People and culture

Our people are integral to the success of Woodside.

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Our people are integral to the success of Woodside

To remain a high performing organisation in a changing industry and society we continue to evolve our people strategy to attract and retain highly capable talent and create a work environment that enables them to be at their best.

Our approach

Our approach¹

At Woodside, we recognise that our business ambitions can only be realised if we enable our people to excel. To do so, we engage our team with our purpose and align our capabilities with our business strategy, nurturing a strong sense of organisational pride. Our approach to creating a diverse workforce and inclusive culture is focused and intentional; and these efforts are driven by values-led leadership that encourages our people to bring their full selves to work.

Our employees are what sustain our business needs today and create tomorrow’s growth opportunities. We pride ourselves on being an inclusive company, which we believe allows us to attract innovative talent, and we further develop our people’s capabilities to match our current and future needs as an organisation.

Our performance

Our performance²

In 2024, significant milestones have been reached in our People Strategy. We completed key foundation Human Resources Information System projects and introduced new, centralised platforms for the management of employee queries and concerns. Further, throughout the year, we enhanced our people systems with the introduction of streamlined rewards and benefits, and harmonized our travel management system and business travel guides.,

The 2024 'Our Voice' employee engagement survey showed continued improvement in the areas of mental wellbeing and alignment to the purpose of Woodside. Employee satisfaction, respectful treatment, and leader empathy scores are stable and remain key areas of focus for us. Our participation rates in the survey continue to exceed benchmarks set based on more than 1,000 companies by the service provider Microsoft Viva Glint indicating employees' eagerness to share their feedback and influence our organisational culture.

People data table

For more information refer to the people-related data table.

View data table

Leadership

Our leaders play a vital role in bringing our strategy to life, delivering on our commitments, and building an inclusive culture aligned to Our Values through their role modelled behaviour and engagement with our employees.

In 2024, our Executive and Senior Leadership Teams have prioritised time together throughout the year to reflect on their leadership effectiveness and their leadership impact on the broader business culture.

Future efforts to empower our leaders include:

Leadership cohorts that build connection and leverage the collective capabilities across the organisation
Leadership coaching helpdesk to support leaders with personal and team development.
Refreshed Leadership Expectations for all employees to drive personal and career development.

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Leaders complete inclusive leadership assessment whereby 360-degree feedback is received, providing insights into their strengths and development areas. Following the assessment, each leader receives a series of personalised coaching sessions aimed at embedding their development and collectively enhancing Woodside’s inclusive culture.

The Indigenous Cultural Learning for Leaders program seeks to uplift the skills, knowledge and capability of leaders (with Australian employees) to lead culturally safe and inclusive teams particularly with respect to Indigenous Australian employees. Over 55% of our people leaders have completed the first stage of the program, with the company aiming for people leaders with Australian reports to complete this program by 2025.

Leadership development is identified as a key enabler for our corporate strategy. The Navigator Leadership Development Program (Navigator Program) is our whole of business framework for leadership development. It is built around five distinct phases aligned to an individual’s growth and capabilities in leadership development. Each phase encompasses an immersive learning experience with application of skills, before providing an opportunity to extend those skills in preparation for the next step in the leadership journey. Since it commenced in 2021, 3300 current employees have engaged in a Navigator learning experience. In 2024, Navigator was awarded silver in the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Excellence in Practice (EiP) awards.

With Navigator now entering its fourth fifth year we have been able to understand observable and tangible examples of improved performance with a sustained and positive momentum. Our employees and their leaders have reported:

Improved self-efficacy and authenticity.
Improved ability to cultivate psychological safety and lead a team.
Improved professional and personal relationships.
Improved ability to lead change.

