People
Nostrum is proud to engage a diverse workforce spanning many ages, nationalities and genders. The Nostrum Code of Conduct protects all employees and contractors against illegal discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, age, gender, disability, sexual orientation or political opinion.
Nostrum encourages diversity – we believe it supports innovation and personal advancement in the workplace.
Our business is led by a dedicated and experienced management team, bringing together age, nationality and gender diversity. This is integral to advancing the Group’s approach to diversity throughout the business.
Whilst we are encouraged by our diversity at Board and department head levels, we do recognise that diversity remains an ongoing issue in the oil & gas industry, particularly with regards to gender diversity. Nostrum is committed to improving the gender balance at all levels of the Company and in 2018 we engaged with interest groups to better understand how we might do this. Additionally, Nostrum adopted a corporate Equality and Diversity Policy in November 2017 to further support these ambitions. At present, 195 out of 820 Group employees are female.
The Board recognises the importance of continued improvement in this area and is committed to giving due regard to the benefits of diversity in our future appointments, including ensuring Kazakh nationals are properly represented at senior levels of the Company. The Board also focused on succession planning during 2018, and gender considerations will factor into this.
In addition, Human Resources is working toward a policy of promotion from within and building a pipeline of diverse employees at all levels of the business. We are pleased to report that 50% of Group recruitment in 2018 was female.
Employee relations and social guarantees
Nostrum prides itself on being an integral community partner and the Company is one of the largest employers in Western Kazakhstan, with 789 of 820 of Group employees engaged locally. In addition to our Kazakh operations, we employ staff from more than 20 countries in offices in Amsterdam, London, St Petersburg and Brussels.
We offer all staff members competitive remuneration packages in compliance with all regulatory bodies, guidelines and requirements. In 2018 the average monthly salary of locally-engaged employees increased 11% in KZT.
In an effort to promote gender diversity we will now also monitor gender pay discrepancies. In 2018 the average Group employee salary was 21.99% higher for males, however the median employee salary was 2.72% higher for females.
In addition to remuneration, Nostrum also offers personnel benefits in relation to:
- Social security
- Pension funds
- Medical assistance and care
- Insurance plans
Education and training
We believe investing in our people is key to economic self-empowerment in the communities in which we operate. Under the terms of our PSA, we are required to adhere to an accrual of 1% per annum of the field development cost relative to the Chinarevskoye field. We also adhere to training obligations under subsoil use agreements for the Rostoshinskoye, Darjinskoye and Yuzhno Gremyachinskoye fields.
Our employees and their children are eligible for educational grants and financial support to assist with university and college expenses. Educational fellowships and assistance may also be awarded on a discretionary basis.
Average employee salary is
21.99%
higher for males
Median employee salary is
2.72%
higher for females
In 2018, Nostrum supported 763 employees to benefit from education and training programmes. Our total Group training costs in 2018 were US$1,372,150 and the total number of training days in 2018 was 9,936 days.
Training was undertaken by operational teams, department heads, specialist engineers and other technicians at different levels across the organisation.
Nostrum is committed to maintaining a Group-wide culture that recognises international standards of human rights. In 2019 the Company will develop and implement a Human Rights Policy which reflects a desire to comply with industry best practice.
This is in addition to the Nostrum Code of Conduct (“the Code”) which defines the principles that guide business conduct and provide a non-exhaustive outline of what Nostrum considers permissible conduct by its employees. These principles include provisions relating to human rights and diversity in the workplace. In 2018 the Code was updated to reflect changes in legislation relating to insider dealings and disclosure of insider information.
Under the Group’s standard supply contracts, the Group is entitled to require suppliers to demonstrate compliance with the Code and to hold its suppliers responsible for compliance by their supply chain with equivalent terms.
In 2018 the Company also put collective agreements in place to provide for workforce representation.
We have a Whistleblowing Policy which takes into account the Whistleblowing Arrangements Code of Practice issued by the British Standards Institute and Public Concern at Work and which applies to all individuals working for the Group at all levels and grades.
The Whistleblowing Policy sets out details of three compliance liaison officers who speak a variety of languages for the purposes of reporting any concerns. The Whistleblowing Policy is also mentioned in the Code and a person who reports any matter in good faith will be protected against any sanctions.
At the time of writing we have received no reports under our whistleblowing policy of forced/involuntary labour or human trafficking in relation to our business or supply chains.
50%
female recruitment in 2018
9,936
total number of training days in 2018
US$1.37m
total Group training costs in 2018
