A Space for Thoughtful 
About the Client
A North American integrated energy organization engaged in oil sands development, offshore production, petroleum refining, and retail fuel distribution. The organization operates complex, high-risk industrial environments and focuses strongly on safety, operational reliability, environmental stewardship, and workforce capability development to support sustainable energy operations.
Challenges They Faced
- Inconsistent Work Practices Across Operational Sites – Over time, different locations developed site-specific interpretations of operational procedures, resulting in inconsistent performance outcomes and reduced process standardization.
- Complex and Difficult-to-Navigate Management System – The existing operational excellence framework lacked clear procedural guidance, making it difficult for employees to understand how to effectively implement compliance and performance requirements.
- Limited Workforce Awareness of Transformation Objectives – Many frontline employees lacked visibility into the purpose, benefits, and long-term vision of the OEMS transformation, impacting adoption and engagement.
- Knowledge Retention and Experience Transfer Risks – Critical operational knowledge was often implicit and experience-driven, creating risks of knowledge loss as employees transitioned roles or left the organization.
- Need to Strengthen Leadership and Process Ownership Capabilities – Leaders required enhanced skills to guide workforce transformation, support standardized process adoption, and reinforce performance-driven operational culture.
- Scaling Change Adoption Across Large, Distributed Workforce Groups – The organization needed a scalable learning solution capable of preparing frontline personnel, leaders, and process owners across multiple sites for new operational practices.
Solutions We Offered
A structured, multi-tiered learning transformation program was developed to support enterprise-wide OEMS adoption and workforce capability development.
Awareness-Level Change Enablement Learning – Two immersive digital learning programs were developed to support workforce awareness and knowledge building:
- OEMS Awareness Training focused on introducing the operational excellence transformation vision, process framework, and workforce empowerment objectives.
Progressive Learning Framework – The learning program was aligned with a 70-20-10 capability development model, combining:
- Formal eLearning for foundational knowledge
- Instructor-led training for leadership capability building
- Role-based performance support resources for on-the-job application
Story-Driven and Scenario-Based Learning Design – The training used real-world operational storytelling, workplace scenarios, and visual learning techniques to simplify complex process transformation concepts and improve learner engagement and knowledge retention.
Role-Based Capability Development Strategy – The learning program supported different workforce segments through targeted training pathways, including:
- Frontline operational employees
- Site process owners and practitioners
- Leadership teams responsible for change management and process governance
Multi-Phase Change Adoption Rollout – The transformation learning program was launched through phased implementation, starting with early adopters and expanding to the broader workforce. A structured communication and engagement strategy supported change adoption across business units.
Results We Delivered
- 92% Knowledge Uplift Among Learners: The headline metric from post-training evaluation: 92% of respondents reported moving from a “not aware, slightly or moderately aware” status to “extremely aware” of the OEMS transformation after completing the courses. This is a compelling, direct measure of awareness shift at scale.
- 90% Completion Rate Across All 16 Sites: Both the OEMS Awareness Training and Work Process Fundamentals Training achieved a 90% completion rate — which also happened to be the organization’s own target, confirming that program goals were fully met across all Suncor sites.
- 6 Early Adopter Sites Signed Up Within 5 Months: Following the soft launch, 6 sites voluntarily signed up as early adopters to support robust process adoption — a strong signal of organizational buy-in and the program’s effectiveness in motivating change.
- 13,687 Frontline Employees Reached: The OEMS Awareness Training was assigned to 13,687 employees in operations and maintenance roles across all Suncor sites — making it a true enterprise-wide change enablement initiative. It is also set to auto-assign to all new hires with a 90-day completion mandate, embedding it as a permanent onboarding fixture.
- Strategic Business Impact: From Compliance Culture to Performance Culture
- The program was not just a training exercise — it was a critical lever in Suncor’s transformation from a fragmented, element-based compliance model to a standardized, process-enabled performance culture across all sites. The learning program directly supported this strategic shift by unifying the change narrative across 13,000+ frontline workers.
- Reducing the Risk of Knowledge Loss: A core business problem was that work knowledge was largely implicit — living in individuals rather than systems — making it vulnerable to attrition and site-level variation. The OEMS program explicitly addressed this by standardizing processes and training the entire frontline on a single, consistent operational framework.
- Reduced ILT Seat Time: The courses were specifically designed to offload overview-level content from instructor-led sessions, allowing those sessions to focus on site-specific details — an efficiency gain that multiplied the value of both the eLearning and the live training investment.