Capability

Recognising the crucial role of organisational capability in driving Woodside’s success, we have embarked on a strategic initiative to ensure we attract, retain and develop the right skills and expertise needed to execute our corporate strategy. In 2023, the design of Woodside’s Career and Capability Framework commenced, aiming to establish a standardised enterprise-wide framework encompassing existing leadership, technical and general capabilities and the capabilities that we aim to develop in the organisation. Emphasising our cohesive One Team culture, cross-organisational collaboration has played a vital role in identifying, defining and mapping out the required capabilities and proficiencies. The framework serves as a cornerstone, providing employees with clarity on capability standards and role expectations. It empowers both employees and leaders to effectively plan their development and career progression, while also enabling data-driven insights to inform people related processes such as strategic capability planning, workforce analytics, resource management and talent and succession planning. In 2024, a pilot of the framework was successfully conducted, with enterprise-wide deployment scheduled for the latter half of 2025.

Our talent management approach remains focused on the identification and development of a pool of high potential individuals capable of assuming executive and senior leadership roles. The approach aims to safeguard business critical risk and ensure a healthy pipeline of future leaders.

Looking ahead, we plan to expand our talent management approach across the organisation, developing deeper talent pipelines and identification of early career leaders. Through our Navigator Leadership Development Program’s Extend component, we provide tailored developmental experiences to challenge and accelerate the development of our talent, leveraging a holistic approach that adds value to our overall organisational development efforts.

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Woodside’s Graduate Development Program (GDP) is a three year, modular development program that includes competency based role rotations and development opportunities that aim to assist graduates in developing depth and breadth of skills in their early career. In 2024, there were 114 graduates currently on the program. Each of the GDP elements are aligned to each other and centered around competency development and performance based progression.

A key GDP highlight is the two-week Action Learning Project (ALP) for second year graduates which provides an opportunity to achieve innovative business outcomes and accelerate employee development via experienced based learning. Building a strong and cross business connected cohort is a key aspect of our program. We do this through deliberate opportunities such as Grad Day, a day to celebrate and develop leadership skills for our graduates across the three cohorts, experiential modules which have been designed to broaden core business competencies, and the Karratha site visit as a part of the 90 day induction.

The Summer Vacation Program provides a key entry pathway into the GDP and runs from November to February each year. For the 2024- 2025 vacation program, Woodside welcomed 79 summer vacation students.

The Australian Woodside Scholarship program was launched in 2021. The program provides financial support for students studying at university, annual paid work experience and early consideration for participation in our Graduate Development Program. During 2024, three scholarship students were employed as graduates at Woodside following completion of their studies. We had 13 students in the program, of which 39% were female.

Woodside has been running our Better Future Pathways Program since 2021. This program allows us to reach Australian students early in their degree (in the first or second year) by giving them the opportunity to participate in the Vacation Program in summer. We had four students participate in the 2024-2025 program.

Human Resources (HR) systems enable the delivery of our people strategy and the success of our operating model. The structure of our integrated HR system connects our end-to-end people processes and aims to ensure that our leaders and employees have the data and information required to make efficient and effective decisions.

In 2024, we completed the foundational HR Systems Integration projects with the implementation of core HR, Payroll and Case Management Systems. We have a comprehensive HR Technology Roadmap aligned to the delivery of our People Strategy. Our aim in 2025 is to implement a robust workforce analytics solution, talent development tool and through our internal and external partnerships implement Artificial Intelligence to continually enhance our employee experience. We will continue to focus on delivering integrated HR technology that is sustainable and scalable, enabling the attraction and development of talent as we thrive through the energy transition.

Woodside maintains an open and collaborative working relationship with our global workforce. As at 31 December 2024, there were a total of 4602 employees. Of those, 322 employees (representative of 7% of our total workforce) at our North West Shelf Platforms, Ngujima-Yin and Okha FPSOs and Macedon Gas Plant were covered by collective bargaining agreements. All other employees working conditions and terms of employment are based on industry conditions, as determined by the relevant laws and regulations in the respective jurisdictions.

Culture

Our culture is defined by Our Values. During 2024, we focused on identifying and embedding new behaviours that will bring us closer as “One Team”. Our efforts to hardwire culture into our systems have continued through policy harmonisation, cross-functional working groups, and talent and performance discussions.

