New plan gives PDO staff freedom to work from home

Muscat: Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO) is working on a programme that will allow employees to work from home, an initiative that will boost its long-term goals of achieving a greater work-life balance and increasing productivity by allowing for flexibility in work patterns.
A trial for the programme ‘Maktabi’ (My Office) has been launched to develop a smarter and more agile working environment. The initial pilot, which was launched in October, involved a sample population of 16 employees from the finance, people and change directorates, who have been offered the flexibility of working from home and using an office hub in Seeb to reduce the travel time to and from Mina Al Fahal.
Building on this success, the trial is now being expanded to include more members from two additional directorates — infrastructure and external affairs, and value creation.
The programme is part of PDO’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) campaign that prioritises the creation of an inclusive work environment with equal opportunity while championing D&I in the Sultanate.
“D&I programmes such as Maktabi through which people can work from their homes or remote office hubs are being studied. It is part of the efforts to make the work environment more flexible and hospitable to employees.
“During the study phase, the team will test the concept and understand employee behaviour while ensuring that the quality of staff performance is not compromised,” Dr. Badr Al Kharusi, Infrastructure Director at PDO, said in an exclusive interview with Times of Oman.
Having nearly tripled the number of women employees in a decade, with four being part of its 15-member-strong Managing Director’s Committee, and by holding an annual employees’ survey for staff to voice their opinions on topics such as diversity, PDO is rapidly moving forward to create an attractive culture, open to people, irrespective of gender, background, nationality or religion.
The majority state-owned oil producer has long been a D&I beacon, both in Oman and the region, and hopes to be a role model for other businesses and organisations in the Sultanate.
“Giving people a chance to have their say is the most important part of productivity in an organisation. At PDO, we have a special Managing Director’s D&I sub-committee where we develop plans related to workplace equality and fairness. Every year, we conduct our PDO People’s Survey, which has over 50 questions covering 10 themes that include various aspects of the work environment to gauge the employee sentiment and identify areas of success and improvement.
This committee works hard to break down barriers, remove negative emotions from the employees and give them the opportunity to express their opinions freely,” stressed Dr. Al Kharusi, who sits on the sub-committee.
“For the past three years, we have strengthened our programmes related to gender balance, equality, anti-harassment and bullying in the workplace, and they are going to remain our key areas of focus in the future.
“Thanks to our programmes, we have achieved milestones such as having five generations of people working harmoniously in the company, from young graduate recruits to senior age managers and executives.”
“We have increased women’s representation at an excellent rate, and PDO women have done very well, both at the local and international stage.”
Al Kharusi highlighted the contribution of women such as Haifa AlKhaifi, PDO Finance Director, who has been listed as one of the most powerful Arab businesswomen in the Forbes magazine for four consecutive years. Today, besides Haifa Al Khaifi, the people and change director, the exploration director and corporate planning director are all women. They follow in the footsteps of other high-achieving women in PDO, such as the previous finance and gas directors, who were among the first in the country in their respective fields, and who are all pioneers and role models for successful women in Oman and in the region, he noted.
PDO programmes on D&I have brought about standards in recruitment and progression, where family or known associates of a potential candidate must opt out of the decision-making process. Moreover, the company is also working to make the work environment more hospitable for women. It has introduced facilities for nursing mothers in all its main buildings and launched a dedicated women’s network called Hawa (Eve), which allows its 900-plus women workforce to network, discuss their areas of interest and develop their technical and soft skills through short courses.
PDO has a staff strength of 8,500 people, representing more than 70 nationalities, an Omanisation rate of 78 per cent, and it is committed to raising this percentage in the next five years, Al Kharusi mentioned. He added that although D&I initiatives do not have any significant financial challenges, they face several issues relating to behavioural changes.
“There are several behavioural changes to address before we can incorporate these initiatives fully. We have been in touch with public speakers such as the Assistant Grand Mufti Sheikh Dr Kahlan bin Nabhan Al Kharusi and others from the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, as well as other relevant government and non-government bodies, to talk to our staff and contractors about the importance of these initiatives. As Oman is a conservative nation, we often ask speakers to motivate the general population on such subjects and change their mind about it,” emphasised Al Kharusi.
“We are also working with other companies in the region to share our best practices and learn from them where they are better at this. It is a long process, which will gradually see us reach our goal of creating the ideal work conditions in the future.”