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Our Approach to People and Culture

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Our people are fundamental to our success and to unlocking the full potential of our business.

At South32, we aim to be welcoming and inclusive, and embrace and celebrate differences. Creating a place to belong is everyone’s responsibility. Every day our values of care, trust, togetherness, and excellence shape the way we behave and the standards we set for ourselves and each other. We truly believe we’re better together. We care about our colleagues, so we all take responsibility to keep each other safe and well every day. We seek to provide an environment where everyone can feel safe to speak up and we work as a team, with a commitment to delivering excellence in all that we do.

Ultimately, our people and systems shape our safety focused, high performance and values-based culture, which is reflected in the way we work, the decisions we take, the courage we show and the legacy we leave.  

Our commitments

We are committed to:

  • Attracting, developing, and retaining talented people who embrace opportunities, reflect the communities in which we operate and are engaged in fulfilling our purpose, delivering our strategy and living our values;
  • Supporting our people by shaping a positive employee experience and by maintaining constructive labour relations; and
  • Fostering an engaged, inclusive and diverse workforce.

Meeting our commitments

The principles that support us to meet our commitments are outlined below:

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Safety and culture

Safety and culture are inextricably linked and supporting our people to feel safe and respected at work can enhance individual and collective contributions to the delivery of our strategy and fulfilment of our purpose.

Inclusion and diversity

An engaged, inclusive, and diverse workforce allows for greater collaboration, innovation, and performance.

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Workplace conduct

We will not tolerate inappropriate conduct in our workplaces or retaliation against anyone for reporting a workplace conduct concern or for cooperating with a related investigation.

Standards and laws

We respect international labour standards and local labour laws and regulations.

Our management approach

Our approach to people and culture includes fostering an engaged, inclusive and diverse workforce, and shaping a positive employee experience. The key elements of our management approach are outlined below.

  • We work to provide and maintain a safe and inclusive workplace free from discrimination bullying and harassment.
  • We engage with our employees on our culture and their experiences, including through periodic perception surveys, to inform our approach to continuous improvement. 
  • We support and encourage people to speak up when our values and Code of Business Conduct are not being followed.
  • We facilitate conversations and training with our employees and contractors to build understanding and reiterate expectations on appropriate workplace conduct.
  • We provide a range of mechanisms for raising business or workplace conduct concerns, including our internal complaints processes and a confidential, global whistleblower hotline.
  • Anyone can report a business or workplace conduct concern, anonymously if preferred, using our confidential and independently administered Ethics Point reporting hotline, and we provide protection measures for doing so.
  • We monitor the employment market to offer market competitive remuneration and benefits and have designed our reward framework to reward achievements, leadership, and behaviours that promote our values and purpose.
  • We complete gender and ethnicity pay equity reviews each year and invest to improve pay equity across our employee workforce.
  • We offer market competitive entitlements for parental leave and provide opportunities for employees to balance personal and business priorities with flexible and remote work arrangements. 
  • We promote learning and support professional development for employees. Our learning and development channels include internal training and learning programs for specific role profiles, self-assigned learning, and external capability programs with specialist vendors. Employees may apply for additional training through our education assistance procedure.
  • Our annual performance reviews support employee growth with regular line leader check-ins enabling continuous feedback, development and coaching. These reviews also help our employees understand how their contribution links to the achievement of our business priorities.  
  • Our talent management process seeks to identify key talent, provide them with development opportunities, and promote movement within South32. Ultimately, this process aligns people’s capabilities with work opportunities to perform business-critical roles. 
  • We provide our people with access to mental health and wellbeing support, including awareness and education activities and our Employee Assistance Program.
  • We track our performance against people and culture measurable objectives, which are targets and actions aimed at tracking and improving diversity, employee experience, and culture in our workplace. These measurable objectives are included in our annual Business Scorecard, which is a key determinant of short-term incentive payments for the Lead Team and eligible employees.
  • We support the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.
  • We maintain a global employee relations framework and engage in collective labour negotiations where appropriate, working to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.

What guides us

Our approach to people and culture is guided by global standards and initiatives, including:

Our people and culture commitments are supported by our Inclusion and Diversity Policy and Code of Business Conduct. They are managed through our internal human resources, training, and inclusion and diversity standards, which are supplemented by operational procedures that account for local and regional needs and regulatory requirements.

We comply with international labour standards and local labour laws and regulations and, where applicable law differs from the commitments in this approach, we seek to follow the higher standard, while meeting our people and culture commitments.

Governance

Our Board has ultimate responsibility for our company's governance and strategic direction. The Board also oversees our inclusion and diversity approach, approves our Inclusion and Diversity Policy, and sets our inclusion and diversity measurable objectives.

The Sustainability Committee assists the Board in its oversight of our sustainability management, performance, assurance, and reporting practises. The Remuneration Committee assists the Board to oversee our remuneration policy and the remuneration and benefits framework for all employees.

Management accountability is assigned to our Chief Human Resources and Commercial Officer.

We periodically undertake internal assurance, and independent third-party assurance where appropriate, to assess compliance with our internal standards, as well as the ICMM Mining Principles and associated Performance Expectations, with a view to continually improving human resources management.

Application

Our approach applies to all Directors, management and employees of South32. We work closely with our non-operated joint ventures to support the adoption of standards of conduct consistent with ours, as relevant and within the limits of the joint venture arrangements.

Our approach will be reviewed every two years, or more frequently, if necessary, so it remains relevant and appropriate to South32’s people and culture activities. It was approved by our Chief Legal and External Affairs Officer in June 2024.

Related information

People and culture

Our people are fundamental to our success. We seek to attract, develop and retain talented people who have a shared belief in our purpose and values.

Learn more

Sustainability approach

Our approach to sustainability focuses on areas that are material to our business and stakeholders.

Learn more