Investing in Our People
Pioneer’s foundation and long-term success is built on the tenets of honesty, mutual respect, accountability, innovation, inclusion and communication. We celebrate our people as unique human beings with vibrant perspectives, experiences, identities and contributions.
These qualities are manifested through our RESPECT values. We are focused on proactively fostering a welcoming, inclusive and supportive environment for every employee, business partner and community member. We empower our employees to thrive and bring their entire selves to work, which we believe helps support our mission to provide affordable, reliable energy to both domestic and global markets.
Employee Engagement
At Pioneer, we believe in transparency, and it starts at the top. Giving employees a voice is critical to supporting our thriving and resilient culture. Our annual engagement survey provides a view into our overall organizational health. Pioneer’s survey administrator provides global, multi-industry benchmarks against which Pioneer can assess its employee engagement. Compared to those benchmarks, in 2022, Pioneer scored in the top 10th percentile of engagement among companies using the same platform, with over 90% of scores ranking above the platform’s global benchmarks.
In 2022, Pioneer achieved a response rate of 76% and more than 2,900 comments from employees. Our highest-rated areas were:
- Employee engagement
- Benefits
- Rewards
- Corporate citizenship
While we celebrate our successes, our engagement survey also affords us the opportunity to focus on areas that need attention. For instance, Pioneer acted upon feedback from employees related to career development. In response to the feedback, we launched a three-day, knowledge- sharing Petro Technical conference, providing employees the opportunity to learn more about the exciting work taking place across the organization. The job-sharing event and town hall meeting provided opportunities for key projects to be presented by our technical workforce and highlighted some of our achievements.
Our engineers, analysts, geoscientists and others from across the organization ranked employee-submitted topics to fill the agenda that featured visually striking, information-rich presentations and deep, knowledge-sharing discussions. The event was attended by around 500 employees and included 34 technical talk presentations, 31 poster session booths, a core-viewing room, guided tours of our Performance Drilling Center and an awards ceremony.
Attendees determined the winners, and honors were given in Pathfinder, Guide, Explorer and Trailblazer categories, which awarded initiatives such as best poster presentation, best to deliver a 101-level presentation, best to explore new frontiers for tackling multi-faceted problems, and best to push industry-leading technologies, analytics or evaluations.
All groups did a fantastic job showcasing their efforts and demonstrating that our employees truly are our best asset.
Talent Management and Development
At Pioneer, our annual performance management process is based on a foundation of frequent check-in discussions and a culture of continuous feedback that supports and enables our employees to perform at their best. In accordance with our RESPECT values and culture, our performance management process encourages and reinforces:
- Ongoing feedback and coaching
- Employee growth and development for both their current role and future success
- Alignment of individual goals with company goals and team objectives
Over 96% of employees who participated in our post-review survey reported they had quality performance discussions with their manager. This is an increase in satisfaction year-over-year.
Pioneer strives to build a more proficient and engaged workforce with skill-building, competency-based training and development opportunities.
Our competency model is made up of professional, leadership and technical competencies and complements our individual development planning process.
Our competency-based development framework allows us to:
- Enable data-driven decision-making on learning and development priorities
- Provide guidance and employee development
- Promote targeted career discussions
- Empower employees to drive their own development
Pioneer offers many opportunities and resources to help employees grow their knowledge and skills in accordance with our 70/20/10 learning model (70% on-the-job and experience-based, 20% collaboration and coaching, 10% formal training). We offer employees a variety of self-service options, compliance and technical training, consultation services, service provider partnerships, and more. We believe employee development is key to our future success.
In 2022, Pioneer invested in more than 46,000 hours of training — an average of 23 hours per employee.
| DEVELOPMENT AREAS | TRAINING/RESOURCE | PROGRAM DESCRIPTION |
| Leadership | Targeted Leadership Development | In partnership with Harvard Business Publishing, this blended, cohort-based learning program provides concepts and practical tools to effectively lead others in a highly relevant and applied context. |
| Professional | Online Training Resources | Available to all employees, Pioneer University, in partnership with learning service provider, Cornerstone Learning, has over 800 offerings. Our online training contains a variety of topics and learning content types, including videos, tools and articles. |
| Instructor-led Trainings | Workshops that cover topics such as Work and Wellbeing, Leading Change and Influencing People for Better Results build employee resiliency, skill and efficacy when working collaboratively. | |
| Technical | PXDrill Training Program | Pioneer ensures employees and contractors receive training to work toward a common goal: more efficient drilling results and lower-cost wells. |
| Training, Assessment, Skills, Knowledge (TASK) | This training program for production operators teaches hands-on experience in the field environment to develop new technical skills, preparing us for the future. |
Talent Planning
Pioneer’s talent-planning approach takes a cross-functional view of our employee base to identify high-potential and successor candidates for leadership roles. Our objectives are to provide increased visibility and mobility, retain and engage our key talent, and provide targeted, accelerated development opportunities to prepare our future leaders.
One example of our talent-planning approach is our targeted leadership development program. Employees are identified through our annual talent-planning process as high-potential and/or critical role successors. Participants are placed into one of four development groups: Elevate, Accelerate, Inspire or Aspiring Leader. The program includes self-paced development resources, leadership workshops and trainings, coaching and leadership assessments, and other tools tailored to each group. The goal of this targeted development program is to enhance leadership capabilities, increase successor readiness, and develop and engage key talent.
During the talent-planning process, we continue to educate our workforce about unconscious bias and review demographics for underrepresented groups. Human Resources has implemented a DEI review step into the talent planning process to identify areas of opportunity. Our Organizational Development team reviews the candidates selected for the leadership development programs and associated succession plans to make recommendations to executive leadership about focus areas and opportunities to increase our equitable representation.
In 2021, we implemented another talent-planning program, one focused on diverse, high-performing talent. Participants engage in four hour-long sessions with professional career coaches, focusing on development and advancement within the company. We continue to see strong results from our participants and will launch our third round of this program in the fall of 2023. The objectives for this program are:
- Gain insights into current career advancement challenges faced by professionals early in their career
- Study perceptions and attitudes toward career advancement
- Understand the impact of early career coaching on career advancement prospects
- Gather insights that can be used to support existing interventions to develop and retain professionals early in their careers
Toastmasters
Another avenue for our employees to build their professional skills and connect with others from different departments is our Toastmasters group, Barrels and Banter. The group, led by employee volunteers who have a passion for communication, provides a supportive and positive learning experience in which members are empowered to develop communication and leadership skills, resulting in greater self-confidence and personal growth. In addition to building speaking skills, the group supports our DEI efforts through weekly personal speeches that increase understanding of different cultures and experiences.
The group is open to all employees, and the Toastmasters dues are covered 100% by Pioneer. Employee members are encouraged to bring a colleague, and our summer interns are included and invited to take leadership roles during their time at the company.