Responsible employer

Activities related to employee matters and respect for human rights are pursued mainly by the HR function.

Responsibilities of the HR function include:

The policies and internal regulations concerning the employee area include:

In 2021, the ORLEN Group’s hiring policy was focused on recruiting top quality specialists for both day-to-day tasks and strategic projects. Acquisition of the Polska Press Group (1,827 people) and ORLEN Transport (180 people) in 2021 and expansion of the ORLEN Group’s power generation, IT and retail areas led to a year-on-year increase in total workforce by 2,047 people, to 35,424 employees. In 2021, the average annualised workforce at the ORLEN Group was 34,508, an increase by 1,716 employees year on year.

The indicators on the composition of supervisory bodies and workforce broken down by employee category by gender, age and other diversity indicators are available in the `Diversity Policy` section.

The proportion of temporary work contracts at the ORLEN Group is negligible and they are used on an as needed basis.

In 2021, an employee sentiment survey was conducted to examine the areas of professional activity, management support and organisational measures taken over the past year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey asked questions about the aspects of the work environment that are gaining prominence in the pandemic reality and have the greatest impact on building employee engagement. The results across all work environment categories included in the survey were high, most of them above the applied benchmarks. Particularly worthy of note was the large increase in employee satisfaction with leadership elements: supervisor feedback, appreciation, and recognition.

Also, a pulse check was performed to examine key metrics related to employee engagement and satisfaction:

• Employee engagement rate, which was 74%, up 10 percentage points from the previous survey conductedin 2019. The result is well above the 2019 and 2020 average for Poland (51%).
• Overall employee satisfaction rate, which was 76%.

The rules of remuneration in place at PKN ORLEN are laid down in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The main components of remuneration are base pay (determined according to the Pay Grade Table and Base Pay Table) and a bonus. Employees are covered by monthly, quarterly, quarterly/annual or annual bonus schemes, depending on positions held. Employees are also entitled to receive an extra annual bonus for achievement of solidarity targets, and a number of allowances, including shift-work allowance, chemical emergency service allowance, or expat allowance. For particularly outstanding achievements, an employee may be awarded a prize, financed from the Employer Prize Fund.

The ORLEN Group companies have implemented consistent rules for granting awards under the Employer Prize Fund (set forth in a formal document), and the award process for tool-integrated companies is carried out throughthe centralised IT system SSEGK.

Moreover, components of the new ORLEN Group strategy were addressed in the 2021 MBO Sheets in all ORLEN Group companies. The concept of the process of objective setting for 2021 was developed taking into account the expansion of the ORLEN Group, the need to standardise the mechanisms of the objective setting and performance evaluation process in newly acquired companies, and the need to individualise the scope of the objectives set.

The collective bargaining agreement made with the trade unions active at ORLEN Ochrona in 2021 will become effective in April 2022. Lithuanian companies ORLEN Lietuva and ORLEN Service Lietuva reached new fixed-term collective bargaining agreements with their social partners (the previous agreements expired at the end of 2021). Also, remuneration rules were implemented at CCGT Ostrołęka and Energa Green Development.

In 2021, PKN ORLEN entered into a pay agreement for 2021, which provided for obligatory base pay rises of PLN 150 for employees graded 1 to 7. Furthermore, Christmas bonuses totalling PLN 3,000 were agreed. Pay agreements are in place at all ORLEN Group companies. They were adapted to each company’s financial capabilities and additionally depended on its position on the pay market.

Collective Bargaining Agreement

The Collective Bargaining Agreement is a social contract, being a source of labour law, that has been reached through negotiations between the employer and trade unions. It is an HR constitution of sorts that sanctions a motivating and coherent remuneration and bonus system, sets standards for employer-employee relationships and provides norms governing an equal partnership between the employer and trade unions. The Collective Bargaining Agreement regulates the broad-based labour relations management concept in accordance with applicable laws and best market practices. It is an element of integration and harmonisation of industrial relations, supporting execution of business processes. It serves as an effective and objective tool for regulating HR management policies, with a particular focus on the hiring, promotion and remuneration systems, by applying transparent solutions regarding the pay scale, base pay and bonus system. The Collective Bargaining Agreement enables effective and open dialogue with social partners by regulating important issues concerning collaboration with trade unions.

