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May 31, 2005
Alcoa - Building a More Diverse Workforce
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Wayne Osborn, Managing Director, Alcoa World Alumina Australia
Minerals Council of Australia, Minerals Week
31 May 2005
Minister, the Honourable Gary Hardgrave, distinguished guests.
Allow me to express my thanks to Mitch Hooke and the Minerals Council for inviting me today.
This conference takes place in exciting times and a period of great change for the global resources industry.
We are experiencing once-in-a-generation opportunities, as well as facing equally challenging constraints in skills and infrastructure.
Globalisation, accelerating competitive pressures and the need for an even more talented and skilled workforce makes workplace diversity a centrally important issue for companies like Alcoa.
Keeping ahead of competition and industry trends requires the best people and skills in an information-rich environment.
Encouraging innovation and new ideas is a critical success factor in today’s market place.
This applies equally in public strategy. To engage our local communities and stakeholders is a central underpinning for our long-term sustainability and growth.
Today, I’d like to share some of Alcoa’s experiences on workplace diversity over the past decade.
The business case for diversity is clear.
Encouraging equal opportunity and a more diverse workforce is not only the right thing to do, it’s been long demonstrated that its good for our business.
I’d also like to share with you some of the things we’ve done to build a more diverse workforce.
And I want to also talk about our learnings and challenges in driving organisational change on diversity.
But first, a little about us.
Alcoa is the world’s largest aluminium producer with operations in 43 countries and 131,000 employees.
Despite our size, we’re pretty low key here in Australia and are not quite as much the household name as some of the MCA member companies.
Alcoa’s products are used worldwide in packaging, building and construction, and transport – including the new Airbus A-380.
Our operations in Australia are predominantly the primary end of a global production chain.
Here in Australia, we operate:
• bauxite mines and alumina refineries in Western Australia
• aluminium smelters in Victoria, and
• aluminium rolling mills in Victoria and New South Wales
We also operate dedicated port facilities in Western Australia and Victoria, and a power station in Victoria.
We are a major Australian exporter with over $A2.5 billion in exports.
We make a significant contribution to the Australian economy.
For every dollar we earn, 80 cents stays here.
Alcoa’s investment in Australia now totals over $A 12 billion.
And as you all know, it’s a time of building on this with a $A 440 million expansion at our Pinjarra refinery, and a proposed $A 1.5 billion expansion of our Wagerup refinery.
Together, these projects will earn more than $A 21 billion for the Australian economy.
Our operations located predominantly in regional Australia making us a significant employer in those areas.
Nationally, our operations support around 7500 direct jobs, and another 20 thousand indirect jobs.
Like many companies in the resources sector most of our 7500 jobs are filled by men.
We’ve been working over many years to improve our gender balance and the diversity of the workforce.
Diversity is so critical for our business.
For a start, Alcoa needs the best people to compete and this means drawing from all sections of society.
I learned from my early days as a manager that diverse work teams are more effective.
By bringing together people with different skills and experiences, we could deliver better outcomes for the business.
But its not just about encouraging more women into the workforce.
It’s about building a workplace that reflects the strength and diversity of Australia today and the global environment in which we operate.
This means people from different cultural backgrounds, indigenous Australians, employees with diverse career and life experiences and age groups.
This diverse workforce equips us as we do business in a global environment with an increasingly diverse customer base.
It helps us be better equipped to better meet the challenges and pace of change.
It also helps us to better understand and engage the communities where we operate, and whose partnership we need to continue to grow.
Every way you look at it, the business case for diversity is compelling.
So what has Alcoa been doing?
We’ve been operating in Australia since 1963. In our early days, part of our recruiting strategy was to send someone down to the docks at Fremantle to offer jobs to new migrants as they came ashore.
In a way, that was our first diversity strategy, because it created a very multicultural workforce.
As we grow, we have had a history of innovative programs to support a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
We’ve been focused on:
• Promoting equal opportunity
• Providing a more flexible workplace, and
• Driving cultural change
First, promoting equal opportunity.
Alcoa aims to attract, promote and retain the best people from all backgrounds.
Our challenge, however, is that women and others don’t see the resources industry as a traditional career choice.
We’ve worked to address this by providing equal opportunity through training and employment.
