Paying careful attention to our people - and fostering a unifying, inspiring corporate culture - has helped us shape the company to take on large projects and expand internationally.

2007 Hewitt Survey Results
Each year, Hewitt Associates and The Globe and Mail's Report on Business magazine sponsors the 50 Best Employers in Canada survey. On the 2007 study, Nexen placed 40th out of 50 companies. This is the fifth time since the survey began in 2000 that Nexen has been named to the list. This survey is a valuable tool to help us understand what employees value and areas where we can improve our human resources practices.

In addition, Nexen was again named in the Top 100 Companies to Work For in Canada list, in a survey conducted by Mediacorp and published in Maclean's magazine. We were also named one of Alberta's Top 20 Employers in 2006 by Mediacorp.

Increased Employee Turnover in our Industry
Employee turnover is an important indicator of employee satisfaction. We have seen our voluntary employee turnover rates decrease to 5.7% this year from 7.4% last year. Our experience in recruitment and participating in informal sector surveys indicates that high turnover rates in 2006 were common among our peers. We believe our 2006 rate of 5.7% positions us at about average in our sector.

Proactive Employment Strategy at Long Lake
Nowhere is the competition for labour more intense than in the oil sands region surrounding Fort McMurray, Canada where the Long Lake project is located. Thanks to a proactive approach to human resource planning, Long Lake has been able to progress from pilot phase to a multi-billion-dollar construction program ready for commercial production in 2007. Workforce planning is already underway for Phase 2 of Long Lake's development, with construction estimated to begin in 2009 or 2010.

We have employed a 'managed open site' contractor workforce strategy, recruiting a mix of alternative union, non-union, union and international workers to support critical construction activities. This has allowed the project to access the broadest possible pool of workers. Long Lake also arranged to have a number of processing components assembled in other centres, such as Nisku, Alberta, and had the completed modules shipped to the site. This strategy helped ease the on-site workload and also helped keep the project on track. Other components of our workforce strategy included flexible schedules designed to attract skilled workers from other parts of Canada and incentive payments for contract employees with continued service on the project.

Diversity in the Workplace
Nexen's philosophy is to seek the best individual for every position, regardless of gender, race, national origin or other characteristic. We do not set targets or quotas for diversity. An exception is Yemen where, as part of our agreement with the Yemen government, we seek to maximize opportunities for Yemeni nationals, who now make up 77% of our Masila workforce (including contractors).

We currently track the percentage of women in our workforce (33%) and the percentage of women in management (14.1% in manager-level roles and above).

Above all, the company abides by all human rights, personal information protection and employment standards legislation. We are committed to providing a workplace where the dignity of the individual is respected and there is freedom from harassment or the fear of harassment.

Unions and Collective Agreements
Our Balzac, Alberta gas processing facility (represented by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union) and our operations in Yemen (Masila Labour Union) are our two unionized operations, with 64 and 799 unionized employees respectively. Based on Nexen's total workforce of 3,244 employees, 26.6% of our employees are covered by collective agreements.

Read more about our Sustainability practices.