Our people

The quality of our people is essential to the success of our company. In 2015, we employed an average of 93,000 employees in more than 70 countries.

We work to maintain a productive and healthy organisation, resource talented people across the business, accelerate development of our people, grow and strengthen our leadership capabilities, and enhance employee performance through strong engagement.

Our workforce

Around 40% of our workforce is in countries outside of Europe and North America. In 2015, we recruited around 1,000 graduates and 1,500 experienced professionals. Close to 40% of our graduate recruits came from universities outside of Europe and the Americas.

Shell manages the effects of business changes on people as consistently as possible. Affected employees are supported in their search for alternative employment as appropriate by country law and policy.

Communication and engagement

We strive to maintain healthy relations with our employees. Dialogue between management and employees is integral to our work practices and takes place directly and, where appropriate, through employee representative bodies. Management briefs employees on operational and financial results regularly through a variety of channels. The annual Shell People Survey is one of the principal tools used to measure employees’ views on a range of topics. For example, the average employee engagement score in 2015 was 80% favourable and 5% unfavourable (both the same as 2014). The survey also measures employees’ views on the inclusiveness of their workplace. In 2015, 71% felt positive about this, while 11% felt negative about inclusion in the workplace, the same figures as 2014.

We promote the safe expression and reporting of views about our processes and practices. We offer multiple channels for employees to report, confidentially and anonymously, breaches of the Shell General Business Principles or our Code of Conduct, or other concerns.

Diversity and inclusion

Embedding the principles of diversity and inclusion in the way we do business gives us a better understanding of the needs of our stakeholders. We provide equal opportunity in recruitment, career development, promotion, training and reward for all employees regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or physical ability. We actively monitor diversity: at a global level, we measure representation of women and local nationals in senior leadership positions. We have a talent development process to bring about more diverse representation.

At the end of 2015, the proportion of women in senior leadership positions was 19% compared with 18% in 2014. The representation of senior local nationals is monitored in 20 principal countries. We measure the percentage of senior nationals employed in Shell compared with the number of senior positions in their home country. The reporting shows two categories: local national coverage greater than 80% (12 countries in 2015) and less than 80% (eight countries in 2015).

Training and development

In 2015, we invested about $335 million in training and development, providing more than 600,000 training days for our employees and joint-venture partners. We focused on growing our leadership capability, improving skills in technical, safety and commercial areas, and our expertise in specialist areas such as cultural heritage and indigenous peoples.

Code of Conduct violations

Shell employees and contractors must abide by our Code of Conduct. Violations can be reported through a variety of local channels, which are adapted to local regulations and customs, and one global channel, which is a dedicated helpline operated by an independent provider. In 2015, from the incidents reported through the global helpline, 217 were confirmed as Code of Conduct violations after investigation (267 in 2014). As a result, we dismissed or terminated the contracts of 89 employees and contractors (118 in 2014).