With regard to employees’ right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, the PKN ORLEN Collective Bargaining Agreement provides that the employer:

• Recognises the trade unions active at PKN ORLEN as representatives of all employees in matters concerning their collective rights and interests, within the scope defined by laws of general application;
• Agrees to respect the freedom of activity and equality of trade unions and not discriminate against employees on the grounds of trade union membership or non-membership.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement outlines general rules governing negotiation of annual pay rises, cooperation between the employer and the trade unions in restructuring matters, and negotiation of matters relating to the Agreement.

HR and payroll solutions at the ORLEN Group evolve continually so as to effectively support its business processes. Based on the HR policy for the ORLEN Group, HR and payroll processes at the Transaction Centre are optimised on an ongoing basis. IT systems are developed to streamline staff administration activities and improve the efficiency of HR processes in the Group. In 2021, a project team consisting of representatives of various functions and companies continued a project aimed at standardising HR processes across the ORLEN Group. The digitalisation of PKN ORLEN S.A. and ORLEN Group HR and payroll services continued throughout 2021. An application supporting the onboarding process at the ORLEN Group was further developed, and so was the ORLEN Group’s cafeteria system, which was also deployed in other Group companies. KCP, a work time planning and reporting tool, was implemented in further ORLEN Group companies, resulting in further standardisation and improvement of efficiency of the working time management process. An electronic attendance sheet and a leave planning support application were deployed, and new personnel requests were added in the SelfService employee system at PKN ORLEN and some other Group companies. The continuous development of HR functions combined with process digitisation improve the HR processes, guaranteeing their high quality and transparency. The pandemic in 2020 showed that HR digitalisation was the most appropriate development focus for HR functions and enabled the ORLEN Group to adapt to new needs and requirements, including home office arrangements, in a very short time frame. In 2021, a project team was assembled to prepare a concept and rules for implementing a hybrid/remote working system at the Group. All recruitment processes, image-building efforts and a complete range of training and development activities were carried out remotely, providing employees with uninterrupted access to training and development opportunities. Recruitment processes and campaigns were communicated on social media and career sites and by attending online events. Knowledge-sharing and employer branding activities (presence at universities – the ORLEN Knowledge Days) were also carried out remotely.

In 2021, the ORLEN Group defined the pillars of its HR strategy for 2020–2030 in connection with the newly adopted ORLEN2030 Strategy. The strategic pillars included building competencies of the future in new professions and business areas, upskilling/reskilling, change and diversity management, unique knowledge management, implementing best practices to enhance HR segment management, and advanced digital solutions (automation and digitalisation of HR processes). Accordingly, a key task was to develop a new Competence Model for the ORLEN Group to be used for the purposes of competence management. Further efforts were made to foster a feedback culture, including through deployment of the Career Development Session process at the ORLEN Group and building employee involvement and well-being. The ORLEN Group consistently implemented its age management policy and continued to deploy its recruitment process standard.

A series of educational projects for managers and employees promoting ethics and respect for corporate values were implemented in 2021. These included training on anti-corruption policies, working hours, labour law, and counteracting workplace bullying and discrimination. A project of great importance was the training course devoted to the new Code of Ethics, which was mandatory for all PKN ORLEN managers and employees. Also, educational meetings were held for people interested in disability issues, including in the context of professional activity. With global trends in skills and jobs of the future in mind, lectures were held for employees on workplace diversity, innovation, shifts in traditional business models, lean management philosophy, personal efficiency, and social media literacy. In the area of employee well-being, lectures on dealing with emotionally difficult situations were delivered. Separate development activities were prepared for women returning to work after maternity and parental leaves. Dedicated lectures discussed issues related to returning to work after a long absence and building a new way to balance work and life. Competencies in innovation and project work were developed in 2021. Also, open access training sessions were held to share knowledge on building a collaborative environment, communication skills, innovation and creativity, personal efficiency, responding in difficult situations, work planning and organisation, coping with stress, etc. Training to build mentoring and coaching skills for managers and knowledge-sharing skills among employees was an important component of the 2021 education activities. Relevant self-use materials were prepared in the form of manuals and e-learning courses. Mentoring skills will also be developed in the coming years as a vital element of knowledge sharing and building openness to feedback and engagement. Communication, project management, stress management, organisation and planning, and business relations building materials were added to the e-learning library as part of the online tool rollout process. The platform’s resources include a separate section that features materials for practical use in knowledge sharing and mentoring techniques for peer mentoring. A new edition of the Career Development Session was carried out in 2021 to help design personal development plans based on the assessment of an employee’s development needs and business requirements in a given business area. The sessions are essentially based on partnering and mutual feedback, and therefore improvement of feedback skills and fostering an everyday feedback culture were an important part of the development effort. Apart from being a tool used to identify development needs, the project supports a culture of openness and dialogue. We continued to implement a management staff development programme centred on fostering engaging leadership, value-based management, performance improvement and building multifaceted team collaboration and innovation as well as team management skills. The programme covers all managers, including those newly promoted.

