Variety spices up the workplace

Rio Tinto's more than 30,000 employees around the world represent a "United Nations" of cultural diversity. The diversity that spices up the workplace is now being turned into a business advantage through learning programmes.

Many Group businesses already run courses to help their employees to get to know other cultures. In addition, a programme to teach generic cross-cultural skills was started in 2003 and is to be applied across the Group. During 2004 the training material was made available to all businesses to complement existing cultural diversity programmes.

The idea is to help build an organisational competence in managing cultural difference. The training in cross-cultural skills will form part of a suite of initiatives designed to create a workplace environment where the likelihood of discriminatory behaviour is reduced and a high value is put on the different backgrounds, abilities and perspectives of employees.

The programme also addresses the fact that all over the world, Rio Tinto sites have staff who have moved from a familiar cultural environment to one that may be very different, or one that is assumed to be similar but does not feel like it. The anxiety that results from losing familiar signs and symbols of social interaction can bring on "culture shock".  We use these many cues to orient ourselves to the situations of daily life and when an individual enters a strange culture, all or most of these familiar cues are removed.

Rio Tinto's cultural awareness course is designed to help employees to be sensitive to the need to adjust to other cultures. Every culture possesses unique strengths and those strengths are needed in the workplace.

Diligence, persistence, tenacity, truthfulness, generosity and fair play are not things that come from a business plan. And these attributes are also vital for starting and maintaining good relationships with communities neighbouring Group operations.