For example, the Alcoa Future Women of Industry program aims to encourage young women to consider careers in industry.
Each year, we provide 50 scholarships to talented young women in senior school who also take part in a mentoring and work experience program.
The program has been a huge success with many participants taking up apprenticeships with Alcoa or going on to further study.
These include people like Sarah Mortimer.
Sarah is now a second year electrical / instrument apprentice at our Wagerup refinery in WA.
It’s also been a huge success with our workforce, many of whom get involved with the program, and with the schools and educational institutions in our communities.
This year, the Future Women of Industry program will be teaming up with the Alcoa Women’s Network.
Scholarship recipients are partnered with an Alcoa woman manager who will provide career support, encourage new experiences and help set goals.
The Alcoa Women’s Network is one of our important diversity initiatives.
This is a global initiative by Alcoa to promote the development and advancement of women in leadership roles.
The women’s network is providing opportunities for
• networking
• mentoring
• leadership development
• and a platform to raise equal opportunity and diversity issues.
Importantly, the network has been sponsored by the most senior people in our organisation, including the chairman, Alain Belda.
One of the network’s early achievements was a report called Leadership Levers which analysed the competencies and experience required to become a successful leader in Alcoa.
The value of the Leadership Levers is demonstrated by the fact that it has been integrated into Alcoa’s broader executive development program.
As CEO I take a particular responsibility to keep in touch with, and encourage this group in Australia.
We are increasing our focus on creating new employment and training opportunities for young people and indigenous Australians.
Alcoa took in 39 new apprentices this year.
Over 90 apprentices are currently being trained in WA.
These include people like Erin Jenkinson.
Erin is a fourth year electrical and instrumentation apprentice at our Wagerup refinery.
Our Landcare Traineeship Program provides on-the-job learning for six indigenous trainees each year.
Participants complete a 12 month Certificate in Conservation and Land Management. Upon completion, they are supported into employment or further training.
Across Australia, more than 20,000 young people from all backgrounds are engaged in Alcoa’s youth opportunity and training programs.
Many of them go on to work in the resources industry.
We have put a great deal of focus on providing a more inclusive and flexible workplace.
Our approach is directed at providing a workplace where people don’t have to choose between a career and family.
We look to programs and policies which can ensure both without sacrificing our quality of life or the success of our business.
Alcoa’s work and family policy and flexible work arrangements include:
• Paid parental leave
• Job share
• Part-time work
• Flexi time
• Work from home, and
• Flexible start and finish times
Such arrangements are common place for many major employers and you all will have your own programs in place.
The critical challenge for us in the resources sector is in ensuring maintenance of our competitive edge is keeping such policies up to date and relevant to the changing needs and expectations of a new
generation.
Our parental leave policy helps parents stay in touch with the company and have a smooth transition when they return to the workplace.
These include new mothers like Katie Gwynne who was Environmental Manager at our Wagerup refinery.
Since returning from maternity leave, Katie works part-time as Environmental Manager for Residue Operations and has the flexibility to also work from home.
Katie says the best thing for her was having a personal mentor to help her work out her professional and personal needs for returning to work.
We also try to schedule our regular team meetings around her work days.
We have many employees who job-share and work part-time.
Kath Gregson is our West Australian Environment Health and Safety Administrator.
Kath works part-time during school hours which allows her take and collect her son from school everyday.
We support women truck drivers who return from maternity leave at our mine-sites.
We provide them the flexibility to work part-time and to nominate the shifts they wish to work.
We also find that family and open days for employees, their families and the wider community are important to build understanding of the workplace and keep families engaged.
Our flexible work arrangements also extend to older employees.
Many of our employees, like myself, have been with the company for more than 25 years.
These include people like Ivor Stockwell who started at our Kwinana refinery 40 years ago.
We’ve introduced programs for older employees like Ivor, including superannuation and retirement plans which cater for part time phasing into retirement.
We also provide access to financial counselling and retirement seminars, as well as insurance benefits.
These programs not only promote a diverse workforce, they also help retain valuable corporate experience and memory.
I’ve talked about equal opportunity and the need for flexible work arrangements.
Having a workplace culture that values difference and respects the individual is also critical.
