Culture and diversity

Culture

Imperial’s culture is underpinned by our Standards of Business Conduct, which support our commitment to provide equal employment opportunities and prohibit discrimination in the workplace. Inclusion and diversity, anti-harassment and equal employment opportunity performance are stewarded at least annually to the company’s senior managers.

Our culture framework articulates our core values and leadership expectations, necessary to position the company for long-term success. It also outlines key skills that apply to all employees.

We share a commitment to excellence in pursuit of our common goals. Our expectations of leaders steer the actions and development of our leaders to achieve business results that meet and exceed our strategic business objectives.

Our culture is enabled by a strong focus on leadership and key talent systems, including performance assessment, on-the-job experiences, and formal training. Redesign of our formal leadership learning programs started in 2021. These courses are designed to help our supervisors and managers fully embrace out culture, connect it with our strategic priorities, and unlock the full potential of our workforce.

Diversity

Imperial is committed to building and sustaining a diverse workforce. Diversity strengthens us by promoting unique viewpoints and challenges each of us to think beyond our traditional frames of reference. We do not see diversity as a stand-alone activity; it is embedded in our core values, our approach to how we develop talent, and our culture.

Imperial remains committed to providing a positive, productive and supportive work environment where individual and cultural differences are respected. We believe that advancing an inclusive culture leads to enabling teams and individuals to be more innovative, resilient, and better equipped to navigate the complex and evolving global energy landscape.

Diversity framework principles

• Inclusive culture where diversity is respected and valued
• Workforce and leadership reflect communities and culture where we operate
• Opportunity to achieve full potential and excel based on contributions and performance
• Development shared responsibility between supervisor and employee
• Meritocracy with consistent, uniform, and unbiased treatment
• Industry competitive compensation.

Diverse leadership talent

We periodically assess how our talent programs and initiatives are affecting proportionate diversity throughout our talent pipeline, from entry level to the most senior positions. Proportionate diversity means we maintain a broadly consistent diversity mix throughout our talent pipeline and considers availability in the talent market. We continue to work toward increasing representation of employees in the four designated groups (women, Indigenous, persons with disabilities, and visible minorities).

The senior leadership team reviews these plans annually along with the overall health of our leadership pipeline and succession plans. Imperial’s board of directors plays an important role in leadership development and leadership continuity. Our CEO leads an annual review with the board on the succession plans for key leadership positions and diversity of our leadership pipeline.

Since 2019 we have increased the percentage of women in executive roles, with women now making up nearly 40 per cent of Imperial’s executives. We achieved this step change through our talent development approach that focus on individual development plans, targeted skills and capabilities, ensuring employees get the right assignments at the appropriate stage in their career and are ready to assume larger executive level roles. These plans evolve as performance is demonstrated and leadership potential is tested.

In 2021, we continued our focus on increasing Indigenous representation in our workforce. To support this, we initiated an executive-led working group that is focused on recruitment, retention and progression of Indigenous employees within Imperial.

The team is working to develop site-specific Indigenous employment strategies. For example, at Kearl, we successfully piloted an Indigenous recruitment program where we engaged local communities and invited candidates to self-identify as being Indigenous at the time of application. This focused effort resulted in 50 per cent of apprentice hires and 20 per cent of heavy equipment operator hires self-identifying as Indigenous.

More information on our Indigenous workforce development program can be found in the Indigenous engagement and reconciliation section of this report or on our website.

Imperial encourages participation in Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) These groups support recruitment efforts, new hire orientation, professional development and mentorship. Each of our ERGs has a senior leader sponsor.