Shell: Creating A Diverse Workplace

Group 05

Anirudh S | Avinash V | Gouthaman P | Kannan A | Meet S | Rushabh M

Company Background

Oil & Gas Industry Characteristics Shell’s Human Resource Strategy

The company followed a three-pronged approach for HR

Male Dominated Industry due to
many roles being perceived as
• High No. of specialized engineers
dangerous • Inability to recruit from open market
Talent
• Forward looking hiring with recruitment
Management
of people from campus who will be
needed 10-20 years later
Long Gestation Period with
investments taking 5-10 years to
yield results

Professional • Identification of Good Talent &

Development Development at fairly good speed

Downturn forcing firms to cut down

capex plans & operating costs

In this industry setting, Shell is evaluating its Improving • Focus on improving both organization &
restructuring plan which involves affects 25,000 Performance individual performance
employees & asking 1/3rd of its senior mgrs to leave
The Road to Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity & Inclusion was embedded in the company’s HR strategy due to the multitude of environments it functioned in &
variety of profiles required at the company

Embracing Differences Aspiration Targets, Not Quotas Positive Action

• Aspirational Targets were established

instead of quotas • Positive Actions were taken to
eliminate barriers to hiring & retention
• D&I Targets were not linked to bonuses of underrepresented groups

• Pressure created by publishing targets

Targets • Alternative Route of Positive

Discrimination favoring certain minority
groups was not implemented by the
Diversity – All the ways we differ including company
visible & underlying differences
• This ensured a meritocratic set-up
within the company
Inclusion – A workplace where differences
Gender Nationality Inclusion
are valued
Implementing the D&I Aspirational Targets

D&I policies, targets and practices were applied in 4 areas of managerial action & yielded positive results in terms of better
inclusion in terms of gender & nationality

Recruitment Development & Mentoring Results of Initiatives

• Adapting global targets to local context • Senior Leaders encouraged to mentor

41%
Female Participation
35%
& legal requirements employees from targeted groups 31%
26% 27%
• HR managers encouraged managers to • Providing visibility to underrepresented 22%
develop different points of view groups in town halls 14% 13%
16%
10%
• Establishment of Talent Councils • Coaching for employees in unfamiliar
situations (Eg. Women in retail dept)
• Engagement with local communities LC+ 1 to 2 3 to 5 >5 Total

2005 2008
Supportive Environment Communication & Education
# of Senior managers of Asian Nationalities
• Anonymous DII Survey to identify
opportunities to build a more supportive • Systematic Reporting progress on D&I 112

environment targets in Annual Report 94

• 40 Informal Networks with participation • Organizing Educational programmes to 81

of 20,000 networks for addressing value differences

different issues including women, LGBT • Helped in improved public image
etc.
2006 2007 2008
Current Dilemma

How does employees interpret Voser’s move of selecting all white men for Executive Committee:

• Do people think it opposes the view of “Valuing Differences” element of the organization?
• Do people encourage merit-based selection in all levels of the organization?
• How does this move impact the morale of underrepresented groups in lower hierarchies of the organization?
• How does the public image of Shell change with this decision?

How to go about restructuring and how does it impact the D&I of the organization:

• What evaluation metrics should be considered in restructuring?

• What are the possible obstacles of restructuring?
• What are the short term and long- term impacts of changes in diversity of the workforce if only meritocracy is considered?
Addressing the concerns on EC Composition

Immediate Measures

• Shell should release a statement or a press release showing

company’s constant commitment to ensure Diversity & Inclusion
while simultaneously creating a meritocratic work environment.
• The Internal Communication Platforms of Shell should reflect the
ideology of top management so that complete transparency is
maintained in all hierarchical levels.

Periodic Measures

D&I team should be given the Periodic notices from top

responsibility of continuously management to retain trust in
building diverse pipeline for EC the employees

Increase informal network Ensure proper mechanisms to

activities to provide inclusive eliminate personal preferential
environment for bias in meritocracy selection
underrepresented groups criteria of managers
Restructuring should be merit-based in continuation of past practices

During the restructuring exercise, merit must be accorded primary importance with D&I being given secondary importance
as business goals are important to be achieved for the organization

Business Goals D&I Goals

• Primary objective is for the business to turnaround i.e. • Maintain the current D&I results
lowering costs, efficiency gains
• No introduction of quota or mandatory proportion of D&I
• Increase the speed of decision making employees

Methodology of Implementing Restructuring

• All Managerial position-based Employees to be asked to reapply to their positions