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The culture and engagement survey (Our Voice) is a key component of Woodside’s culture and focuses leaders on improving culture within their teams. The survey is run every six months and seeks to understand employee sentiment on experiences of leadership and culture, job satisfaction, intent to remain with Woodside and several other themes relating to engagement.

Across Woodside, employee-led groups have a history of providing support, fostering connections, building capabilities and influencing change.

Woodside has eight Employee Impact Groups (EIGs) which are open to all employees. These groups allow our teams to form connections in topics that are important to them and to learn from each other.

Employee Impact Groups

Employee-led groups have a strong history of providing connections, support, advocacy, building capabilities and influencing change

Inclusion

In 2021, Woodside launched its Inclusion and Diversity Strategy 2021-2025, which focuses on achieving an inclusive culture with diverse representation throughout the organisation.

Through this strategy, we are striving for an organisation where all people feel safe, enabled, and supported to bring their whole self to work. We recognise that the behaviours we cultivate, our people management practices, and leadership need to be aligned with this commitment to ensure that everyone feels a sense of belonging

INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY STRATEGY 2021-2025

First Nations participation

In 2024, significant progress was made in the representation of First Nations Australian employees at mid-career levels. This was driven by the introduction of a dedicated indigenous sourcing specialist and the conversion of Trainees and Apprentices to full time Woodside positions. This has seen First Nations talent join Woodside’s Finance, Data Science and Health & Safety teams. Through the past year, an increase in overall First Nations Australian employees (includes employees, scholarships and apprentices/trainees) was seen (from 5.7% to 5.8%) as was an increase to those in leadership roles (from 0.7% to 0.8%).

Early career pathways continue to attract First Nations talent to the organization with 3.7% of the Graduate Program and 4.6% of the 2024/2025 Summer Vacation program identifying as First Nations.

In 2024, Woodside continued to participate in the Jawun Program with six employees participating in six weeklong on-country secondments, and seven members of the Woodside senior leadership team undertaking mini-immersions. This program allows Woodside employees to share skills and knowledge, support capacity development and build relationships with indigenous communities. In August, Woodside hosted an Indigenous CEO as part of the Indigenous Leader in Residence program, for a week of shadowing the cadence of some of the company’s Executives and senior leaders. Woodside also supported three senior female leaders to attend the bi-annual Stories of Female Leadership convention in Broome, a consortium bringing senior Indigenous female leaders together with delegates from corporate and government for a three day networking and connection opportunity

5.8 %

representation of First Nations Australians in the Woodside workforce

0.8 %

First Nations Australian representation in leadership roles

7.9 %

of new experienced hires identifying as First Nations Australian

39.3 %

of our new externally hired apprentices and trainees identifying as First Nations Australians

28.6 %

of those converting from apprenticeship or traineeship to Woodside employment also identify as First Nations Australians

Featured Case Study

First Nations Development

Woodside is committed to providing First Nations employees with development and leadership opportunities through initiatives like the Navigator Program. As part of this commitment, in 2024, Woodside partnered with the Cape York Institute Leadership Academy, renowned for its contributions to Indigenous leadership development, to deliver a pilot Indigenous Leadership Development Program (ILDP). This program featured workshops in April, May, and June, focusing on three core themes: Leading Self, Leading Team, and Leading Change.

View case study

Gender participation

In 2024, efforts also continued to progress female participation and steady improvements have been seen at all levels of the workforce.

The company reached 11.7% female representation in trades/technician roles (from 8.8% in 2021). Continued efforts include a focus on apprentice and trainee programs, the implementation of the Women in Operations Working Group, and the development of an I&D Strategy focused on gender representation for our Mexico workforce. Each year we report on our gender equality progress for the Australia-based employee workforce by lodging an annual report with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).

Woodside also supports parents and carers in successfully balancing work and personal responsibilities. We provide paid parental leave, superannuation arrangements and ensure this type of leave is accessible to all employees across the globe.

Featured Case Study

World Menopause Day

In 2024, Woodside’s EDGE (Employees Driving Gender Equity) group hosted a session with Menopause Australia Alliance in marking of World Menopause Day which is held every year on 18 October. This day helps to raise awareness for the challenges that many women face during menopause and support options that are available during this transition.

