COVERSTORY
Mining Professionals and the Changing Workforce We must have balanced hiring and retention - so it is not a revolving door where we attract women and they do not stay. At the fiscal year end in June 2018, the number of women at BHP only climbed 1.9 percent, leading some in the business to question the usefulness of placing such an ambitious goal.
B
HP introduced the goal in 2016 and said it had launched
workforce.
at senior management levels. One of the mining companies in the FTSE 350 index of miners has been led by a woman in market capitalization, and another woman was appointed by Switzerland-based Glencore to its board.
The mining has not a good impact on industrial development regarding the hiring of females in industry, especially
For a business to be truly successful by increasing its workforce, it must consider its past objectives. Shorter
initiatives to boost the hiring
of women and allow more flexible working across its
26,000- strong
6 | SKILLINGS MINING REVIEW March 2019
shifts, such as six-hour times, and remote working can allow women to work while their children are in school, she explained. "We must have got balanced hiring and retention -- so it is not a revolving door where we attract women and they don't stay," she said. Considering setting up the goal, BHP has hired 2,000 women compared to 500 men. As a consequence, the number of women as a proportion of their workforce has been increased from 17.6 percent to 22.4 percent. Athalie Williams, chief people officer in the
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