• Review to be conducted by independent parties (from different regions) primarily based on the merit and performance i.e. historic
performance appraisals etc. Independent appraisals aid in objectivity and prevent chances of marginalization
• In case of multiple employees with almost the same competency for the same position, D&I employee can be given preference in
accordance with the past practices
• This is largely consistent with the practices followed by the company so far and doesn’t create any ambiguity in the minds of employees

Though the D&I scores could be compromised in the short run, ensuring a merit-based approach in the restructuring exercise would enable
fostering trust between employees in the workplace, leading to better diversity and inclusion in the long run
Aspirational Targets – Pros & Cons

Pros Cons

Company’s business D&I composition in the workforce

performance is not affected will take a hit in the short run

No hard feelings and promotion

Aspirational goals takes a lot
of friendly environment
of time to show results

Maintain Transparency,
There might be hidden biases in
Performance based appraisal
performance based appraisal

Organic Growth for D&I on a

long term basis Inclusion in true sense will
be affected

8
Fast forward to 10 years later!

The results have begun to show in Shell with the current CFO being a female and the Legal Director being of Asian
Origin, underscoring the importance of Meritocracy in Performance evaluation while maintaining healthy D&I
A Declaration of Independence by a Princeton
Professor
Implementable points from Faculty Letter
Faculty Letter
“[g]ive new assistant professors summer move-
in allowances on July 1”
“make [admissions] fee waivers transparent,
easy to use, and well-advertised.”
Expansion of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate
Fellowship Program
Princeton Professor – Joshua Katz
He agrees to all the points and finds them
reasonable to support
This demand seem unobjectionable to prof
Katz
Professor is ready to go for expansion of
“Mellon Fellowship” given he feels that this
would help in encouraging underrepresented
minorities to enter PhD programs and strive to
join the professoriate.
Our opinion
Given moving cost is generally high, giving
them upfront move-in allowance makes sense
Making it transparent will ensure more trust in
the system. Easy access to information will
increase the number of applications from
needy people.
Giving fellowships is a very good meritocratic
approach to encourage and empower
underrepresented communities to take up
more research positions.
Agreement with professor’s contradiction of points mentioned in Faculty
Letter
Faculty Letter Princeton Professor – Joshua Katz
Faculty of color hired at the junior level should The main point of contention by Prof. Joshua is
be guaranteed one additional semester of that Princeton faculties represent an elite group
sabbatical”  of people who shouldn’t be provided with
additional perks just because of their skin
color.
“Provide additional human resources for the
support of junior faculty of color.”
“Commit fully to anti-racist campus While prof Katz doesn’t care about the
iconography, beginning with the removal of the positioning of the statue and would be fine if it
John Witherspoon statue.”  is removed but he also mentions Witherspoon
was a major figure in Princeton and American
history. Along with that he says that nobody
can pass the purity test always, Witherspoon
deserves a tribute given his contribution at the
time of independence
Our opinion
The whole point of the fight against
discrimination is to uplift the downtrodden.
Princeton faculty don’t require the additional
perks as they are already considered to be
among the top class of the society. Hence we
agree with the professor’s stance here.
Witherspoon openly rallied against the abolition
of slavery. Even though he was a prominent
figure in Princetonian history, his presence is
still a reminder of the atrocities faced by the
marginalized communities in the past, and
hence the statue needs to be removed.
Agreement with points in Faculty Letter
Faculty Letter
“Acknowledge, credit, and incentivize anti-
racist student activism. Such acknowledgment
should, at a minimum, take the form of
reparative action, beginning with a formal
public University apology to the members of
the Black Justice League and their allies.”  members’ demands.
“Constitute a committee composed entirely of
faculty that would oversee the investigation
and discipline of racist behaviors, incidents,
research, and publication on the part of faculty”
Point not mentioned in Faculty Letter
Princeton Professor – Joshua Katz
The Black Justice League, which was active on
campus from 2014 until 2016, was a small
local terrorist organization that made life
miserable for the many (including the many
black students) who did not agree with its
Katz believes that for colleagues to police one
another’s research and publications in this way
would be outrageous. Prof thinks Racist slurs
and clear and documentable bias against
someone because of skin color are
reprehensible and should lead to disciplinary
action, for which there is already a process.
“Instagram Live” of one of its alumni leaders,
who—emboldened by recent events and egged
on by over 200 supporters who were baying for
blood
Our opinion
Katz called the Black Justice League a “local
terrorist organization”, which is again too
extreme of a language to use for a student
body.
There should be a formal body to monitor the
publications given discrimination is too big of
an issue to be left for a process to decide.
Discrimination is a subjective issue and hence
would need a formal committee to take
decisions in several ambiguous situations.
The professor uses the word evil to describe
an alum, which has a very harsh connotation
associated with it. Hence, it shouldn’t be used
to represent students fighting against a just
cause.
Thank you