Diversity

Our approach to diversity aims to ensure that differences are recognised, understood and valued, to bring benefit for our individual employees, our business, our customers and the communities in which we work.

As required by our Code of Conduct, we are committed to promoting and maintaining a culture of respect and equal opportunity in which all decisions about recruitment, hiring, compensation, development and promotion are made solely on the basis of a person’s ability, experience, behaviour, work performance and demonstrated potential. Every manager is responsible for implementing this requirement.

Our continuing challenge is to ensure that diversity is appropriately supported in our workforce, reflected in our leadership and integrated into business and people strategies.

Diversity is included in our Senior Executive Team Talent Management objectives and we have a set of minimum standards that support global alignment in the integration of diversity and inclusion into our Human Resources processes.  

As an indicator, 21% of the 82 senior managers reporting to the SET are women. The change from 2007 (26% of 81 senior managers) is not a result of reduced commitment to diversity, but is a consequence of our continued re-organisation of the Company at all levels, which continues to impact SET reporting lines.

The ongoing roll-out of the global Human Resources information system will also make a significant contribution to driving consistent application of our standards and increasing our understanding of performance in this area.

The content of this page was externally assured by Bureau Veritas, February 2009.