Chevron: Rewarding Human Energy Around the World

Chevron is a global energy company most admired for its people. And through its network of more than 40,000 employees in 50 countries around the world, has the human ingenuity to solve complex business problems and pursue innovations that meet the world’s growing energy needs. Chevron has been on a journey to refine their recognition programs, policies, and processes to ensure their employees feel appreciated in an equitable, consistent, and unified way.‍

Situation

Employee recognition has been part of Chevron’s culture for over 100 years. Yet while the company had individual recognition programs in each country, there was no global, enterprise-wide recognition solution to recognise across countries. Existing recognition processes were often manual, cumbersome, and paper-based, and many leaders didn’t know the appropriate award amount for an employee in another country. Chevron wanted one partner and one solution to standardize recognition and have the ability to recognise anyone across the globe.

The company evaluated existing eligibility, access, global equity, and approval processes to find ways to simplify them. They listened to the global concerns of local HR teams. Since they already work with O.C. Tanner for their years of service recognition, they partnered with them for help.

“O.C. Tanner cares about our business. They listen to our strategies and are interested in what drives Chevron. Then they tailor recommendations to what will create value for us. It’s a remarkable partnership.”
—Tim Papa, HR General Manager, Compensation and Mobility

Having a mobile app and Outlook integration, which provide multiple ways to give recognition, was also important to Chevron. These digital tools simplify the process to approve and present and allow employees to be able to order awards faster and more conveniently, in any situation.

Solution

‍Together, Chevron and O.C. Tanner developed the R&A (Recognition and Awards) platform. In addition to their existing service awards, R&A includes eCards, the Everyday Excellence program where employees can give without approvals, and more formal recognition like award nominations and Chairman’s Awards. They also utilize Group Deposits to recognise employees when they complete small and large projects.

Most importantly, R&A provides one centralized recognition platform that all locations can use to recognise employees in an equitable way. The platform helped remove the burden of managing individual recognition programs from Local HR teams, who are already tasked with multiple functions. “Recognition is a core part of Chevron’s culture and streamlining a connected workflow for all unlocks our ability to create a global recognition culture with great results,” explains Ethan Lindstrom, Digital Solutions Advisor.

“We have a global program, one tool, one partner, and a culture that is being enriched through recognition,” adds KaCy Gibbons, Recognition & Variable Pay Analyst. Chevron provides employees the ability to give a certain number of points without approvals, because “more approvals means less recognition,” says Gibbons. When approvals were removed, they saw recognition increase and employee attrition decrease. Integrating recognition into Workday also helps leaders more easily see the recognition happening and tie recognition to employee performance reviews.

R&A is strongly supported by Chevron executives. “Having strong executive support makes launching a recognition solution to 50-plus countries possible. At their core, they know when employees are seen, it makes a huge impact,” says Papa. Executive leaders hold recognition events, and personally present awards to employees to create memorable moments of connection with employees.

Results

‍Having a global, unified, equitable recognition platform has led to the following results:

• 93% of employees being recognized (with an average of 10 recognition moments per employee)
• 92% of employees giving recognition at least once
• 15% increase in people feeling recognized and valued
• Recognition is a top 3 driver of employee engagement

“We found a company that truly partners with us and has the values we have. We have a connection with our O.C. Tanner team—they make us feel seen and appreciated. They care, and that’s a partner you want,” says Lindstrom.