Employee/Member Comms., Comm. Mgmt., Excellence Winner
Oil Sands: The Next Generation Sessions
Brenda Erskine
Suncor Energy Oil Sands
Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada
Contents:
In 2006 Suncor Energy Inc.’s oil sands operation in Fort McMurray, Alberta, passed a major milestone with the production of its billionth barrel of oil. At the same time as the oil sands business unit celebrated this accomplishment, the organization was going through major changes as it prepared for a new era of rapid expansion.
The history of Suncor’s massive oil sands mine and upgrading plant has been a fight for survival, with operational upsets, safety issues and high costs continually threatening the operation. In the past, the focus was on meeting production targets and cutting costs, with a crisis-driven culture and a short-term approach to planning. These days, a dramatic shift is taking place at Suncor’s oil sands unit, with a drive towards better planning and improved safety and operational performance. Major changes include the installation of SAP enterprise software to integrate what had evolved into a decentralized and sometimes disjointed operation, as well as projects to improve work processes and site infrastructure, such as roads and office space. The vision: to transform Suncor’s oil sands unit into one of the safest and most efficient operations in the world, capable of taking on the challenge of doubling production by the end of the decade.
To fulfill this vision, Suncor established four business goals, which have been dubbed the “Big Rocks.”(This is a reference to Stephen Covey’s principle, “Move the big rocks and the rest will follow.” In other words, if you focus on the highest priorities, the job will get done.) For the oil sands unit, the “Big Rocks” are:
- Operational and functional excellence—achieving a safe, reliable, efficient, low-cost and productive operation
- High-performance culture—everyone working together in a healthy, productive environment
where people at all levels can make a meaningful contribution and constantly improve their skills
- Sustainability—making sure Suncor balances economic, social and environmental responsibilities for itself and for future generations
- Profitable growth—keeping the business financially strong and capable of funding future growth
To ensure the positive changes would take hold and the business goals would be accomplished, Steve Williams, executive vice president, identified a need to get all 3,000 oil sands employees to understand where the business was going and what it would take to get it there. With this in mind, he asked the oil sands communication team to put together a series of special employee meetings to mark a turning point in the oil sands unit’s history and communicate the goals and vision of the business.
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Suncor’s workforce has been changing over the last several years. Many new employees have been hired recently as the company has expanded, and its original employee base has been retiring. Today, almost one-half of oil sands employees have been with the company for less than two years, and more than 20 percent have been employed for three to five years. About 15 percent have been employed six to 10 years, and 17 percent of oil sands employees have more than 10 years with the company. This means there are three key internal demographic groups: those who are relatively new; those who have been with Suncor through the past decade of growth; and an old guard, many of which are nearing retirement age. There is also a distinction to be drawn between frontline, unionized employees working in operations and maintenance in the mine and plant site, and office/administration employees who work in supporting roles. The ratio of unionized to non-union employees is about 50/50.
The oil sands operation has grown quickly over the last 10 years, and the demands of growth have created a stressful work environment. Many employees do not feel as if management has their best interests in mind. Suncor’s oil sands unit has been described as a “burnout culture,” and employee survey data have shown low engagement levels. Senior leaders are not viewed as accessible to employees, who feel they do not receive adequate recognition for their contributions. Only 35 percent of oil sands employees believe Suncor motivates them to contribute more than is normally required to do their work.
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The three basic goals of the employee sessions were:
- Communicate the business goals (the “Big Rocks”) and Suncor’s plans to achieve them
- Build some energy and excitement about the Suncor oil sands unit’s future
- Establish the oil sands management committee (MC) as good leaders: They know what the issues and challenges are, they understand what employees are struggling with and they have a plan to make things better, but they are also “real people” who can have a bit of fun
and are able to laugh at themselves
The objectives were:
- Deliver communications leading up to the meetings that establish a foundation of understanding about how the oil sands business is changing, and build some excitement and positive energy in anticipation of the June sessions.
- Successfully plan and implement the meetings themselves, including developing a detailed agenda, producing all the audiovisual materials, helping the oil sands leaders to prepare for the sessions and providing them with feedback from exit surveys.
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The June meetings would be the first time in the 39-year history of Suncor’s oil sands business that all employees were asked to attend an off-site meeting outside of normal working hours. With 3,000 employees working in four shifts in a 24-hour industrial operation and in different geological locations, the logistics of staging the meetings posed a huge challenge. Six separate, hour-and-a-half meetings were held at Fort McMurray’s Keyano Theatre over a two-week period, with about 500 employees attending each session. Some would be bussed to the event, and others would drive.
The theme “Oil Sands: The Next Generation” was established for the meetings because, in many senses, the oil sands business is entering a new generation, with big new growth plans, new work facilities and thousands of new employees. The meetings were designed to showcase the oil sands MC. The agenda would follow a natural progression: first, celebrate the past; next, talk about the present; and finally, take a look at the future of the oil sands business. Here are the specific components of the meetings:
- Introduction of all MC members
- A celebration of the history of Suncor’s oil sands unit, with remarks by veteran MC member John Gallagher and a nostalgic video documenting the accomplishments and challenges of the past
- A presentation by Steve Williams, entitled “Bringing the Oil Sands Vision to Life,” that describes
the “Big Rocks” and outlines how the oil sands unit is changing to accomplish its goals
- A video in which oil sands employees talk about the challenges they face in their work and how the company is changing
- A live, interactive question-and-answer (Q&A) session in which MC members answer questions from employees
- Two surprise “video transmissions from the future”: a fake newscast from 100 years in the future and a Star Trek parody featuring members of the MC starring as crew members of the “Star Ship Oil Sands”
- A final, inspiring video of oil sands employees talking positively about the future
- Short concluding remarks from Steve Williams
- A parting gift for each employee commemorating Suncor’s billionth barrel
- An exit survey after each event
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Planning for the meetings began almost a year before they took place, but the project began in earnest about six months before the meetings. A team was formed, consisting of two senior members of the oil sands communication department along with a professional event planner, a contract script writer and a video production house. This group gathered each week for a conference call to review the critical path for the meetings, discuss issues and decide what needed to be done. At key points along the way, oil sands MC members were briefed on the project’s progress and asked for input as the agenda and script took shape.
