Greta Raymond, Vice-President of Human Resources and Environment, Health, and Safety, Petro-Canada
By Laurel Hyatt
Petro-Canada is one
of Canada’s largest integrated oil and gas companies, involved in oil and gas exploration, development, production, and marketing here and around the world. Its red and white gas station signs are a familiar sight to Canadian motorists, as the company has nearly 2,000 retail and wholesale outlets from coast to coast.
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Greta Raymond
Petro-Canada
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Created as a Crown corporation in 1975, Petro-Canada was privatized in 1991 and is now publicly traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges.
Petro-Canada has 4,400 employees across Canada and the globe. In fiscal 2002, the company saw net earnings of $974 million. Greta Raymond is Petro-Canada’s Vice-President of Human Resources and Environment, Health, and Safety. Workplace Today spoke to her in her office at the company’s Calgary headquarters.
WT:
What is Petro-Canada’s biggest human resources challenge at the moment?
GR:
I would say that the biggest challenge we have right now is that we are poised to grow: growth will come internationally as well as from here in Canada. From that perspective, our biggest challenge is talent management: how we develop our employees, our current leaders, and our leaders of the future in a manner that supports the business direction and future success of the company.
Because we are well known and highly respected within the industry, attracting and retaining employees currently comes easy to us. But, within that scope, making sure we position our talent internally to maximize our corporate opportunities—in other words, ensuring we nurture employees’ skills, capabilities, and leadership for a successful corporate future—is probably our biggest challenge.
WT:
When you say about growing internationally, are you talking about actually hiring people outside of the country?
GR:
Yes. We expanded into the international arena in 2000 when we purchased a suite of upstream assets based in the Near East, South America, and northern Europe. Ever since, we’ve been strengthening our international position to where it is today—a great springboard for growth. Our lubricants division is also selling a significant number of its products internationally; in fact, 70% of our lubricant products are sold to export markets.
WT:
It’s always been my impression that jobs in the oil industry at one point were quite cyclical: is that still the case? In other words, right now you’re looking at growing internationally, but you might have just been coming off a period where you either had to have a hiring freeze or lay people off? Is that still happening?
GR:
We don’t have a lot of excess in our employee base and nearly every employee plays a defined role in how the company works as a whole. We hire strategically and in a measured, planful approach, which so far has allowed us to stay away from the cyclical hiring/firing scenario for the last decade.
We have a workforce planning process where we look ahead and try to determine the numbers of people and the skills and capabilities that we’ll need over the next five to 10 years, depending on the business. We try to do a good job at managing and planning for that so that we don’t have to lay people off.
We also use various other mechanisms. If we have, say, big projects, we’ll hire people temporarily or use contractors and those kinds of things to even things out. If there’s some part of the business that is getting smaller or we’re trying to be more efficient, we have—as much as we can—a very caring, principled, and respectful way of dealing with people, such as providing them with outplacement services.
WT:
So when somebody joins Petro-Canada, they don’t have to worry necessarily about a boom and bust type of cycle?
GR:
That’s our intent, yes.
WT:
How do you ensure that the HR policies are followed everywhere?
GR:
We start with the big picture from the strategic perspective that we have a shared strategy and vision across the company from our executive leadership team of where we want to take the company. From that, we look at what are the HR policies and practices that we need to support that. All of those policies are bought into by our executive leadership team—that’s our CEO, as well as the heads of all the businesses across Canada and the world.
Also, we are in a human resources shared services structure so the human resources employees who support all our businesses are in the same department and they all report to me. Our team has a common view of what the policies and practices are. To support that, we have all our policies and procedures available on our Intranet. As well, we have an Intranet-based supervisor and employee orientation that has hot links to all the policies, so everybody has good access to them, including some of the policies that we would go through during our supervisory training programs.
WT:
You were just mentioning the use of computers and that makes me think of the various Petro-Canada gas stations around the country, of which there are many. Are those actually employees of Petro-Canada or are they employees of the licensee or how does that work?
GR:
They’re employees of the licensee; they’re not our employees. There are a few company-owned stations that we would use, for instance, as test sites where the guest service attendants would be employees of Petro-Canada, but the vast majority are not our employees.
WT:
I was just picturing a small gas station somewhere that wouldn’t necessarily have a computer and how those employees would have access to the Intranet, but I guess they aren’t employees.
GR:
Actually, all our sites—and our licensees’ sites—have computers. We have a high-tech, on-line training program for business owners and service attendants. We train them frequently on a wide spectrum of things such as customer service and Petro Points.
WT:
So even though they’re not Petro-Canada employees, they’re still under your HR bailiwick?
GR:
No, that’s run out of our marketing group, not through HR.
WT:
I thought training would maybe fall under your parameter.
