Oil and gas firm is No. 3 mid-size company in Top Workplaces for 2022

EOG Resources is the No. 3 mid-size company in Top Workplaces for 2022.

Description: EOG Resources was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Houston. The company has 193 employees across its four New Mexico locations. This is EOG Resources’ third year in making the Journal’s Top Workplaces.

From the organization: “EOG’s unique, decentralized organizational structure is comprised of regional, multidisciplinary teams that maximize returns on invested capital while maintaining a commitment to safety, environmental stewardship, and community involvement. All employees, regardless of background, are business people first, and they collaborate across the organization to share knowledge, improve well performance and capture cost efficiencies.”

From the employees: “We are able to make decisions on our own, we are held to a high standard work ethic,” said one staffer. Another employee described the environment by saying, “It pushes me to grow, learn and teach everyday. Being able to troubleshoot and make things run smoother is rewarding to me.”

The following is an excerpt from an interview with EOG Resources CEO Ezra Yacob, whose comments have been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

How has your organization’s culture helped you to succeed during the last year?

“The pandemic was not only new, and a challenge because we had to work remotely, but in our business, you go through a commodity price cycle. That’s really the biggest impact that the pandemic had for us. We encourage each employee to be a businessperson first, we encourage them to think about returns, free cash flow, capital discipline, sustainability — and we encourage them to think about the culture also and their role in it and how each of us are leaders. It’s a very flat organization and we really tried to encourage people to bring their whole self to work and innovate and really provide value added ideas and that’s really what helped us.”

What is the best thing that your organization does to retain its talent?

“We collect a lot of data and we encourage the employees to look at this data and to try and innovate. We’re looking for them to lead, not through doing what’s been done before. But really, we’re hoping to recruit really critical thinkers that are humble and collaborative. I really do think the most important thing in any company is that the senior leadership focuses on creating, establishing and managing a healthy culture. If you can do that, you know, your workforce is going to be engaged. They’re going to be driving the business forward and they’re going to have ownership over it all.”

What ways did the staff step up to meet clients’ and community needs during the pandemic?

“In Artesia, we helped build an aquatic center after hearing from and working with the local employees and the local community members there. In 2019, we worked with the (Bureau of Land Management) to construct a campsite out next to the Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns on restored and reclaimed lands that we had. Those are things that, actively working and living in New Mexico, we see as very important to do. And that bleeds over not just for the community service needs, but also as we run our business day-to-day. When we think about our operations in Midland and Artesia, we’ve worked closely with the state and federal regulators there to try and pilot some new environmental initiatives. The way that we structure some of our community giving too, we offer a two to one (donation) match program for our employees. So our community donations, the biggest piece of it is started with our employees.”