Great Place to Work® is pleased to announce the 2019 list of Best Workplaces in Alberta. To be eligible for this list, organizations must be Great Place to Work Certified™ in the past year, be headquartered in Alberta, and have at least 15 employees working in the province. We determined the BEST based the overall Trust Index score from their Alberta-based employees.
Vermilion is an international energy producer based in Calgary, Alberta. They consciously pursue the integration of environmental and social sustainability into their mission and believe that producing energy for the people and businesses that rely upon it to meet their daily needs and sustain their quality of life is a great privilege and responsibility.
Through the ups and downs of Alberta’s oil industry, Vermilion has maintained a steadfast focus on not just being a great company, but a great workplace as well. They have been recognized on our list of Best Workplaces in Canada for the past 10 years! They are one of just a handful of companies to have done so.
We asked their President & CEO, Anthony Marino, to offer his insights on Alberta’s labour market, and how Vermilion leverages its award-winning culture to attract and retain top talent.
What differentiates Alberta’s labour market from the rest of Canada?
“Resilience and an entrepreneurial mindset are characteristics that we see in Alberta’s workforce, given the changes we have adapted to in our industry and those from which we continue to learn and grow” says Marino. “Many Albertans also have very strong technical and professional skills, coupled with an expectation that their employers will provide them with challenging work and an opportunity to make a real contribution to the organization’s success.”
At Vermilion, they hire people not just for technical skills, but also for how they fit Vermilion's culture, ways of working and core values of excellence, trust, respect and responsibility. “We also have many people in our workforce who have had experience working internationally. For Vermilion, this means the ability to work across our diverse regions including North America, Europe, and Australia.”
What is the biggest challenge facing Alberta’s Oil and Gas industry?
According to Marino, the oil and gas industry is facing a number of challenges: access to pipelines and regulatory uncertainty are two that have a big impact on the investment community. “Related to that is a recognition that we are part of the energy transition that is currently underway, and the focus on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)”.
Marino points out that “Alberta’s oil and gas is produced under some of the world's most stringent environmental and social standards. If the world markets do not have access to our resources, they will turn to countries much less concerned than we are with issues such as emissions and human rights. While the world still needs oil and gas for economic development, for necessities such as heating and cooking, and for essential products like lifesaving medical devices, we should be turning to Alberta-based companies as producers, and indeed employers, of choice.”
How does Vermilion ensure they are attracting the best talent to help navigate a changing landscape?
“We prioritize health and safety, the environment, and profitability, in that order. Nothing is more important to us than the safety of the public and those who work with us, and the protection of our natural surroundings” says Marino. “We know that matters to both our current staff, and to prospective employees. We also know how much our work within our communities matters -- especially for employee engagement. People want to work for socially conscious and engaged companies and Vermilion lives this through our work in Sustainability and Strategic Community Investment.”
Top of mind for Vermilion employees is the profitability of the company and the sustainability of their long-term careers. Vermilion encourages all employees to “think and act like owners, aligned with our external shareholders through the design of their share-based compensation programs. We also strive to develop careers over the long-term, via challenging assignments and learning opportunities to continuously improve skills and the expertise they bring to the company and the industry overall.”
The search is on… We are looking for the Best Workplaces in Energy, Mining, Oil & Gas!
In May 2020, we’ll be publishing our first list of Best Workplaces in Energy, Mining, Oil & Gas! Get Great Place to Work – Certified by March 17 to be considered for this list.
We’re looking for great workplaces
Register today to become Great Place to Work Certified™. Get recognized for the outstanding culture you’ve built or let us help you create a more productive work environment. Or attend one of our free live webinars to learn more.
About our lists
Great Place to Work® publishes a series of Best Workplaces™ lists based on feedback from more than 300,000 employees at Great Place to Work Certified™ organizations across all industries in Canada. Employees complete an anonymous Trust Index© survey, answering questions about how frequently they experience behaviors that create a great workplace, including, the transparency of communication, degree of collaboration, quality of benefits programs, opportunity for professional development, and support for work-life balance. If 7/10 employees respond positively to the survey, the organization becomes Great Place to Work Certified™ for one year. Results from the survey are highly reliable, having a 95% confidence level with +/- 5% margin of error.
About Great Place to Work®
Great Place to Work® is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and certification programs, GPTW recognizes the world's Best Workplaces™ in a series of national lists including those published by The Globe & Mail (Canada) and Fortune magazine (USA). Great Place to Work® provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures.
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