Gold Fields

Fit-for-purpose workforce

People are critical to safe operational delivery. During the year our main human resource (HR) objectives focused on ensuring we have the skills, culture, organisational structure and workforce profile necessary to meet our strategic objectives.

Gold Fields respects the personal dignity, privacy and personal rights of every employee. We are committed to maintaining a workplace free from discrimination and harassment, in which employees are treated fairly and equitably. We support and strive to ensure that the principles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights are embedded and upheld in our business. We comply with all relevant labour legislation, standards and requirements in the jurisdictions in which we operate, and uphold the constitutional rights of our people as set out in the relevant countries in which we operate.

Workforce profile

Total workforce by region

Dec 2017	Total workforce				Employees		Contractors		Proportion of nationals
Americas	2,034				365		1,669		100%
Australia	2,337				1,449		888		98%
South Africa	6,432				4,012		2,420		82%
West Africa	7,671				2,910		4,761		99%
Corporate Office	120				120		-		-
Total	18,594				8,856		9,738		95%

Group HR performance

Category	2017				2016		2015		2014		2013
Total employees (excluding contractors)	8,856				8,964		9,052		8,954		10,167
Contractors1	9,738				9,127		7,798		6,486		6,685
HDSA employees in South Africa(%)2	71				72		71		71		70
HDSA employees in South Africa (%) - senior management2	57				55		48		47		44
National employees in Ghana (%) excluding contractors	99				99		99		99		99
Minimum wage ratio3	2.43				1.97		1.50		1.70		3.00
Female employees (%)	16				15		14		14		11
Ratio of basic salary men to women	1.25				1.31		1.09		1.10		1.20
Employee wages and benefits (US$m)	506				482		435		468		595
Average training (hours per employee)	223				273		240		181		973
Employee turnover (%)4	6.0				12.0		8.0		20.2		10.0

1	Contractors are defined as workers who are not employees and are not on our payroll. They normally perform work that has been outsourced by our operations or is specialist work that is not always undertaken by our mines on a day-to-day basis
2	Excluding foreign nationals, but including white females and corporate office staff; HDSAs - Historically Disadvantaged South Africans, according to the Employment Equity Act definition
3	Entry level wage compared to local minimum wage
4	Includes voluntary and involuntary turnover

Structuring the workforce

A key area of focus in 2017 was to ensure that our mines have the appropriately sized and qualified workforce to drive safe operational delivery.

Australia region

Taking on the management of the Gruyere project, the Gold Fields Australia region needed to develop a compelling value proposition to attract and retain skilled staff for the project's construction in an increasingly competitive market. The benefits offered, while well within industry benchmarks, enabled us to attract the rights skills for the timeous completion of the project.

South Africa region

Achieving the targets of the rebase plan see here to set up South Deep for long-term sustainable production will require the right leadership structures, resources and capabilities. During 2017, the mine's management team analysed the effectiveness and efficiency of South Deep's organisational structure. This comprised a review of the managerial, operational and support structures of the mine to:

• Improve efficiencies by reducing the size and complexity of the organisation to allocate clear accountability, removing duplication and improving decision-making
• To align the cost base with productivity rates, gold price and exchange rate pressures and lower projected revenue flow over the next few years
• Structure support functions to meet the requirements of a leaner organisation

A restructuring process commenced during 2017 at managerial level, with 26% of the management team being retrenched and a number of other positions being regraded. Since October 2017, management has also held extensive engagements with the National Union of Mineworkers and the United Association of South Africa, South Deep's two registered trade unions, regarding the importance of a turnaround process at South Deep. This centres around achieving the improved productivities necessary to meet the ramp-up targets of the rebase plan.

West Africa region

During 2017 we took a decision to move our Tarkwa operation to contractor mining to support the mine's efforts to prolong its life. We already use contractor mining at our Damang mine as part of the mine's reinvestment programme. As with Damang, the majority of affected employees at Tarkwa - between 80 - 85% - will be absorbed by the mining contractors. All affected workers, including those who will be re-engaged by the contractor, will be paid their full severance package, which includes three months' salary for each year of service. Those who are not immediately engaged by the contractors will be the first point of contact for future job opportunities at the mine. The transition to contractor mining commenced in March 2018.

