We recognize corporate social responsibility as a cornerstone of future success. Our approach is rooted in our core values, The Chevron Way, in which we commit to conducting our business in a socially responsible and ethical manner, respecting the law, supporting universal human rights, protecting the environment and benefiting the communities where we work.

We take advantage of technology to meet the challenges of the energy industry. Whether you’re developing new refining processes, working on our global information infrastructure or simply sending email to colleagues, you’ll have access to the latest tools and technology.

At our company, you’ll find people with a variety of backgrounds, experiences, styles, cultures, skills and competencies. And, we welcome you to share your unique background and insights with us. Our goal is to be recognized by our employees, customers, shareholders, industry peers and the governments in countries where we operate, as a company that values diversity and leverages it for business success. To reach this goal, we’re continuing to build an open, inclusive work environment where all of our employees can realize their potential.

We believe that diversity will help us succeed as a global business. We prize people who can work effectively with others from all walks of life and who feel free to contribute their best. At a global level, we support universal human rights and work to improve the quality of life in the countries where we operate.

Within Chevron, operating companies and departments have strategies to build a diverse workforce. We have proactive recruiting and outreach programs, diversity councils, employee networks, personnel development committees, training, discussion groups and developmental assignments for employees.

We have operations and employees in more than 180 countries. You may want to travel and work in different locations around the world. Or, you may want to stay and grow in one location. Whatever your path, as part of Chevron, your career will have a global impact.

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY

Promoting People, Partnership and Performance

Chevron recognizes the strategic importance of Employment Equity as a key element of its Black Economic Empowerment efforts, and has developed and implemented an integrated model to help achieve its objectives. As a company, we acknowledge that corrective action is required to improve the demographic profile of our workforce, but this initiative needs to be more than a numbers game.

Our approach to employment equity places a strong emphasis on capacity building though proactively recruiting, selecting, developing, coaching and internally promoting people from designated groups. We further believe that, in order to achieve sustainable success over the long term, we need to create a climate and culture that truly values diversity.

Our motivation for embracing the principles of Employment Equity is also driven by the belief that a fully representative workforce will benefit the business on a number of levels. Besides providing access to diverse skills and a wide range of talents, the profile of our employees will more truly reflect the demographics of our customer base.

With regard to our workforce profile, steady progress has been made over the past 10 years to improve black representation in our workforce, currently standing at about 67%.

Key Interventions

Chevron has embarked on an extensive planning and consultation process resulting in the development of an Employment Equity framework, which underpins this initiative. In line with this framework, each Business Unit has developed an Employment Equity plan, containing details of its objectives, as well as the strategies and tactics to achieve these goals.

Employment Equity Consultative Committees have been set up across the country. These committees ensure a broad representation from all stakeholders. Members are democratically nominated and elected. The support and participation of the Union during the process of creating and electing these committees had been integral to the positive spirit which characterises the functioning of these committees.

• Affirmative recruitment
  A measure of the success we have achieved in our affirmative recruitment drive is borne out by the fact that since January 2005, over 71% of all new recruitments have involved HDSAs. During this period 76% of placements in supervisory and management positions were HDSAs.
  
  
• Learning and Development
  During the period April 2004 to March 2005, Chevron invested about R9 million on learning and development programmes involving some 3000 training events. A significant proportion of these training events related to technical and operator training.
  
  
• Co-operative Education
  Chevron South Africa has developed relationships with a number of tertiary educational institutions through which in-service training opportunities are provided to students, largely from the designated groups. This practice has existed for several years, and currently Chevron has over 20 trainees focusing particularly on IT and engineering students. This in-service training initiative has led to many permanent placements within the company.
  
  
• Extra-mural study assistance programme
  Chevron actively encourages its staff to improve their formal education qualifications through an extra-mural study assistance programme. For this initiative, studies at external institutions are funded by the company, in return for a service commitment of equal duration. Of the more than 90 staff members (86% HDSAs) currently taking advantage of this opportunity, 40 are studying for bachelors or Honours degrees and 11 are participating in Masters, including MBA, programmes.
  
  
• Accelerated Development Programme
  As a multi-national organization, it is important to ensure that core human resource processes assist in supporting the development and retention of staff. To this end, the identification and active career management of high potential employees, particularly HDSAs, has been formalized through a Personal Development Committee structure.
  The responsibility of this committee is to identify, nurture and develop the talent that exists through our workforce. For this purpose, we have increased our staffing by creating 20 positions above our regular headcount at a cost to company of R3.5 million. To date, a number of successful placements into management level positions have been made from this talent pool.
  
  
• Performance Management Process
  The implementation of an enhanced performance management process provides us with the ability to track individual performance against certain agreements. Individual rates of compensation are directly linked to performance. This process also allows for the identification of training needs, which guides our learning and development process. In addition to this, we have initiated a BEE performance element in each manager and supervisor’s individual performance management plan. It is monitored in respect of: staffing and people management (including numerical targets); diversity management (measurement includes climate studies); commercial equity (strategy and targets); consultation, communication and strategic alignment.
  
  The actions, programmes and processes that we have introduced to date will ensure that we have the human resource capabilities and the best African talent required in building a successful South African company.