Investing in our employees

At Devon, we listen to our employees. We value our people and invest in their success. Devon focuses on providing personally and professionally fulfilling careers, meaningful benefits and compensation, and a sense of belonging. Our workforce is central to and drives our long-term success. We are at our best when all employees are heard, valued and included.

Employee-focused learning opportunities

One of our values includes learning and challenging ourselves and each other to be the best and deliver results. Our employee development focuses on equipping leaders to support individual and team performance and growth and to help employees focus on how they can make an impact every day.

We continuously look to build upon these actions and incorporate feedback from employees. Feedback is gathered through periodic all-employee pulse surveys. As a result of these surveys, we are able to better understand what our employees are interested in learning and their focus areas for development.

Our learning strategy directly responds to employees’ desire to develop a variety of professional, technical, technological and leadership development skills, and uses different ways to develop them. Devon’s learning ecosystem provides individualized and shared learning paths that balance learners’ needs with the company’s business priorities. To meet the various learning needs, Devon provides internally and externally supported content and facilitation. Devon leaders support learning with coaching, feedback and on-the-job application.

Devon’s learning and development approach
Devon’s learning and development approach - developing a variety of skills through different ways of learning

Partnering with Harvard Corporate Learning, Oklahoma State University, the University of Oklahoma and LinkedIn Learning, our development opportunities include:

  • Leadership training to build and reinforce fundamental leadership skills at the front line and mid-level, and leadership awareness and skills. All Devon corporate office and field leaders completed this training by year-end 2024.
  • Professional training to build technical, business and financial acumen, and technology skills.
  • Executive coaching with specific development objectives for improving individual and organizational performance.
  • Employee pulse surveys and 360-degree feedback to equip leaders to interpret and take action on feedback.

After getting consistent feedback that employees want to learn more about our industry, in 2024 we launched an internal business acumen series. Internal subject matter experts present in-person overviews of their functions across the value chain, from land and engineering to marketing. The series is so popular that the sessions usually have a waitlist. In addition, we focused on developing standardized training delivered in field offices to equip field leaders to lead effectively. In 2025, we’re emphasizing training to prepare new leaders, in the corporate office and the field, to lead sooner and comprehensively.

A key component of the ecosystem is the Learning Network, which is a forum for all Devon employees leading the various training development efforts across the organization. It is an opportunity to share current learning needs, feedback from learners and best practices. Together, these learning and development specialists and technical subject matter experts assess and meet employees’ varied learning and development needs.

Listening to employees and acting on their feedback

Devon surveys our employees periodically to understand their work experiences and continuously improve how we support team performance. In our April 2024 pulse survey, 86% of our employees responded to questions on employee engagement, culture and change, leadership, career development and psychological safety. Overall employee engagement rose to our highest rating of 86, eleven points higher than a global benchmark. In addition to engagement, employee ratings increased on all 11 rated questions on the survey. We saw an 8-point rating increase on belonging and a 6-point increase on opportunities for career advancement compared to the October 2023 survey.

We take this feedback seriously and provide dashboards to help team leaders review, share and act on team-specific findings. Our human resources group reviews the results to identify companywide trends and opportunities for improvement.

Expanding access to mental health resources

Devon recognizes that stress, depression and other common mental health issues can affect our employees’ well-being and productivity. We offer an expansive range of mental health resources to help employees maintain mental health fitness and access mental health services when they need them. We offer ten free mental health visits per family member per year through our behavioral health partner, Lyra Health. In addition to coverage for therapeutic services, our medical health plan offers a cognitive behavioral therapy program to address anxiety, depression, substance abuse and other concerns. Onsite counseling is available at Devon’s Oklahoma City clinic, the Doc, from a counselor licensed in all states where Devon operates. The Doc’s counselor is also available via telehealth to all field employees. A dedicated intranet site consolidates mental health resources in one place to make it easy and convenient for employees to find the care they need. Based on positive feedback in the field, we continue to have honest discussions about mental health and share information to encourage our workforce to access resources.

Mental health awareness training for leaders who have employees directly reporting to them continued in 2024, with 74% of Devon leaders at all levels across the company attending classes in 2023 or 2024. Taught by a behavioral health specialist from the Doc, the training helps leaders recognize mental health concerns and equips them to provide a supportive environment for their employees. In 2024, about 50% of leaders also attended a follow-up training on mental fitness for leaders, which provided further support and education on self-care and resources for those facing specific challenges related to leading.

In 2024, Devon recognized World Mental Health Day with a lunchtime behavioral health event in Oklahoma City. Employees were encouraged to visit with community resources and services, enjoy a chair massage and experience the therapeutic benefits of service animals. Each field office received a large box of items and resource materials to encourage participation in a friendly competition. Employees who submitted ideas to better strengthen Devon’s mental health efforts received a prize.

