Petro-Canadas Total Compensation Strategy and Program - Research Paper Example

?Petro-Canada's Total Compensation Strategy and Program Thesis ment: This paper will discuss Petro-Canada’s Total compensation Strategy and program. A deep insight into it for entry level jobs will be discussed here. Also, this paper will highlight the comparison of Petro-Canada’s compensation strategy with other companies coming from the same industry. Overview of the company: Petro Canada saw its beginning in 1975 in Alberta which started operating on 1st January 1976. Its foundation was the result of a parliament act. It is a crown cooperation the purpose of the creation of the company was to control energy sector in china as the Chinese president Trudeau always wanted China to be more independent and less dependent on the United States of America. So, the creation of petro Canada was a part of his dream of self-sufficient Canada. The creation of the petro Canada goes back to the year 1973 when the world found Arabs having huge reservoirs of oil were badly engaged in the bloody wars and the prices of oil went to the sky (Forster, 1993). The province of Canada, Alberta had plenty of the oil reserves which were controlled by an American corporation. This was the time when the Chinese president and the opposition felt the sheer need of the time of establishing a Canadian corporation which could control major part of the oil trade. The resident wanted the American corporation to spend more amount of the oil supply to Canada and les to be the states of America while the business was going on reverse. So, 1975 was the year of birth of the Canadian corporation petro Canada. This angered the western world (Greene, 2010). The company kept on working as the one of the Canada’ s largest corporation and fulfilling almost 40% of the Canadian domestic and industrial needs. The idea of the petro Canadian as a powerful tool however was not liked by the liberals who were against the establishment of the corporation and wanted to sell it off (IGI, 2009). 1988 was an important year in the history of the petro Canada; it was the time when the government tried to represent the corporation as a symbol of the Canadian nationalism though Olympic bid. This was the high time for the petro Canada to get popular inside and outside Canada. With the coming years, the corporation made its grounds firm by purchasing few of the world’s famous oil brands and suppliers however the services of oil and gas refinery were got by British Petroleum Canada (Forster, 1993). 1980 was the year of the changing history of petro Canada. This was the time when liberals came in power and with their authority in the government, the energy issue was raised. They stopped the idea of making petro Canada as a symbol of Canadian nationalism and made it just to compete with the oil companies in private sector (Shields, 2007). Soon the corporation saw its deterioration and the government decided to privatize petro Canada. In 1991 the shares were sold in the open market while keeping 19% in the company. The shares price fell dramatically and the company suffered a drastic loss with many employees being laid off (Forster, 1993). In 2009, it was merged with Suncor and now it is owned by it while the brand is used nationwide. It has owned refineries in Quebec, Alberta and Montreal. Its major projects were White Rose, Hibernia and Terra Nova (IGI, 2011). It was 2006 when the company decided to enter in the mobile market and launched a prepaid service known as Petro Canada Mobility. In 2009, it decided to open fast food restaurants and provided the services of car wash with drive thru. Its offered services also include car repair service which is known as Certigard Car Repair. The Suncor ownership has surely brought a changed environment while entering in the open race of competition and brings the services to increase its customer market. Petro Canada has though been privatized yet it still symbolizes the Chinese president’s dream of all being independent (Greene, 2010). Petro-Canada For entry level positions Like any other company, the level of jobs Petro Canada offers are of more than one levels. Few of the important levels in jobs at Petro-Canada are: Entry level Clerical Supervisor Technical Low level manager Senior manager (Aaker, 2001) Incentives, rewards, compensations and motivational packages have always been paying an important role in raising the morale of the employees. These help a company to make his employees more dedicated and more motivated to fulfill a task. One of the top class reasons for petro Canada being so attractive for employees all around the world is its outstanding packages and compensation plans which it provides to its employees at different levels as per their rank. One of the compensation plans given to its workers at entry level is the financial security through insurance plans. After getting confirmation, the internees at Petro Canada enjoy a handsome benefit through the insurance policy. This is almost an average 40% of their annual salary. Medical care provision is another benefit which is enjoyed by the staff in general. This insurance benefit is relatively low in other oil companies in the market. If you are an internee in any of the service plans provided by petro Canada; you are given the medical care all for free. Your family which includes your spouse and kids are enrolled in the employee medical care scheme and are registered at the medical centers. The purpose of this registration is to reckon you as an employee of petro Canada. You need to fill a simple form which asks you basic information. After filling this form, you concerns are entertained immediately. It offers its package based on the slogan “pay for performance”. The performance is rewarded with the incentives and promotions. The basic pay is attractive as compared to the other oil companies in the market (Levy, 2009). That is one of the major reasons that workers try their last to be a part of Suncor’s apprenticeship. The long run incentives enable the employees to earn and enjoy the long term bonuses. This is a good management strategy which features petro Canada bit higher when ranked in the group of oil companies. The individuals who are able to perform the best and excel in their services, Suncor brings special rewards and additional bonuses for them. This policy is as being part of other oil companies as well. The purpose of this additional reward is to motivate and appreciate the individual for his best efforts involved and contributed in the promotion of the company. Suncor is specially looked at for its high bonuses and additional rewards (Lawler, 2000). As far as the compensation line is concerned, Suncor stays at the same level as other companies are in the market. This feature keeps the company in the competition. Suncor cannot afford to be lower in status as it can affect its marketing and will definitely take the hard and sincere workers to the other oil companies. This compensation line invites the people to join Suncor instead of other oil companies which offer low wages with the same working pressure. Other companies demand high work load to be done by while offering more or less the same package (Kourdi, 2009). Immediate recognition awards like fuel saving cards are the parallel bonuses with which the project managers are bring awarded from time to time. Managers do enjoy a handsome pension when get retired. This pension is almost constitutes 25% of the salary. Therefore, many people prefer to end up with their career in Petro Canada. One of the policies for deciding pay scale for the entry level is their experience and exhibition of their working skills. This is often smelled when a candidate is being interviewed. The interview revealing facts enable the committee to decide the pay scale for the person being interviewed. Sometimes this strategy fails as a candidate may not be able to perform well while answering the interview questions though having the best working skills (Kiechel, 2010). By having an overall analysis, it is obvious that one of the reasons of Suncor’s continuity in growth is its compensation and reward policy which pushes employees to work harder. Conclusion: The above discussion very clearly shows that Petro-Canada is a highly responsible and well planned company. They have set strategies for compensation for not only the managerial level jobs but also for other levels. As already discussed, Petro-Canada is offering jobs with salary and incentives almost equal to the existing market level. They are offering a better job environment and a stable company to prove them a better option for job. Compensation strategies are vey well defined and suitable. References: Aaker, D. A. (2001) Developing Business Stategies. 6th Edition. New Jersey: Wiley. Forster, P. (1993) Self-Serve: How Petro-Canada Pumped Canadians Dry. Macfarlane, Walter and Ross Publishers. Heneman, R. L. (2000) Business Driven Compensation Policies: Integrating Compensation Systems with Corporate Strategies. AMACOM. Greene, R. J. (2010) Rewarding Performance: Guiding principles, Custom Strategies. Routledge. Icon Group International (2009) The 2009 Report on Oil and Gas Extraction: world Market Segmentation by City. Icon Group International, Inc. 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