Gold Fields

6.2.1 Strategic focus areas - Talent management

Talent management
Approach
The provision of world-class training, skills development and management training is central to driving a high-performance culture. It enables the Group to attract and retain the best talent; enhance employee productivity and safety; and achieve its strategic objectives.

In 2015, approximately US$12.4 million was spent on training and skills development across the Group (2014: US$13.4 million). This was invested chiefly in the delivery of fit-for-purpose technical training, comprehensive leadership development programmes and training to ensure global alignment with the new Gold Fields culture.

Having ‘the right people in the right jobs at the right time’ can be further defined as follows:

Certain Group-wide strategies, policies and structures are in place to drive the talent management agenda. The talent acquisition strategy and the training and development strategy take into account Gold Fields’ immediate and long-term talent requirements, while the performance management system seeks to reward and retain top performing talent

There is flexibility in how the regions approach talent acquisition and management. This helps ensure that regions are able to determine the best approach to meeting the specific requirements of their operations.

Group-level talent management in 2015
Evolving the talent review process
Historically, the talent review has focused only on high-potential D-band and above employees, who represent the future leadership of the business. However, a large proportion of our high-performing employees are skilled specialists in their field who may not have leadership aspirations but are nevertheless critical to the organisation. Their wealth of skill and experience makes them difficult and costly to replace, and they form the very core of the high-performance culture we are trying to build.

A targeted programme is required to engage them and understand their needs and drive their growth and development. For this reason, talent councils are being established in each region in 2016 to identify high potential and high performing talent. Each region is tasked with developing relevant programmes for their operations.

Australia
In Australia, the Fly-In Fly-Out (FIFO) working arrangements are better suited to our operations in remote areas where employees are either required to live in camp or fly in and fly out. Only the St Ives mine offers full-time residential opportunities, though it does not have quality high school facilities or major tertiary educational institutions. This makes it difficult to retain individuals when they eventually settle down and start families or their children need to go to high school. This, along with the challenge of attracting permanent, skilled people to work on remote mines, accounts for the higher employee turnover in Australia particularly among younger staff (15% in 2015, down from 18% in 2014).

Talent management strategies employed
Across all Australian operations, we run internal technical training, leadership development training and training in contractor management. Where opportunities for growth and promotion are not readily available, the region has created opportunities for employees to gain development through other channels. The talent review process also identifies individuals who will benefit from exposure to other sites in the region.

South Africa
In South Africa, socio-economic factors drive an extremely high unemployment rate among young people and there is significant pressure on mining companies to create employment opportunities. However, poor standards of education and lack of opportunity to study at a tertiary level, means many unemployed South African youth do not have the education and skills required by our South Deep operation, which relies on specialist and currently rare skills in mechanised mining.

Talent management strategies employed
As South Deep, we have found that the existing skills base of our miners, largely recruited from conventional gold mines in South Africa, is not sufficient for the mechanised mining equipment and machinery required at the project. To augment the current skills base, South Deep therefore recruited an additional 146 skilled employees during 2015, mostly from the platinum sector, which has a similar mechanised mining skills set. The three-year wage agreement with South Deep’s trade unions, signed in April 2015, sets the remuneration framework which facilitates the recruitment and retention of the required mining skills.

However, our strategy remains to grow the majority of our own people through focused internal training. During the year, we provided training programmes to 47 artisans, working on our fleet of equipment as well as 15 junior managers, mine supervisors and mine overseers, to equip them with critical mechanised mining and engineering skills. There was also a focus on management and other leadership skills.

Since South Deep is at a critical juncture in bringing the mine up to higher production levels, this has necessitated a fine balancing act with the need to implement comprehensive skills development plans. For example, to address the upskilling of our artisans, a two-year agreement was reached with AtlasCopco, one of South Deep’s original equipment manufacturers (OEM). Under the agreement, all artisans and foremen at a segment of the mine have been redeployed to new working areas and will undergo a comprehensive training programme to bring their skills up to the level required by the mine. While they are receiving this training, the OEM contractors will maintain the machinery used in the trackless environment. Once the two-year period is up, artisans and foremen will have the opportunity to return to their original workplaces, and machine maintenance will again be managed internally.

Literacy levels on the mine remain an ongoing skills challenge, which we continue to address through a targeted training programme. A key focus of the people pillar in South Deep’s new operational plan is to collaborate with the wider mining industry, tertiary institutions, equipment suppliers and other external players to develop a strong skills development capacity and adopt leading practices.

Gold Fields is committed to employing HDSA, where possible, as this maximises the impact of South Deep in terms of economic value generation and skills transfer. It is also in line with the aims and targets set out by relevant employment equity regulations. At the end of 2015 69% of South Deep’s total employees were HDSA (as defined by the Mining Charter) and 50% of its senior management team.

West Africa
Education levels among young, urban Ghanaians are high but there is intense competition for employment opportunities. While this makes it easier for the Company to build a talent pipeline from the ground up and, to meet its localisation targets, it also means that the Company has to keep employees well rewarded and engaged to retain them

Talent management strategies employed
The key talent management focus areas are localisation and employment of people from host communities; retaining high potential employees; and skills development of operators.

Bursary programmes benefit youth in local communities, but there are currently few opportunities to create on-mine employment for them due to the depressed mining market. On the localisation front, around 95% of managerial positions are held by locals, as Ghana has a comprehensive skills transfer and mentoring programme in place which ensures that expat employees are paired with potential local successors.

Some employees have been sent on short-term assignments outside of the Company to offer them exposure to growth opportunities and keep them engaged and motivated. Other training programmes during the year have focused on improving operator efficiency and certification, short-term assignments for high-potential employees, and on-the-job coaching and training.

It is important to note that high quality education does not necessarily reach young people in the host communities around our mines in Ghana, South Africa and Peru and that many of the skills come from other parts of the country. But since our social licence to operate is tied to expectations from these communities there is a strong focus on implementing programmes that educate and upskill young people in the communities adjacent to these operations.

Americas
Contextual challenges
In Peru, we have a highly skilled workforce, which means that the Company needs to deliver strong remuneration and other benefits as well as growth opportunities to ensure it keeps its employees engaged and motivated.

Talent management strategies employed
The key talent management focus in Peru is on developing leadership skills. Peru continued to run the Young Talent programme that invests in top university students studying in a range of industry-related fields. A three-year work-back arrangement forms part of the agreement and involves a full career development plan that includes mentoring. In 2015, 10 people benefited from the programme. In the year ahead, the programme will be expanded to include students who are studying degrees in the technical fields of mining.

The region’s career path programme also focuses on further developing the skills of operational and technical employees and during the year Cerro Corona invested US$330 000 in dedicated technical training programmes. Successful progress through training stages are linked to salary increases and bonuses commensurate with their enhanced skills levels.