Americas region

At the beginning of 2017, our Peruvian operation undertook a restructuring process to align the workforce with the production profile of the Cerro Corona mine. In total, 19 positions were made redundant and affected employees were either retrenched or moved internally.

Attracting, retaining and developing the right skills

Our operations require, above all, mechanised mining expertise - our skills attraction, retention and development efforts focus on building a workforce profile that meets these operational needs. We also invest significantly in manager and leadership development across the business. Group training spend for the year was US$20m.

In general, our operations in Australia, Ghana and Peru have an appropriately skilled mechanised mining workforce. But at South Deep work remains to be done to align the workforce with the deep-level, bulk mechanised mining method of the operation.

South Deep invested R184m (US$15m) in training and development in 2017. This included programmes run at the mine's training centre, Social and Labour Plan skills development commitments and technical training costs. There was a particular focus on mechanised training and supervisory development aimed at improving safety and productivity.

South Deep's virtual reality (VR) training project was also completed during the year - in 2018, employees will receive VR training on barring, strata control and safety.

Ghana ran 448 competency-based, technical training sessions for employees, while 367 sessions were run for management employees focusing on supervisory and leadership skills development. Over 22 sessions were run for professional employees to allow them to complete statutory and other certificates of competence. Investment in training and development in the region totalled US$2.5m for the year.

In Australia, US$2.3m was spent on training, divided between leadership training (US$0.6m) and technical training (US$1.7m). The region continued to run preparatory leader and supervisor development programmes, and introduced a new change leadership programme. The programme includes mine simulation that encourages participants to identify opportunities for business improvement.

At Cerro Corona, 26 leaders completed training programmes for supervisors, which were among a number of interventions aimed at leadership and managerial development. Technical skills training and competency assessments continued during the year, and the operation awarded employees 146 scholarships to pursue short courses, technical degrees and specialist qualifications aligned to their core role.

Innovation and technology will be critical in improving safety, volumes and costs at our mines - we recognise the need to modernise, integrate and optimise existing systems and processes as we align ourselves with automation and new digital trends in the industry. Building a pipeline of innovation and technology skills, and a business culture to support the transition, is an area of growing importance in the company. We formed the Young Persons Group, comprising high-performing young employees from multiple disciplines across our operations, to provide input into our innovation and technology strategy. In the year ahead, we will embark on a culture change programme to support an innovative and technology-ready culture.

Building a high-performance, safety culture

The ethos of safe, sustainable delivery is entrenched in the Gold Fields vision and the behaviours outlined through our values, and is supported by our operating model. During the year we ran a project to reinvigorate the Gold Fields vision and values, and unite employees from across the global operations behind a unified brand and single strategic goal. The programme was run by EVPs in each region and clearly articulated the behaviours required for the business to achieve its objectives, with safe delivery heading the list.

Strengthening diversity across the business

Gold Fields encourages diversity across the business - apart from the moral imperatives of doing so, we believe that the wide array of perspectives that results from such diversity promotes innovation and drives business success. A Diversity Policy was approved by the Board during the year and sets out the Company's approach to fostering a more diverse workforce. This will be achieved through recruitment, training and development, gender equality and rejection of all kinds of discrimination and harassment. A monitoring system is due to be implemented to measure workforce diversity and the extent to which recruitment, promotion, and training and development opportunities are helping to improve diversity.

In South Africa, diversity targets and initiatives are aligned with the requirements of the Employment Equity Act and the Mining Charter. South Deep continues to make steady progress towards achieving a workforce that is more representative of the demographics of South Africa. Representation of Historically Disadvantaged South Africans at senior management level increased from 64% in 2016 to 88% in 2017. The mine continues to compare favourably with the industry in terms of women in mining representation. Currently 21% of South Deep's permanent workforce is women, with the ratio of women in technical mining roles being 17%, and women in managerial roles 16%.

Gender diversity was an important human resource focus area in our Australia region during the year. In total, 17.4% of permanent employees are women, with 15.8% of middle and senior management positions being filled by women. Our Australian mines have gender diversity initiatives in place to improve attraction and retention of women. At the end of 2017, 20% of all recruits and 35% of hired candidates from the graduate and vacation student programme were women. The region will focus on developing further strategies to improve gender diversity through appointments and remuneration policies as well as flexible working arrangements.