An important part of the project was the communications leading up to the events, which took two forms. To communicate the vision of the oil sands business and paint a picture of the changes that were taking place, a special series of monthly magazine-style inserts were created and published as part of the oil sands weekly employee newsletter, Update. In addition, to raise awareness and build excitement, a series of teaser ads that hinted at the futuristic theme were also run in Update, which appeared every week in the two months before the event.
Although the budget for the meetings cannot be disclosed, it can be reported that a disciplined approach was taken with respect to managing the costs of the event—external suppliers and consultants provided cost estimates, appropriate use was made of internal resources, and the project ultimately was executed on budget and within management’s expectations.
The project was managed by Brenda Erskine, director of communications and community affairs, and Valerie Mitchell, manager of employee communications. Erskine served as leader of the project team and was the primary liaison with the MC members. Mitchell was responsible for logistics leading up to the event and was event director during the sessions.
Putting the meetings together was an enormously complex task from a logistical point of view. With four shifts and five different business areas, determining who would attend which meeting took weeks of coordination. Individualized letters from Steve Williams were sent to all employees, inviting them to the meeting, including tickets that would be redeemed at the event for the “parting gift.” Selling the ambitious agenda and the unique creative approach to management proved to be a relatively simple task—MC members were up to the challenge, and they liked the unusual and playful approach to the overall theme, the meeting script and the videos.
The biggest challenge related to the sessions was the unknown. Because this kind of an event had never been staged at oil sands, no one knew whether the complex logistics of getting attendees to the events would work, or how employees would respond to the format and content of the meetings, particularly the Q&A sessions. Although staging six meetings over two weeks added complexity to the project, it allowed for adjustments to the sessions based on feedback from the exit surveys. Data from each day’s survey was input and analyzed, with a detailed report delivered to the MC members the next morning, allowing them to adjust their approach based on comments from participants. For example, after the first meeting, many participants wrote that they thought the answers to employee questions were too long and hard to understand. MC members changed their approach for the rest of the meetings, simplifying and shortening their answers, and they received better feedback in subsequent meetings as a result.
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An eight-question exit survey of attendees (using a scale of one to five) demonstrated that the employee sessions were largely successful in accomplishing their goals. Here are some highlights:
- The “Big Rocks” and the oil sands vision were clearly presented at the meeting. Overall, the mean scores for all six meetings were excellent at 3.90. A total of 76 percent agreed, and 20 percent strongly agreed.
- Employees believe in the exciting and positive future for Suncor. Overall the mean score for this belief was excellent at 3.98, with more than 76 percent of respondents in agreement; almost 50 percent strongly agreed.
- Confidence in the oil sands leadership team was the third highest score on the survey at 3.63. Sixty-two percent of respondents supported this. Only 8 percent did not, and 30 percent were neutral.
- Feeling that employees’ contributions to Suncor’s business success were adequately recognized
during the meeting ranked sixth with a mean score of 3.54. Fifty-nine percent agreed, and 11 percent disagreed.
- Survey questions related to the quality of leadership were rated as adequate. Belief that the leadership team is aware of the challenges that oil sands employees face in helping to achieve Suncor’s business goals ranked seventh with a mean of 3.45. More than one-half (54 percent) agreed; 15 percent disagreed.
- The lowest score on the survey was the one related to belief in the leadership team caring about the impacts of their decisions and the well-being of employees, with a mean of 3.44. Fifty-four percent agreed, 14 percent disagreed and almost one-third were neutral.
Although the survey questions related to leadership were ranked lower than other questions on the exit survey, the numbers still show a marked improvement over previous employee surveys, in which just 32 percent of respondents felt that they a received adequate recognition for their contributions and accomplishments, and only 25 percent said the company’s senior leaders were appropriately accessible to employees.
One series of meetings cannot be expected to permanently change employee attitudes, but the “Oil Sands: The Next Generation” employee sessions have served as a turning point and a catalyst for change. One employee wrote a positive e-mail after the event:
Congratulations. I thought today’s session was great—probably the best I’ve seen. It wasn’t so much the information or the presentation. What I took from it was the message that Suncor has a senior management team that isn’t afraid to joke around a bit. I recognize that we still have a job to do and targets to meet, but the suggestion today was that maybe there’s a way to introduce a bit of fun, and I think that’s terrific. You hear about alternative corporate cultures, and this was a big step towards changing Suncor’s [culture] if that was the intent. I know I haven’t seen anything like it in the fifteen years that I’ve been here.
Another positive sign of improved confidence in management and increased engagement was the fact that submission of story ideas for the “Next Generation” section of the employee newsletter increased after the sessions. Only one submission was made in the six months leading up to the meeting, but in the two weeks following the employee sessions, four submissions were received.
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