The Group employees benefited from a wide range of diversified development activities. They attended tailored training events (both open and closed), designed specifically to address the needs of a given area or employee in terms of the required field of expertise, as well as postgraduate courses or MBA programmes. In addition, they were offered opportunities to broaden and share their knowledge of the market through participation in trade conferences and events. As in previous years, programmes supporting an occupational safety culture, including educational projects and a number of mandatory training courses, were continued. These included training in driving company cars, delivered to improve safe driving techniques and the ability to respond in difficult situations on the road.

Employees also improved their foreign languages skills as part of the PKN ORLEN Language Academy and summer English courses. Training and development activities were carried out not only on a classroom basis, but also as e-learning courses. PKN ORLEN supports the continuity of employment of persons whose contracts are terminated as a result of restructuring processes by offering them training packages. As part of a package, PKN ORLEN provides financing for training which a given person has indicated as useful in their further career.

Activities related to the Age Management Policy were continued in 2021. The purpose of the Policy is to mitigate the adverse impacts of demographic shifts on the labour market, including by raising management’s awareness of age management, intergenerational diversity, transfer of knowledge and skills, and employer branding activities aimed at building relations with external stakeholders, notably local labour markets, schools, and universities. It was imperative that the same standard for the Policy implementation be put in place across the ORLEN Group.

The employer provides financial support for families with low incomes. Employees may also apply for partial financing of sports and recreational activities, cultural and educational activities, or physical therapy treatments for children with disabilities, as well as non-repayable allowances and repayable housing loans. PKN ORLEN offers a uniform employee benefits package to employees of all ORLEN Group companies participating in the joint social benefits programme, which as at December 31st 2021 covered 24 Group companies. All personnel employed under employment contracts, whether full-time or part-time, are entitled to benefits from the PKN ORLEN Social Benefits Funds. Benefits from the Social Benefits Fund guaranteed to former employees of PKN ORLEN and other Group companies covered by the joint social benefits programme include: co-financing of holidays or sanatorium treatment, holidays for children and teenagers, school starter kits, Christmas gifts for children, non-repayable financial support, physical therapy treatments for children with disabilities, nursing home care, repayable housing loans and, additionally support for low-income employees, birthday cash benefits for former employees aged 70+ (paid every five years) and 95+ (paid every year). The ORLEN Group has a common group life insurance package in place for all employees who declared their willingness to take out insurance. In most Group companies, the employer pays a portion of the insurance premium.

As a company implementing modern-day solutions aimed at keeping the balance between work and family life, PKN ORLEN runs the Family-Friendly Employer programme, offering such benefits as additional two days off to care for a child under three years of age, two days off to care for a disabled child under 24 years of age, a nursery school for children of employees, one additional hour for breastfeeding, medical care during pregnancy, baby feeding rooms, gifts for newborn babies, and providing employees on parental/childcare leaves with up-to-date information on developments across the Group. Many of the components of this programme have also been implemented by other ORLEN Group companies as part of best practice sharing. PKN ORLEN also provides extensive medical care going beyond the scope of occupational medicine. Medical plans and preventive healthcare programmes are run in cooperation with Centrum Medyczne Medica Sp. z o.o. of Płock and the Military Institute of Medicine of Warsaw as part of a project to investigate health impacts of the work environment. A uniform standard for medical plans is in place across the ORLEN Group.

