FINANCIAL TIMES: Royal Dutch/Shell: “The mountain that Jeroen Van der Veer, chief executive of Royal Dutch/ Shell, still has to climb is underlined by a staff survey showing that less than half the company's workforce believes it is well led.” (ShellNews.net) 2 Feb 05

By Martin Dickson

Published: February 2 2005

The mountain that Jeroen Van der Veer, chief executive of Royal Dutch/ Shell, still has to climb is underlined by a staff survey showing that less than half the company's workforce believes it is well led.

It is a sobering backdrop to the company's presentation tomorrow of fourth-quarter results - which should be good - and its important final restatement of its post-scandal reserves.

When the "people survey" was conducted in 2002, 67 per cent of respondents felt the company was well led. Now, only 47 per cent think so. Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, the 67 per cent were totally wrong about their leadership. So surveys like this need taking with a pinch of salt.

Nevertheless, the findings suggest that despite the efforts of Mr Van de Veer to shake up the company's culture, and install a "company first" rather than a "me first" attitude, it will take a lot more to restore staff confidence. Morale on the exploration and production side is said to be a particular problem. That will not help the company's efforts to hire more than 1,000 E&P engineers.