Ghana's diversity focus includes both the employment of Ghanaian nationals and the employment of women at all levels. The number of expatriate employees (1%) has been below the legally stipulated target of 6% for the past four years. The region will continue its successful programme of replacing expatriate skills with competent nationals.

Representation of women in Ghana is still low, at around 5%, but addressing this low level of female representation has been prioritised as a key imperative for the region, to be driven by senior leadership. Initiatives in place to increase the representation of women include identification of female talent in all departments, a review of the recruitment approach and identifying and coaching high-potential female employees to ultimately assume managerial roles. The region is targeting an increase in its complement of female employees by an additional 5% in 2018.

In Peru, 16% of permanent employees are women, while 7% of senior management positions and 15% of middle management positions are held by women. At the Salares Norte project in Chile, 14% of the permanent workforce are women - they comprise 28% of middle management, although there is no female representation at senior management level.

The Gold Fields Board has 36% employment equity representation, while employment equity representation at the Executive Committee level is 40% with 20% female members. Among senior management at Corporate Office the figures are 58% and 53% respectively. Across the group, 16% of employees are women.

Cerro Corona open pit

Engagement with organised labour

Americas region

About 19% of Peru's Cerro Corona workforce is unionised, largely among employees in the operational areas. Negotiations with organised labour on a new three-year collective agreement (June 2016 - June 2019) concluded in 2017. Key items include:

• A salary increase of approximately 5.4% per annum
• A bonus component commensurate with market standards
• Compensation of equivalent time off for any mandatory training courses undertaken outside working hours
• Retention of existing benefits

At the Salares Norte project in Northern Chile, which has moved into feasibility study phase, management commenced engagement with the new Salares Norte Workers Union. The relationship will govern working conditions at the mine and will be reviewed once the outcome of the feasibility study is known.

West Africa region

About 85% of the Ghanaian workforce belongs to the Ghana Mineworkers Union (GMWU). In the first quarter of 2017, the region signed a two-year wage agreement for 2016 (backdated) and 2017, with salary increases of 10% and 6% respectively. Further agreement was reached on developing a wage model that will guide salary increases from 2018 and beyond.

In January 2018 the GMWU brought a court injunction against Gold Fields' decision to convert from owner to contractor mining at the Tarkwa mine. However, this was overturned by the Accra High Court in February, and the mine commenced with the transition to contractor mining thereafter.

South Africa region

Management at South Deep has engaged extensively with organised labour, which represents 93% of our employees, most of them by the National Union of Mineworkers. Constructive engagement has helped to improve the relationship between the two parties, and during 2017 management resolved a significant portion of the key outstanding issues with the unions. There is also understanding among the union representatives of the challenges facing the mine and the need to change to an operating model that is more aligned to bulk mechanised mining. Engagement on this has intensified during Q1 2018.

A three-year wage agreement between South Deep's trade unions and the mine expired in February 2018 and wage negotiations for a new deal commenced in March 2018.

Australia region

Wages in Australia are determined largely by mining industry cycles. During 2017, an upturn in the resources sector saw wage pressures increase marginally - in the year ahead such pressure may increase even further. In addition, government imposed a 3.3% increase to minimum wages. As a result, our overall wage and remuneration packages are expected to be around 3% higher in 2018.

The Australian Employee Collective agreement's term will lapse in April 2018. Engagements have been concluded with both the workforce and unions on a new agreement, though this still has to be ratified by the government's Fair Work department. The agreement, which will apply for the next four years, will see improved benefits and conditions of employment in the form of:

• Parental leave increasing to 16 weeks' paid leave
• Partner's parental leave increasing to two weeks
• An increase in the health allowance

Looking ahead to 2018

In the year ahead Gold Fields will focus on the following people-related imperatives:

• Driving a high-performance culture that will improve productivity and efficiency, lower costs and contribute to the achievement of AIC of US$900/oz
• Building a workforce for the future in line with making the shift to a gold miner of the future. This will involve a strong focus on talent management and succession planning to attract, retain and promote young talent
• Deepening engagement with employees to identify and address hurdles to greater productivity
• Maintain healthy engagement with organised labour across our operations