GR:
No, not that training, but when the whole system was set up, we did have some people from HR seconded to help with that.
WT:
You were mentioning about how Petro-Canada is a well-respected company and certainly on the careers page on your Web site it says, “our leadership team has earned the confidence of our employees.” How do you know that, first of all, and what do you think was done in order to earn employees’ confidence?
GR:
I think it’s because we’ve seen the current leadership move the company forward and be very successful. We’ve been expanding and growing, we’ve had very good profitability, our share price has gone up, and so people I think say, “Well, those guys and gals know what they’re doing.” They’re respected because of how they’ve led the company and been very decisive about which businesses to be in and not be in and decisions for new projects and so forth.
There are several ways that we know that. One is we do an employee survey on a regular basis and some of the questions deal with whether employees understand the direction of the company, whether they have confidence that our leadership is leading us in the right direction and those kinds of things. We also do what we call town hall meetings with our CEO as well as executive VPs and senior VPs. They stand up and talk about the company, what success we’ve had, where we’re going, and then answer questions from anybody in the room.
WT:
I recently did an interview with an executive who used the expression, “what is treasured is measured,” so I’m assuming if you treasure employees’ viewpoints on things, you’re going to measure them. So it sounds like you do that in spades.
GR:
Yes. We also have another process for measuring how employees are feeling and that is behaviour feedback. It’s like a 360-degree process for all our leaders and they do that on an every 18-month to 2-year basis. It asks all kinds of questions about our leadership model.
WT:
I understand you have variable pay schemes.
GR:
Yes we do. We have both an executive variable pay but we also have something for all employees called value sharing. And the measures for value sharing are exactly the same as the measures for the executive annual incentive. Now with the executive program, there’s more pay at risk, which value sharing does not have, but we provide an annual incentive and value sharing based on three levels of measures. One is the overall profitability of the company. The second is business unit performance measures; these could be anything from retail volumes to reliability of refineries. Then the third is an individual performance component.
We also have long-term incentives for executives, which in the past has been stock options. We are at the moment looking at that program just because of the focus and concern of shareholders and the public around stock options, as you well know.
WT:
It sounds like you really keep on top of human resources trends.
GR:
Yes, we’re actually fairly well known as a well-governed company. In fact, our board of directors was named the top board in Canada, tied with Royal Bank, by Canadian Business magazine (August 2002).
WT:
Congratulations.
GR:
Thank you.
WT:
There’s another formal system that you have, which is the employee rewards system for both service and performance. Can you tell us a bit about how that works?
GR:
We have one program called exceptional contributor for non-executive employees. There are two parts to it. One is a cash bonus as a percentage of annual salary. And these are for one-time value adding activities that an employee might do, something above and beyond—say they did a study and they saved the company $1 million.
We allow non-executive employees to use their value sharing payment to buy shares in the company instead of getting cash. Something like 40 or 45% of all of our employees are shareholders in the company.
WT:
Do you have any idea whether that’s an extraordinarily high percentage in terms of other competitors or other companies in Canada?
GR:
Just gut feeling, I would say it’s pretty high. I think it’s one of those other ways that we know that people have a lot of confidence in our executives and where they are taking the company.
Then we also have an exceptional contributor stock option program. This is for our top performing employees and we really want to send a signal to them that we want them to stick around long term and we want them to have an ownership in the company and the direction of the company.
WT:
What about service awards?
GR:
Service awards are for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25-year etc. milestones and employees select from an online catalogue of various gifts. Many choose jewellery or watches with a Petro-Canada logo complemented by rubies or diamonds—those kinds of things. We like to see employees wearing these items, showing their pride for working at Petro-Canada. There are other things, such as binoculars, pens, and pencils, and with those gifts they also receive a Petro-Canada lapel pin. It’s really to make people feel good about what they’re doing and valued by the company.
WT:
As an aside, the cover story in our September 2003 issue was on rewards and incentives in terms of both service and performance and your comment certainly ties in to what I’ve been told: that people don’t necessarily want to have cash. Studies have shown they can’t even remember what they went out and bought with the money. And as much as a gold watch has a certain cliché to it, people do like something of lasting value, especially if it has their company logo—they feel like they’re part of an exclusive club in a way.
GR:
Yes, I think that’s true. When we do the exceptional contributor award, it’s probably more about people feeling really recognized and appreciated than it is whether you got $1,000 or $2,000.
WT:
I’m dying to find out what it’s like being a female executive in the oil patch. I realize that things are changing, but for many, many years, it’s been dominated by men. Do you still feel like a pioneer or is it sort of commonplace now?
GR:
In the industry overall I would say it’s not that commonplace, although as you said it’s changing. Within Petro-Canada, I think the company has worked very hard to create the right kind of environment for women professionals as well as a fair environment where people are judged on their capabilities and their potential, not what gender or race they are.