In response to the epidemic situation in Poland, the following initiatives were run:

• COVID-19 vaccination campaign for ORLEN Group employees in all regions of Poland;
• Sars CoV-2 antibody testing in Płock, Warsaw and Włocławek.

Disease prevention efforts included webinars for employees on healthy lifestyles. The Blood Donors Club at PKN ORLEN organised convalenscent blood and plasma collections. The campaigns were carried out in mobile ambulances at the Company’s locations in Płock, Warsaw and Trzebinia. As a responsible and conscious employer, PKN ORLEN looks at the needs of its employees in a holistic way, offering a benefits package tailored to individual requirements and life cycle stages of employees and providing mental health care. The tasks of our Occupational Psychology Centre include provision of support and psychological assistance to employees and their immediate family members who are in personal or professional distress. Since the onset of the pandemic, a permanent psychologist assistance service has been available at the Occupational Psychology Laboratory. Employees could use a psychological assistance telephone helpline in addition to dedicated support provided by the Occupational Psychology Centre. PKN ORLEN makes every effort to provide ongoing support for the psychological well-being of employees, which is not a permanent state but may be affected by various life events.

The most important initiatives implemented in 2021 included activities aimed at building the image of an attractive employer, including expansion of the ongoing trainee programmes, implementation of an ambassador programme, social media presence and building partnerships with the academic community. In 2021, we continued the first edition of the Employer’s Brand Ambassador programme to reinforce our image as an attractive employer, which included communicating PKN ORLEN’s strengths as an employer and building personal employee brands to show the people who form the ORLEN Group. The programme is based on promoting projects implemented by project ambassadors, which fosters the image and reputation of the employer’s brand while identifying the key areas of their activities, processes and innovation, showcasing the contribution of employees to the company’s strategy.

The primary activities of the programme are reaching out to the prospective candidates, building satisfaction and pride, improving employee identification with the employer and raising employee awareness of the broadly defined ORLEN products and services. Participation in the Employer’s Brand Ambassador programme offers many long-term benefits involving personal brand development, career development opportunities, greater recognition and an opportunity to improve one’s knowledge. The Ambassadors are employees, interns and partners: representatives of universities, student research groups and student organisations. All persons involved in the programme are proud of their work, popular and recognised by their colleagues and professional communities. In collaboration with the Warsaw University of Technology, the Ambassadors served as mentors for engineering students. Recruitment for the second edition of the programme was conducted in 2021, with new professional Ambassadors to start their service in 2022. In addition, as part of image-building activities, the benefits of working for ORLEN were promoted, including solutions, benefits, development opportunities and the company’s distinguishing features as an employer against the market. Image-building activities were carried out both using social media and image campaigns (including cooperation with external companies as part of the Well.hr report and the Dream Employer program). Employer branding activities were aimed at promoting employees, solutions and best practices applied in PKN ORLEN through, inter alia, participation in webinars, podcasts, debates, providing expert comments. We conducted recruitment campaigns for trainee programmes, and we ran image-building campaigns that included a series of interviews with employees and trainees holding chemistry degrees. The aim of the project was to promote employees with experience in promising fields and to position specialists and trainees from various PKN ORLEN companies and chemistry-related areas. Employees and trainees spoke about their careers and daily work to get across the message that PKN ORLEN offers postgraduates attractive jobs with career development opportunities.

PKN ORLEN is consistently building its employer brand on social media, successfully expanding its LinkedIn community, with a career page launched on Facebook at the end of the year.

PKN ORLEN works consistently to satisfy its talent acquisition and retention needs, focusing of specific target groups relevant to the Company’s business areas – current and prospective employees, as well as students and graduates of vocational schools and universities. Being aware of the need for synergies between business and academia, the ORLEN Group collaborates with the academic community.

PKN ORLEN is also committed to offering employment opportunities to people with disabilities. In 2021, in partnership with several ORLEN Group companies, it successfully implemented the disability employment goals of the Work – Integration programme of the State Fund for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities (PFRON). Participation in the programme was initiated in 2019, while recruitment of employees (people with disabilities) was conducted in 2020 and 2021.

