A recent Edith Cowan University study has identified a pivot in gender inclusion for the mining industry, revealing that the five Western Australian companies chosen to take part in the study had set an aggregate of 63 targets relating to hiring and promoting women.
From these targets, only three focused on promoting inclusion efforts with prompts looking to help women feel safe, respected, and supported.
PhD researcher Ashley McGrath led the study at the Mental Awareness, Respect, and Safety Centre, which was funded by the Western Australian Government to address mental health, workplace culture, and overall safety issues in the mining community.
“That gap is critical and presents a huge opportunity for organisations to get more sophisticated on measuring how included their people are feeling,” McGrath says.
“You can meet hiring targets but if those people don’t feel that they are valued and empowered, everyone misses out on the benefits.”
While inclusion-specific initiatives are low, McGrath says there is a “growing belief” that creating a better, more inclusive workplace is a shared responsibility that lies on a number of companies rather than individual organisations.
Of the 63 initiatives, 16 of them are considered joint tactics that include co-funded advertising campaigns and shared research to uncover and prevent women leaving the mining industry.
Companies are marking progress through safely operated workplaces, respectful interactions between workers, and goal-setting, which were in some cases linked to financial incentives and built into executive scorecards.
The study returned that although companies are reporting progress, many employees were unaware of these initiatives due to a gap in communication.
“The findings offer a roadmap not only for mining, but any industry trying to shift from numbers-based diversity to real, lasting inclusive workplace cultures,” McGrath adds.
“When organisations focus on inclusion, everyone gains from a safer, more respectful, more flexible and more successful workplace.”
Mining companies contributing to this study via interviews and focus group participation include Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN), Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI), South32 (ASX:S32), and privately held Thiess.
The Chamber of Minerals and Energy Western Australia (CME) reported a doubling of women working in the resources sector across the state in its 2024 diversity and inclusion report, with the data covering a two-year period.
CEO Rebecca Tomkinson says the past decade alone has seen women’s participation in the mining and resources sector bolstered from 18.8% to 24.8%.
“But of the 10,000-plus jobs that women have taken up in the resources industry in that time, more than half have been created in the past two years, effectively doubling women’s participation in a concentrated timeframe,” Tomkinson explains.
“That sort of exponential improvement speaks volumes about the impact of actionable strategies in accelerating women’s participation.”
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: iStock