Woodside employees heard from doctors and experts who shared their knowledge with an enthusiastic audience. A focus was placed on understanding symptoms of menopause as we aim to enhance employee wellbeing and create a more empathetic and productive workplace. This event was held as part of an ongoing effort to increase awareness on this important topic. .

We are proud to be an inclusive employer that supports our people at different stages of their lives, including during menopause. Supports include our flexible and hybrid work policy, fostering a culture of trust and empathy, Employee Assistance Programs, and cultural supports such as the EDGE Second Spring community which focuses specifically on perimenopause and menopause.

Race and ethnicity

Our Inclusion & Diversity Policy reinforces that we are committed to “improving the diversity mix of our workforce to reflect the communities in which we operate. We recognise the different social and legislative frameworks in our different global locations and apply our inclusion and diversity and people management practices in accordance with this. Woodside is committed to providing equal employment opportunities and ensuring people management practices prevent or stop any form of discrimination.”

The racial equity component of our inclusion and diversity commitments is aimed at ensuring we continue to work towards equal access to opportunities across our organisation given the historical barriers in our communities and as Woodside does not currently have proportional racial and ethnic representation at all levels.

Enabling all abilities

Woodside endeavors to create a workplace that works for all employees, including individuals who identify as neurodiverse or as having a disability. Woodside supports employees and line leaders to implement appropriate adjustments to enable people to be successful in the workplace.

In 2024, our ADAPT Employee Impact Group expanded with a new chapter for our international employees. Our Perth-based and international chapters of this group support inclusion through recognising Neurodiversity Awareness Week and the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities. These events included raising awareness via values moments and stories and running sessions to share information about accessibility and supports.

Featured Case Study

Supporting individuals with hidden disabilities

In 2024, Woodside joined The Hidden Disabilities Sunflower program via our ADAPT Employee Impact Group. This initiative focuses on raising awareness of hidden disabilities and increasing inclusion and support for individuals who have a hidden disability. It’s estimated that over 25% of the population has a hidden disability, which include things like non-visible physical or mental disabilities, conditions, and chronic illnesses.

Through this initiative, employees are invited to wear a sunflower symbol via lanyards and lapel pins. These either indicate that an employee identifies as having a hidden disability (sunflower on green background) or that they are an ally for those who do (sunflower on white background). Woodside makes lapel pins and lanyards available to employees through ADAPT. This can improve the sense of belonging for employees who have hidden disabilities and can aid in communication and increased understanding.

The program also offers learning opportunities to Woodside employees. These learnings help to enhance the level of awareness for hidden disabilities by providing employees with access to training videos, webinars, the Invisible Disabilities Index, and the Sunflower Conversations Podcast.

To further raise awareness for hidden disabilities, ADAPT hosted various learning sessions throughout the year. These included an external speaker event with Rhiannon Parker who shared her extensive knowledge of and work in neurodiversity inclusion and lunch-and-learns on topics such as synesthesia, bipolar disorder, and dyslexia. Woodside globally further supports individuals with both visible and hidden disabilities via our hybrid and flex work policies, workplace accessibility features, and workplace adjustments support.

Sexual orientation

In both Houston and Perth, we celebrate the locally recognised Pride Month each year with events dedicated to raising awareness, and enhancing our respectful culture.

Each year, these events are hosted by our Vibe Employee Impact Group., Vibe focuses on creating an inclusive culture for members of the LGBTIQA+ community and allies.

During 2024, 700 employees across multiple jurisdictions, where applicable, completed some form of LGBTIQA+ awareness and inclusion training.

People and culture

Our people are integral to the success of Woodside

Our approach¹

Our performance²

People data table

Leadership

Inclusive leadership

Leadership development

Capability

Graduate development

Entry programs

Human resources systems integration

Collective bargaining agreements

Culture

The voice of our employees

Employee-led groups

Respectful behaviours

Employee Impact Groups