Employees
At Rio Tinto, our core values, Accountability, Respect, Teamwork and Integrity, are expressed through the principles and standards of conduct set out in The way we work. In line with our Employment policy, we seek safe and effective working relationships at all levels within the Group.
We employ people on the basis of job requirements and without discrimination. We are committed to diversity, and aim to build an environment of inclusion where all differences are valued. It is of great importance to us that our employees are properly trained, and that they work in safe, healthy and environmentally responsible ways.
We have a transparent, equitable and competitive rewards strategy that is designed to attract, retain and motivate the skilled workforce essential to driving the success of our business.
In 2010, Rio Tinto employed about 77,000 people, including the Group's proportionate share of consolidated companies and equity accounted units.
Please see the Performance data section for a breakdown of employees by product group and country.
During 2010, we spent US$6,951 million on wages and employee benefits, which represents about 11 per cent of our total economic contributions.
In world class mines and processing facilities such as those we operate, the workforce is becoming increasingly skilled, requiring a high level of training and capability. Approximately half a million attendances were recorded for training courses in health, safety, environment, sustainable development and technical/operational skills in 2010. This is a significant increase on 2009 and is primarily due to the resumption of training activities postponed in 2009 as well as increased availability of technology based learning.
During 2009 we launched Leading at Rio Tinto, our new global leadership competency model that explains the expectations for people at each level of our organisation. This model is incorporated into our recruitment and selection, performance management and development planning processes. Implementation of Leading at Rio Tinto has continued through 2010 and the model has been fully integrated into our suite of leadership development programmes.
Our goal is employ people who meet job requirements and represent the diversity of our surrounding communities. Currently, we are focussed on improving the representation of women and people from nationalities which are under-represented in our workforce. In 2010, women represented 27 per cent of our graduate intake, 14 per cent of our senior management, 20 per cent of the chief executive's executive committee and 13 per cent of the Rio Tinto Board. Our new Groupwide diversity targets for 2015 are:
- Women to represent 20 per cent of our senior management.
- Women to represent 40 per cent of our graduate intake.
- Fifteen per cent of our graduate intake to be nationals from regions where we are developing new businesses.
Our policy of increasing opportunities for indigenous Australians is reflected in directly negotiated community benefit agreements. During 2010 we employed 1,605 indigenous Australians, representing eight per cent of our Australian workforce. We remained the largest private sector employer of indigenous Australians. In northern Canada, 30 per cent of the Diavik diamond mine workforce were northern Aboriginals at year end.
The second Group wide employee engagement survey was completed in 2010. Where levels of employee engagement are higher, performance on key operational and safety metrics is also higher. The engagement score for the Group has remained at 2008 levels, and progress has also been made on the awareness and understanding of the Group's vision and values. Action plans are being implemented locally to ensure that the needs of each business are addressed, and specific focus is being applied at Group level to increase the existing capability of our leaders to engage and maximise the contribution of our people. A survey will be conducted in 2011 to measure progress and assess priority areas.
