The true health of an enterprise is measured in ways that go beyond the fundamentally important financial outcomes. Organisational health embraces measures of sustainable business performance within the context of corporate values, ethics and culture.

The organisational characteristics of healthy enterprises include:

• Strong strategic leadership;
• Open two way communication flows;
• A skilled workforce with opportunities for personal and professional development;
• Flexible, value driven employee relations strategies;
• Supporting people systems and processes understood and embraced by all employees;
• Operational behaviour that reflects the enterprise's statement of business principles; and
• The ability to adapt quickly and effectively to change.

These characteristics provide the basis on which are created such intangible but real assets as external goodwill and employee commitment.

In the Rio Tinto Group, each business develops its own organisational characteristics by designing business and people systems and processes that shape a unique culture and create an environment which allows all employees to contribute their best ideas and performance.

Exploring human resources:

In 2003, businesses did significant work on safety improvement, articulating and measuring desired organisation culture; leadership development; direct communication; employee engagement; and, providing incentives for individual and team performance.

Summary of content:

Examples of our Human Resources management systems in action

Examples of progress in developing our organisational culture

Examples of the development of Human Resources programmes