Our
people
Workforce profile and diversity
As a modern mining company, OZ Minerals continues to promote a diverse workforce through an active engagement strategy. Women comprise approximately 23 percent of the workforce directly employed by OZ Minerals and 17 percent of employees at the Prominent Hill mine site. We are looking for improvement; however, this compares well to the industry average of 14 percent*. Indigenous employees comprise eight percent of the OZ Minerals directly employed workforce.
We are committed to employing and developing indigenous people at OZ Minerals. In 2011, we received an award, the Australian Mines and Metals Association’s Indigenous Employment and Retention Award. This award is in recognition of our training and employment initiatives, which have resulted in the successful engagement of indigenous Australians within our organisation. More information on these programs can be found in the Community Engagement section of this report.
Expanding our talent pool by recruiting and developing women is an important part of our people strategy. We recognise that a key to attracting people to work with us is professional development and flexibility. At OZ Minerals we embrace this and are pleased to report that our percentage of female employees has increased since 2010. This year, approximately 22 percent of our new recruits were women.
OZ Minerals has a particular focus on increasing opportunities for women to move into key decision-making roles within the business. Several programs have been developed to support women at OZ Minerals including the Leading My Career Program, Emerging Leaders Program as well as a suite of professional development opportunities.
Given the small numbers of employees in the top tiers of OZ Minerals, we have good representation at this level. Our key challenge remains in our middle management group. We are concentrating our efforts to target female representation at the superintendent and senior specialist level by continuing to employ and develop highly capable women and provide them with the tools to be successful. We value long-term sustainability in this area. We are pleased with our overall progress; however, we will continue to work to improve diversity within our business to reach our target of 25 percent across all bands.
*Australian Bureau of Statistics 6291.0.55.003 – Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly, Nov 2011
Cross Cultural Awareness Program
The Cross Cultural Awareness Program has continued to be an important part of OZ Minerals’ commitment to cultural understanding. The program affords employees and contractors the opportunity to meet with local indigenous groups, gain an understanding of indigenous culture and foster collaborative work relationships. There have been 12 programs run this year with 212 participants, which have covered topics including sacred sites, traditional practices and beliefs.
Indigenous mentoring
As part of our engagement and retention strategy, OZ Minerals provides support services specifically targeted to our indigenous employees. We employ a full-time Indigenous Liaison Officer, based at Prominent Hill, to provide general assistance to employees, as well as an opportunity to ask questions and seek advice. The Indigenous Liaison Officer currently provides support to approximately 130 indigenous members across our workforce.
In 2011, an external Indigenous Mining Mentor was appointed by Regional Development Australia Far North in Port Augusta to assist in managing offsite issues affecting indigenous employees. This addition complements the Indigenous Liaison Officer by providing offsite support for employees and their families. The collaboration between our Indigenous Liaison Officer and the Indigenous Mining Mentor has assisted with policy formation and developing resources to further assist the retention and development of indigenous staff.
These support services have been a significant contributor to the ongoing retention of employees, including the 38 pre-employment program graduates who are still employed at Prominent Hill.