For companies like Alcoa, this means driving cultural change in what is traditionally an industry of ‘blokes in blue overalls’.
Alcoa’s Values commit us to ensuring a workplace free of discrimination, harassment and bullying.
We conduct regular diversity and equal opportunity training for management and employees.
Contact officers specialising in diversity issues have been trained at all Alcoa locations.
Driving cultural change means that senior managers need to be role models for diversity.
As a leader, I have an obligation to create an inclusive working environment and be the advocate and enabler for these values to be put into practice.
This is a message I impress upon all of my managers.
Diversity in the workplace also makes our working lives more interesting and rewarding.
David del Pino has been with Alcoa for over 25 years and works at our Kwinana refinery.
David teaches his native Spanish to Alcoa employees after hours.
He says he wanted to give something back of his cultural heritage and this is something we’re delighted to support.
Alcoa is a global business. We all benefit from being part of the diverse global team and the experience and perspective that it offers.
Our new Vice President of Operations in Australia, Raphael Costa, has joined us from Brazil.
And our Kwinana Refinery Manager, Simon Butterworth, has returned to Australia after being based in Jamaica.
Being able to draw on the skills and talents of a truly international workforce is essential to compete in today’s global marketplace.
While we’ve come a long way in promoting cultural change, we need to work at it constantly.
Alcoa recently experienced in an incident where an employee gave sexually explicit gifts to a junior female co-worker on two occasions.
Our reaction - and a strike by some union members led to media coverage which described Alcoa’s response as ‘political correctness gone mad’.
We saw the incident as being about values.
So did most of our employees, their families and many in the community.
Respect for individuals is a fundamental value for everyone at Alcoa.
This is made clear to employees through workplace training and conditions of employment.
All of us have an obligation to provide a safe workplace, free from harassment of any kind.
Our experience in this example reinforced this in our minds.
We’ve increased our training to emphasise what we expect of employees, and more importantly, the respect we expect of each other.
I’d now like to share some of the diversity outcomes and challenges we’ve experienced over the past decade.
We’ve made progress - but there is far to go.
The proportion of women in our workforce has increased from around 8 per cent in 1994 to around 11 per cent.
What’s changed most is the mix of roles that women hold. We now have more women in senior roles, and in more diverse roles.
For example, we only had six female managers back in 1995. Today, we have around 40 female managers.
18 per cent of Alcoa’s managerial positions are now filled by women compared to 3 per cent 10 years ago.
Women are in more diverse roles including:
• engineering
• maintenance
• mine, refinery and smelter operators
• lab technicians
• apprentices, as well as in
• key management positions
One area with a lot of women professionals in refinery / smelter roles is Environment Health and Safety.
Around 50 per cent of these positions are filled by women.
While we’re encouraged by our progress, there are still very few women in trades and apprentice roles.
Retention of female employees is also an issue.
Around 40 per cent of our female managers have been with Alcoa for less than five years.
And women are still under-represented in our executive group.
To make our workplace more attractive, we recently doubled paid maternity leave from 6 weeks to 12 weeks.
And we continue to look at how we can offer meaningful career paths for women in the organisation.
Alcoa’s efforts have been recognised with a number of awards.
Last year, we were named as a national leader by the Federal Government’s agency for Equal Opportunity in the Workplace.
We received the agency’s flagship Business Achievement Award, recognising our sustained commitment to equal opportunity.
We are an Employer of Choice for Women.
We’re a past winner of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Work and Family Gold Award.
The award recognised our efforts to address the work / life needs of employees.
When you’re working on long term change, its heartening to receive recognition along the way.
The awards were also positive in helping us drive the internal message:
• that we take these matters seriously, and
• that we’re on the right track
So where to from here?
We’ve come a long way over the past decade but we know that building a more diverse workplace is a long-term commitment.
Trust, flexibility, respect and communication are vital in meeting the expectations and goals we’ve set ourselves.
This means engaging employees, being open to new ideas and sharing learnings and experiences.
The business case for diversity is compelling.
Having a diverse workforce gives companies like Alcoa the people and skills to compete in the global marketplace.
It also means a happier and more inclusive workplace.
Thank you for letting me share Alcoa’s journey with you.
ENDS
Further information:
Alcoa Corporate Affairs - 08 9316 5208
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