I believe that I am treated fairly and that the feedback I receive is always based on my performance. Petro-Canada is a great place to work and internally, it rarely crosses my mind that I am a female executive working in the oil patch. But within the industry, you’re right: I’m often one of only a few women at industry gatherings.
WT:
As the top HR executive at Petro-Canada, what do you think you can do to help female employees within your own company with their career advancement? Do you think that they look up to you as a role model?
GR:
I’ve been told that I’m a role model, and I’m flattered to hear it. Regardless of my gender, however, it is important to me that I perform my job with integrity and commitment.
I try and support women working for Petro-Canada by supporting policies, structures, and programs that emphasize a healthy work-life balance coupled with fair systems of performance management.
One of my other vice-president colleagues at Petro-Canada—a female—and I have developed a brown bag lunch series for Toronto and Calgary employees where we bring our female workforce together to hear and participate in a discussion about a pre-determined topic. We’ve done them on how to deal with difficult people or dressing for success. The aim of these discussions is to create a supportive environment for women to get to know each other and create their own support network. As well, it’s a chance for us to get to know them and for them to realize that they’re not alone in the kinds of things that still go on in the workplace that can be frustrating at times.
At the personal level, I am a mentor and, across the board, I try to provide as much advice and support as I can when I’m asked.
WT:
I don’t usually ask interview subjects to talk about their competitors but I think the fact that Shell Canada has appointed a woman as CEO, Linda Cook, I just have to ask this question. Do you think that’s going to pave the way for more women to climb the corporate ladder in the industry?
GR:
I don’t know if you know this but Shell—and I admire them for this—has set a target for the number of senior women that they want to have in the company by a certain date. As you say, what gets measured gets done, and I really have to hand it to them for that.
I do think it’s a critical mass scenario. Once you have a few women at a particular level, it becomes more commonplace and unquestioned—it loses its oddity and the perceived glass ceiling goes. I would hope that Linda’s appointment could pave the way for other female CEOs in the future.
WT:
I want to talk a bit about your dual roles in terms of you have the department for HR but you’re also in charge of environment and health and safety. Do you see them all as being one in the same?
GR:
There’s a lot of synergies there you might not think about, but one of our top priorities in the company is to really keep our people mentally, physically, and emotionally well and productive and at work. It really is a joint responsibility between human resources and our health and safety people in particular to do that.
Some examples of the types of things where they work together would be case management—if we have people off work and we’re trying to bring them back—as well as accommodation, wellness, and even leadership. A big part of creating a healthy and safe workplace is leadership and so we’ve found that there are a lot of things where we not only can work together but really need to work together.
WT:
What did you do before your current position?
GR:
I was the senior director of environment, health, and safety and most of my career has been spent in the environment, health, and safety area. I did spend about two years in human resources back in the mid 80s in the training area, teaching leadership and supervision, problem-solving, decision-making, those kinds of things.
WT:
How long have you been with Petro-Canada?
GR:
Twenty years.
WT:
What’s your educational background?
GR:
I have a bachelor’s degree in human biology. I have a master’s degree in environmental health.
WT:
I guess you could say the workplace is sort of like the Petri dish for human animals interacting, as it were, so knowing about environment and health and safety is kind of appropriate, I would think.
GR:
One of the interesting things about my bachelor’s degree is it’s a combination major between the hard science of biology and social sciences. It’s a major that’s particular to Stanford, where I went, and the premise behind it is that you can’t solve the world’s environmental problems without understanding things like economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and those kinds of things. It was pretty holistic. I think it’s prepared me pretty well for what I do now.
WT:
Fascinating. There’s a lot of debate in the HR community, as you know, in terms of having accreditation and qualifications. What background do you think is important for HR practitioners to have? Does it really matter?
GR:
I do think that there are the basic kinds of technical training that people need to have, particularly on the harder side such as benefits and pensions. I think the HR certification programs are also useful, but one of the things, as with any profession, is really the types of experience that people have on the job. We are business partners with our business clients and so we put a lot of emphasis on understanding the business, understanding what the direction of the particular business unit is, what their strategies are, and how can HR best support them in that.
The other kinds of things I think are important are things like non-authoritative leadership so we can make sure that we are providing leadership to our clients and influencing their direction and their decisions in a positive way.
WT:
When you go home every night, when you look back and think about your day, what part of your job do you like the best?
GR:
I would have to say that I really like the people that I work with. We have highly competent, capable, ethical, and very nice people in this company. It’s a great environment to work in, so I would have to say the people. Because I’ve been here 20 years, I know a lot of them.
The other things I like are the fact that because we are growing and successful, there’s lot of challenge, there’s a lot of variety in what I do, and I feel like I can make a positive difference to the company as a whole but also to the individuals who work here.
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