Good Work Design ‘changing the equation’ for women at Alcoa

To mark International Women’s Day, Alcoa put the spotlight on its efforts to redesign work with the highest physical demands to enable more diversity

To mark International Women’s Day, Alcoa put the spotlight on its Good Work Design program that is redesigning work with the highest physical demands to enable more diversity in its global workforce.

The Good Work Design program is one lever Alcoa is pulling as it works toward increasing opportunities for women in the workforce. The Alcoa Women’s Network inclusion group hosted a virtual town hall on International Womens Day March 8 where leaders and employees across the company’s global operations gave updates on their Good Work Design projects.

“Metals and mining have historically been difficult industries for women due to the nature of our operations,” said Alcoa EVP and Chief Financial Officer Molly Beerman, who is Executive Sponsor of AWN. “Our Good Work Design program benefits all employees but it’s especially helpful for enabling women to take on important roles in our operations.”

The mission of the Good Work Design program includes increasing job satisfaction and reducing injuries in addition to enabling diversity. A total of 343 job roles have been assessed as part of the program, which is now starting its fourth year, with each role given a “GWD Physical Role Score.”

“We have managed to reduce the number of roles with the highest physical demands from 116 roles to 77 roles, a 33% reduction,” said Belinda Stuckenberg, Alcoa’s VP of EHS and Risk. “At the same time, our low-demand roles have increased from 31 to 52, a 70% increase.”

During the virtual town hall celebrating International Womens Day, Good Work Design team members and operators in Canada, Brazil, Iceland and Australia detailed some of the projects they’ve pursued since the program launched in 2021. The solutions involved the use of redesigned tools and equipment in some cases and automation in others.

“We are in it for the long haul and will be continually rolling out solutions to reduce the high risk tasks for years to come – to enable more diversity across all our operations,” Stuckenberg said.

The solutions involved new tools developed by Alcoa machinists, in some cases, and automation in others.

“We are in it for the long haul and will be rolling out solutions to reduce these high risks for years to come – to enable more diversity around the globe,” Stuckenberg said.