Meaningful compensation, benefits and work practices

We value employees who are open and honest, take ownership and contribute to our company objectives. To cultivate a workforce with these qualities, we start with offering equitable opportunity in all aspects of employment and providing competitive compensation and benefits.

Devon offers equitable pay. Salaries of female and minority employees are, on average, positioned equivalently (+/-2% relative to the applicable pay grade) to those of male and non-minority peers. All Devon employees make $20/hour or more. We encourage a sharp focus on results by giving every employee an equity stake in our business through annual stock awards and the opportunity to receive annual cash bonus based on individual performance and Devon’s overall performance on annual corporate goals.

We measure our performance, benchmark against our industry and look for ways to further align our compensation practices with our aspirations.

Tools and strategies for financial wellness

Concerns about debt, retirement and other personal finance issues can affect an employee’s sense of wellbeing. Our financial wellness program offers confidential and unbiased financial guidance and resources at no cost to employees. These include third-party financial assessments and web-based workshops. Employees can also meet one-on-one with a third-party financial expert once a quarter. By keeping employees informed about the importance of retirement savings, Devon has reached the top of our industry for 401(k) retirement contributions (97.3% of employees participate) and the percentage of paycheck contributions (6.6% of paycheck contributed).

We believe healthy, happy employees who feel financially secure are more likely to come to work ready to give Devon their best effort.

Employee wellness

Devon believes in supporting the well-being of our employees, who balance multiple roles and responsibilities in their personal lives, while delivering results for the company. We consider these expectations when developing programs that can meaningfully improve our employees’ physical, mental and financial well-being.

Since establishing our wellness program in 2012, Devon has focused on prevention, convenient tools and high-quality programs. This has contributed to strong productivity and engagement, low absenteeism and high retention rates.

Employees tell us that our offerings help them improve their health and make healthy lifestyle changes. This is why we’ve maintained the most effective core programs, even during years when we cut costs across the company.

Nurturing our culture

A part of the Devon culture is to value differences, include and encourage others, and ensure all employees are able to perform at their best. We cultivate an open, supportive and respectful workplace where our employees can feel a sense of belonging. When we bring together a variety of experiences and challenge ourselves to think differently, we believe it leads to innovation and creative problem-solving. Devon also engages with our communities to understand how we can make a difference beyond our workplace.

    Our culture in action is every person contributing to their fullest and making a positive impact every day. To create and support this culture, we have active participation from our leaders across the company. We’re continuously listening and seeking ways to nurture an engaging and supportive workplace to bring more employees into the conversation, build understanding and make positive change happen.

    • The Devon board of directors endorses our culture-building efforts and follows our progress closely.
    • Our executives and vice presidents champion strategies to enhance our culture and support others by coaching, motivating, breaking down barriers and listening.
    • Our human resources team guides and advises with strategic support, tools and resources for success


    Our actions to be an engaging and supportive workplace have included:

    Policies

    • Enhanced Devon’s paid time off policy to provide additional time for all employees to take care of themselves and their families.

    Programs

    • Provided a range of optional learning and mentorship programs for all employees, including the opportunity to be a mentor to high school students through our corporate work study partnership with Cristo Rey.
    • Implemented recruiting practices to attract a variety of candidates and create a positive candidate experience.
    • Introduced scenario-based discrimination and harassment training for all employees focused on speaking up and speaking up for others.
    • Prepared a wide range of employees for advancement with leadership development and mentoring opportunities.
    • Continued providing Foundations of Leadership program for all leaders through a partnership with Harvard Corporate Learning. It includes reinforcing a leader’s skills in building and maintaining trust, creating psychological safety, setting clear expectations, giving feedback, and coaching for individual and team performance.
    • Continued sponsoring the Women’s Energy Network of Greater Oklahoma (WEN OK) and Oklahoma Women in Tech (WIT), and supporting Devon employees in being active participants and leaders in these organizations.
    • Partnered with the University of Oklahoma Executive MBA in Energy program to offer selected employees the opportunity to advance their career development and knowledge of the energy industry through the pursuit of an energy-focused advanced degree at no cost.

    Performance

    • Funded Inclusion Grants totaling $140,000 to 34 new community partners in Devon’s operating areas in 2024. Click here for more about our Inclusion Grants program.
    • Employee survey ratings increased on all 11 rated questions from both April 2024 and October 2023 surveys. Specifically, ratings increased significantly on the sense of belonging and opportunities for career advancement at Devon.