Celebrating Diversity

The oil and gas industry has historically struggled with creating a diverse workforce. For its part, Chesapeake is committed to increasing our diversity through proactive measures.

The Chesapeake Diversity Council serves as an advisory body, reporting to our executive management, which takes a leadership role in developing diversity programs for the company. These programs promote awareness and inclusion and encourage diversity of thought and experiences. The Council has commitment from the top, with Cathy Tompkins, Senior Vice President – Information Technology and Chief Information Officer, serving as the Council Chair.

One of our key diversity programs is our Diversity Champions. A group composed of individual contributors and leaders, our Diversity Champions help the Diversity Council identify the best ways for the company to embrace diversity and inclusion. Their primary responsibility is to embody the mission of the Council and be a spark of cultural change within their respective areas. They also provide feedback on challenges the company faces related to diversity and inclusion, help collaborate with other Champions to identify solutions to those challenges and lead or assist initiatives derived from those solutions. 

Employees voluntarily sign up to be Champions because of their passion for creating a more diverse and inclusive organization. In 2016, the year of the program’s launch, 130 employees became Diversity Champions, representing 28 of our 30 company departments. Of these Champions, one in three is a people leader, showing managerial support for a diverse workforce. 

In 2016 the Diversity Champions focused on the importance of trust and its relationship to diversity in a business environment. During six Champion calls and 17 roundtable sessions, the Champions brainstormed challenges and solutions to trust-related issues common in the workplace. The group also shared tools specific for building trust at team meetings. In 2017, the Champions will emphasize listening and other solutions that increase inclusivity through continued roundtable discussions, department meetings, lunch and learn opportunities and employee recognition efforts. 

To further an environment that promotes inclusion and in support of our Equal Employment Policy, we offer annual diversity training to all supervisors and above, as well as an annual analysis of the company’s population to determine if there are any areas particularly lacking in diversity. Should our review reveal areas that need diversity focus, our Human Resources team works directly with leadership to develop an action plan for improvement.   

As part of our affirmative action program, Chesapeake conducts a fairness check each performance review cycle to identify if any protected groups have areas of potential adverse impact. Should there be a trend within a certain group, the group’s performance ratings, promotions and compensation recommendations are studied more thoroughly, and discussions take place with leadership to help ensure fairness across the organization.

Supporting Veterans

Recognizing the talent veterans bring to our organization, we offer a veterans-only email address to give military candidates direct access to our talent acquisition team. Our recruiting team members are trained to review and translate military resumes for hiring managers to highlight the skills of veteran candidates.

Each Veterans Day we honor our employees who served with recognition activities in each of our offices. And for those in active duty, Chesapeake offers a military differential pay benefit to all qualified, full-time employees who are called to serve or train for 30 or more days.