Due to the obligation to PFRON for 2021, the ORLEN Group transferred the amount of over PLN 26 million. Last year, 367 people with disabilities were employed, including: 34 people with severe, 208 with moderate and 128 with a slight degree of disability^[1].

What is more, PKN ORLEN deems it necessary to raise the awareness of its employees around disabilities and to this end it organises special information and consultation meetings. Consisting of regular training sessions and one-on-one consultations on disability issues, the programme is intended for all PKN ORLEN employees. Its purpose is to raise employee awareness of disability-related issues and to build the image of PKN ORLEN as an inclusive employer, providing equal opportunities to all employees in keeping with its core values and standards of conduct. Six meetings were held in 2021, including workshops and in-person meetings (the meetings were mostly conducted online due to the ongoing pandemic). PKN ORLEN’s activities targeting people with disabilities were noticed and appreciated. In 2021, PKN ORLEN received the Employer with Heart title. The title is awarded by a panel of five representatives of disability confident employers to honour businesses and public entities for their outstanding achievements, pro-active attitudes and selfless service to people with disabilities. PKN ORLEN was distinguished for its activities following an assessment of its commitment to corporate social responsibility and raising awareness of the mutual benefits of hiring people with disabilities. The aim of the campaign is to break stereotypes and social barriers created by discrimination against people with disabilities and artificial divisions in society, and to improve job opportunities for the disabled. Realising the need to build an HR pipeline in professions that are crucial to the industry, given especially the specific business profiles of the ORLEN Group companies, PKN ORLEN engages in active partnerships with vocational schools. Students receive expert support during hands-on activities and can take part in study visits and trainee placements offered by the Group companies.

As the expiry dates of existing agreements approached, new cooperation agreements on collective internships were signed with the State University of Applied Sciences in Płock and the School Education Centre in Płock. Also, collaborative partnerships were forged with other universities, which led to signing of a framework cooperation agreement with the Maritime University of Szczecin and of two letters of intent, with the Gdańsk University of Technology and Polish Offshore Wind Energy Society and with Gdynia Maritime University. PKN ORLEN cares for the professional development of young people − students, university graduates and school leavers, by providing them with an opportunity to acquire their first professional experience on internship and work placement programmes and by organising educational events for students and graduates. PKN ORLEN participated in career fairs (Engineer Career Fair, Career and Internship Fair for Computer Specialists and Electronic Engineers at the Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology of the Warsaw University of Technology), reaching over 400 potential job applicants at technical universities, and supporting students and graduates in gaining professional experience and finding work placements. Educational and communication projects were also implemented. These included ORLEN Knowledge Day for students of the Warsaw University of Technology, Płock Branch of the Warsaw University of Technology, Military University of Technology, Main School of Fire Service, Silesian University of Technology and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń in the fields related to chemistry, live science and chemical technology (over 460 students). PKN ORLEN participated in the Meet Your Employer event at the Warsaw University of Technology, an initiative organised as part of the ORLEN Knowledge Day online for students of technology and economics universities. For ten years in a row, PKN ORLEN has been recognised by experts from Top Employers Institute as Poland’s leading employer. Based on the results of an independent study of the HR policies of surveyed companies, PKN ORLEN won the Top Employer Polska title once again in 2021 and for the first time in history it topped the ranking table. The Top Employers Institute survey is conducted among the world’s best employers whose HR practices are in line with international standards.

^[1] The data includes companies: PKN ORLEN, ANWIL, Centrum Usług Korporacyjnych, Grupa Energa, IKS Solino, ORLEN Centrum Serwisowe, ORLEN Administracja, ORLEN Asfalt, ORLEN Eko, ORLEN Koltrans, ORLEN Laboratorium, ORLEN Lietuva, ORLEN Oil, ORLEN Paliwa, ORLEN Południe, ORLEN Upstream, ORLEN Serwis, SIGMA BIS, ORLEN Aviation, ORLEN Projekt, ORLEN Unipetrol.

Description of significant risks within the employee area and methods of managing these risks can be found in the `Risk management` section.