many staff as possible
within the offices in Aberdeen, Peterhead, Stavanger,
London and Cork as well as on all three platforms in the
Brae Field. The honest feedback was assimilated into an
extensive document and a leadership training and
awareness programme was designed to address the key
trends identified.
The motivational feedback was shared, as
encouragement and also to understand what it is that
employees appreciate so that all managers can
endeavour to continue with these behaviours. The
formative feedback provided an insight into certain
trends that employees were unhappy about and needed
addressing.
The leadership training included intensive and sometime
uncomfortable awareness training, as well as skills
training in feedback skills, motivation and recognition
tools, meetings management and communication skills.
Managers and supervisors bought buy into a common
set of leadership commitments and the course facilitators
managed some in-depth debates around good
leadership as well as managing any resistance to the
common objectives.
Following the leadership development training, and
having seen many positive actions and changes as a
result, all staff attended a one day conference where
they interacted with colleagues from other departments
and locations in order to understand the company vision
& strategy and to become familiar with the basic tools
that their leaders had adopted.

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SPE 110332

Ongoing training and development is continuing and

includes 360 degree feedback for all managers, as well
as focused one-to-one coaching and bespoke training
within departments as required to address any shortfalls
or issues identified.
Visible changes
As a result of the vision and strategy and the intent that
has come from them, many aspects of the business
have changed or evolved. This section includes a few
examples.
It was identified early, that if we wanted to be successful
in our vision we would need to significantly enhance our
external communications. The objectives were;
enhancing our recruitment, sustaining outstanding staff
retention, improving contractor understanding of our
business and generally increasing community
awareness. Previously, Marathon EBU had been
relatively insular and although we had a good story to
tell, few people outside the company were aware.
Actions to improve external communications have
included creation and implementation of clear business
unit branding, increasing external media profile,
upgrading reception areas to share our message with
visitors, improved recruitment material and enhanced
internal communication processes and material.
Taking on board feedback from staff and learning from
staff surveys conducted, a number of improvements
have been implemented to further enhance the
workplace. Office refurbishment is currently ongoing,
with the intention to provide a better workplace, add
more social spaces and to be more visually appealing.
Efforts have been made to seek staff input at appropriate
stages of the project.
Supporting staff to achieve an appropriate work life
balance is an ongoing area of effort. A cultural change
towards a flexible working philosophy, based on
unconditional employee trust, has been evolving for
some time, but different managers and supervisors can
sometimes interpret this in different ways. Effort has
been invested recently to ensure a consistent culture
exists across the entire organisation. Employees are
expected to manage their own time effectively and
deliver against agreed projects and objectives. However
staff have flexibility to adjust their schedule to suit
personal circumstances.
Several networks have existed within the organisation,
mainly based around technical activities. An active
voluntary mentoring programme has been in place for
several years, which has been strengthened in order to
support the strategy. In addition informal networks have
been created to support new graduates and to provide a
forum for leadership champions (not necessarily
managers) to meet and develop ideas.

In addition to the existing funded sports and social club

activities, we have encouraged a range of in work and
out of work fun activities. Some have a charitable
element and others do not. These help increase a sense
of team and provide a lot of fun for all involved.
Examples include participation in a corporate decathlon,
an internal moustache (growing) challenge and a
competition to match up photos of staff to their pictures
as babies.
Outcomes & learning
In February 2007, Marathon Oil UK was awarded the
54th position in the Sunday Times best companies to
work for survey. At the same time, Marathon Ireland
achieved the Irish Times top 50 best places to work
award.
Marathon has participated in number of personnel
surveys over the last few years, with the intent of
identifying and addressing issues in order to improve the
company as a place to work. This has included an
internal survey in 2004 and 2006 and external cross
sector surveys in 2006 and 2007. In 2006, Marathon Oil
UK did not achieve the Sunday Times top 100 list, with
Leadership and My Manager being our two lowest
scoring categories. However we analysed the feedback
and developed an action plan to address the areas of
weakness. Subsequent improvements and achievement
of the 54th position in the survey demonstrate success.
The analysis of the Sunday Times best companies to
work for survey is based upon eight categories. Each of
these has many related questions which are very direct
and from which there is no hiding place. The answers
leave no doubt on where we are getting it right and
where we are not. The questions are answered by a
cross section of staff on a confidential basis via a web
interface. Marathon was placed in each category
(compared to 2006) as follows;

Fair deal 34th (up from 49th)

Personal growth 44th (up from 128th)
My company 54th (up from 133rd)
Giving something back 77th (up from 102nd)
Leadership 79th (up from 146th)
My manager 80th (up from 161st)
Well being 91st (up from 139th)
My team 110th (up from 143rd)

A comparison between 2006 and 2007 (Figure 1) shows

that there was a significant percentage improvement in
all factors with Personal growth, Leadership and My
manager showing the most significant improvement. The
available data is broken down by work groups and in
2007 the results showed significant improvement among
the offshore group. The feedback obtained from the
different surveys is reasonably consistent; values, HSE
and staff engagement all score consistently high.

www.petroman.ir

SPE 110332

These awards are cross sector and provide a real basis

for comparing workplaces beyond the usual oil & gas
community. Participation also provides an opportunity to
enhance the image of upstream oil & gas companies
with potential future graduates. Many organisations,
including the SPE, have recognised the need to better
portray our industry to students and young engineers. By
demonstrating that we can offer a great place to work,
exciting technology and projects, we can continue to
attract the right talent.

Conclusions

Fig 1: Top 100 survey; improvement between 2006 & 2007 by

category
12%

% improvement

10%
8%
6%

2%

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2. We have achieved the Sunday Times Top

100 best companies to work for, 54th position
and the Irish Times top 50, of which we are
justifiably proud
3. We have learned from earlier staff survey
feedback - both internal surveys and cross
sector surveys and put in place specific
action plans to address identified
weaknesses
4. We have developed a 2007 leadership
action plan to build on strengths and
address weaknesses identified in the most
recent surveys; so improvement is an
ongoing process

4%

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1. Clarity of purpose has been achieved by

putting in place and communicating a clear
vision and strategy, supported by the 5
pillars and management commitments

As a result of feedback from various surveys, including

this years, and from staff feedback, we have developed
a 2007 leadership action plan which is intended to
further focus on issues identified and sustain the
leadership development effort.

www.petroman.ir

5. We challenge others in the oil & gas sector

to participate in the same surveys to further
develop our industrys reputation as a great
place in which to work