Nicola Jackson addresses the accessibility for women in the mining industry

We talk to Nicola about diversity awareness and how bridging that gap through innovation, policy, and accountability can help tackle accessibility in the mining industry.

Q. How important is the issue of diversity and inclusivity in your organisation and how do you see the link between diversity and innovation supporting the entry of women into the industry?

Sibanye-Stillwater focuses on the 'mine of the future,' where a sense of diversity and belonging is entrenched in the culture and institutional thinking. Our commitment has been embedded in our strategic differentiator of being 'inclusive, diverse and bionic.'

We see a direct correlation between building the bionic mine of the future and establishing a diverse and inclusive working environment. A culture of diversity and inclusivity leads to greater innovation, which, in turn, creates value for our organisation’s stakeholders.

Diversity is imperative in driving this change. Creating an inclusive culture will create a bionic mine of the future where the alpha-male miner stigmas are no longer a concern, and women feel welcomed in the sector.

Developing and promoting women across all levels of our organisation is not only the right thing to do, but also makes good business sense resulting in a stronger bottom line. As diversity correlates with creating an innovative growth mindset, we see this opening up opportunities previously unavailable to women. Thereby, it's attracting more women to our industry. Essentially, it’s a win-win situation for all.

Q. How do you think the industry has changed over the years to attract and retain talent?  

Whilst there is a visible shift across the industry to make mining a more diverse and inclusive environment, there remains a great deal of work to be done, particularly on a gender front. There is growing recognition across the sector that investors are not only focused on financial return on investment but also on the socio-ecological impact an organisation has on the larger ecosystem. If we consider the metrics used by the likes of the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, it is evident that companies are making progress in areas of female leadership, talent pipeline, pay parity, fostering an inclusive culture, and putting appropriate policies in place. These are all measures that will drive the attraction and retention of women in the industry.

As mentioned, within our organisation, we are actively looking to change the stigmas attached to mining and encourage more women to join the sector. We see our drive for innovation as being critical to this. On the retainment front, our organisation has implemented policies and systems to drive the objectives of diversity and inclusion, particularly related to women.

Whilst these steps are important, devoid of accountability, these amount to very little. In this regard, accountability infrastructures are in place at the highest levels of the organisation and are often linked to KPIs. We have also emphasised the importance of mentorship of women at all levels of our company and have implemented formal mentorship and coaching programmes in this regard. We have seen a noticeable difference in the retention and promotion prospects of our female employees that are coached, sponsored and mentored throughout their careers.

Q. What are some of the challenges still faced by female talent in the mining industry?

Gender-based violence (GBV) remains an issue throughout the industry, and it needs to be addressed not only at a corporate level but also at a sector level. We consider the safety of our employees as our utmost priority, and combatting GBV forms a core part of ensuring a safe and welcoming work environment for all. Our GBV campaign is driven from an executive level within our organisation and championed by our CEO.

Issues of such great importance must be driven from the very top in order to create and sustain a culture where differences, gender and otherwise, are welcomed and encouraged, regardless of the sector and organisation.

The physical limitations of some roles in the mining sector also need attention from an industry level. This can only be achieved through significant development in technology and infrastructure. Sibanye-Stillwater has a specific task team focused on assessing and looking at how to redesign the underground working environment to make it more accessible for our female employees. It entails intense ergonomic studies to understand how the machinery can be adapted to make it women-friendly.

Other apparent challenges are working hours, lack of facilities to accommodate women (e.g. creches, lactating rooms) and dealing with the perceptions of an inability to accommodate women in the workplace while pregnant. Whilst policies in an organisation can help, in order to achieve lasting impact across the sector, it needs to be an industry-driven initiative with the right metrics that hold organisations accountable.

Q. What other initiatives can the industry adopt to make mining more accessible for women?  

The concept of accessibility in the industry directly correlates with the issue of flexibility. We see women leaving the industry during their child-bearing years due to a lack of flexibility in policies. In developing the ‘mine of the future’, we are attempting to redesign rigid policies, where practicable and feasible, to foster a more diverse culture.

For example, the Covid pandemic has enabled us to embrace and adopt remote working arrangements as the quality of virtual interaction has improved, allowing for new ways of working to be accepted as a sustainable approach. It has removed barriers that inhibit the realisation of our diversity and inclusion aspirations, for both working mothers and fathers.

We believe that adopting this digital-first approach across the industry will leverage the advantages of virtual working and present a substantial opportunity for improved effectiveness and quality of life within our sector.

Q. In general, how can technology help address different areas of accessibility?

Technology and innovation have a huge role in supporting diversity and inclusion, specifically with respect to women in mining for two reasons.

In industrial and labour intense organisations like ours, there are ergonomic barriers to entry which preclude men and women based on the physical demand of specific roles. While we can physically train people to fulfil these roles, that may not always be possible. At a fundamental level, we use innovative methods to target specific areas of focus where technology can lower that barrier to entry and support more inclusion across the board. An example is how we’ve leveraged ergonomic studies to understand the primary physical constraints of task-based roles and are pursuing multiple improvements to processes, PPE and tools that mitigate these constraints. Beyond minor improvements, we’re also pursuing more ambitious technology that completely redefines the requirement by removing people from some of the exposures we identify.

Given the scale and complexity of mining, there are many roles where an employee is required to perform tasks in remote or secluded areas, and in some cases, outside of any form of communication. It is a security risk for vulnerable employees, so we’re looking to technology to eliminate this risk and create a safer environment that is more inclusive of employees that may be vulnerable to that risk, either enhancing security in that area or removing the employee to a safe place in which they can still perform their duties.

It gets particularly exciting when we consider what technology means for our future growth, which will likely be on technologies and industries in mining and beyond. It is well-known that diversity is just good business practice and that diversity of thought is necessary for innovation. We remain very self-aware when considering what our workforce will look like in the future to ensure that we attract and retain a diverse team capable of adding multiple perspectives and thinking outside the box. There will be a lot of opportunities created through our growth that will lessen the barriers to entry and allow for a more diverse and inclusive environment.

Technology and innovation allow us to reimagine how we execute tasks to lower the conventional barriers to entry for roles in our current organisation. It will also create more opportunities centred around innovation, technology, and as a result of our growth.

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