Critical Analysis of Diversity and Inclusion at BHP Billiton

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of BHP Billiton's diversity and inclusion policies, examining the role of leadership, organizational structure, and HR practices in fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. The report highlights BHP Billiton's commitment to gender balance, inclusive recruitment, and long-term employee retention strategies. It delves into the measures used to ensure and monitor diversity, such as celebrating International Women's Day and providing support for women in the workplace. Furthermore, the report compares and contrasts BHP Billiton's approach with that of Woolworths, another company known for its diversity initiatives. The report concludes with suggestions for improving BHP Billiton's diversity and inclusion management, focusing on safety, performance metrics, and employee feedback. The analysis covers the company's strategies, including flexible working, and highlights the importance of leaders in creating an inclusive organizational climate. Finally, the report discusses the legal aspects of diversity policies in Australia and provides a detailed overview of BHP Billiton's efforts to promote equality and inclusion within its operations.

Running head: WORKING WITH DIVERSITY
Working with Diversity
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
In the following report, various strategies for diversity and inclusion management have been
described in the light of the chosen organization BHP Billiton. The roles of leaders of the
organization and HR practitioners have been described in the report. The measurement and
monitoring policies of these diversity and inclusion policies have been discussed as well. The
strategies for retaining the employees for a long-term period have been gone through. Apart from
that some recommendations have been given on how the organization BHP Billiton could
improve their strategies by comparing with that of Woolworths. The organizational structure and
diversity policies have been highlighted in the report.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Leadership and diversity strategy....................................................................................................3
Diversity strategies in organizational structure...............................................................................4
Role of leaders in organizational climate........................................................................................5
Inclusive recruitment practice and long-term retention strategy.....................................................5
Diversity policies by HR management............................................................................................6
Measures to ensure and monitor diversity and inclusion.................................................................6
Suggestions for improving diversity and inclusion management....................................................7
Compare and contrast with other diversity policies........................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References and Bibliography.........................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The following report focuses on the diversity and inclusion policies of the organizations.
The diversity and inclusion are two of the most crucial factors for the success of the organization
since they have to plan to retain their workforce by incorporating many strategies for the
betterment of the scenario. The HR policies for the better employee retention are crucial in this
case. The chosen company to be analyzed here in the light of organizational culture, structure
and leadership is BHP Billiton.
It is one of the biggest organizations in the world operating in the petroleum and mining
industry. The headquarters of this organization is located at Melbourne in Australia. The
recruitment strategies and retention policies of the organization will have to be discussed in this
paper because they are very interesting factors for the development of the organization. The
comparisons and contrasts will have to be done based on the other diversity and inclusion
policies to find its effectiveness. The recommendations will be given on hwo they can improve
their diversity and inclusion management.
Leadership and diversity strategy
The leadership figures of the organization are completely committed to the diversity and
inclusion management of the company. The company always attempts to be the reflection of the
communities with whom they work. This is why they provide safety and security to all the
employees of the organization. The biggest target set by the organization is to achieve gender
balance within their industry by the end of 2025 (Bhp.com 2019). The leaders want to make it
happen in the big way since this will set an example before others and pave the way for them to
become one of the icons in their community. The contribution of their leaders in this scenario is

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great since they provide opportunities for flexible working for all the employees. They want to
provide their services and products to diverse range of people (Ferdman and Deane 2014).
Therefore, they cater to the needs of these people as well. The leaders are working with
efficiency to convince their supply chain partners that they give their full support to gender
balance within the company (Bhp.com 2019).
Diversity strategies in organizational structure
The company BHP Billiton is often very much active in including and implementing
several diversity strategies within their organizational structure. They do not support gender
biasness and so women in their organization are given full opportunities to capture high positions
through their skills and qualifications. One important example of this is Cristina Ledezma who
has been appointed as the first shovel operator or extraction equipment operator at Minera
Escondida. This proves that they are very much serious about including women in their
leadership positions (Ferdman and Deane 2014). Their workforce is a big part of their
organizational structure and they are keen on recruiting their workforce irrespective of their
caste, skin color, language, ethnicity and religious backgrounds (Bhp.com 2019). The teams they
have employed to carry out several operations are very much supportive and they have members
from different groups of ethnicity. The status of women is quite secured and organizational
structure of BHP Billiton supports and appreciates their efforts (Bhp.com 2019). The women are
given lots of opportunities and they have launched a Women’s Council to help all their women
employees (Noe et al. 2017).

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Role of leaders in organizational climate
The leaders are the heart of this organization BHP Billiton. The leadership figures put up
great attention to bridge the communication gap between the employees and leaders. The
diversity and inclusion management (Mor Barak 2015). The trust of the leaders on the employees
is one of the most crucial facts for the implementation of the diversity and inclusion management
policies. The change they think to change is giving way for LGBT people within their
organization (Bhp.com 2019). The LGBT people have been harassed and they think these people
should be motivated because they have enough skills and capabilities within them. The
establishment of Jasper, the employee inclusion group for LGBT communities has been one of
the biggest steps for a better change within the organization. Other people in the organizational
structure are trained in a way that they would always cooperate with people from all the
communities (Barak 2016). This is how leaders have become so much motivating for the
organization and they have communicated the strategies with their employees through business
meetings, emails and social media posts (Sabharwal 2014).
Inclusive recruitment practice and long-term retention strategy
The recruitment strategy for BHP Billiton is also one of the most attracting ones. It is
because they have always opted to make the most of talents in the competitive business
environment. They give special attention on women and LGBT community employees because
they feel these people have been underestimated in terms of being given the opportunities. This
is why they will look to make the most out of their strategies for their betterment. The
recruitment practices of BHP Billiton are largely dependent on their diversity and inclusion
practices. In the interview sessions, they assure the above mentioned employees that their rights
will be secured and they will be provided with the flexible shift timings and work from home

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facilities in terms of their assigned projects (Winters 2014). Women are also given maternal
leaves in their pregnancy periods. They give enough opportunities to their workforce to be
acquainted with their systems. They like to retain all their talented employees so the organization
can gain the sustainability in the complex working environment (Barak 2016).
Diversity policies by HR management
Diversity and inclusion has always been deemed as one of the most crucial things for the
success of the organization BHP Billiton and their HR practices have been developed with the
aim to persuade their workforce being built on the policies of diversity and inclusion. All the
global standards are maintained within this organization so desires of employees are fulfilled
with employee benefits. They work as per the norms and values of the employees from diverse
ethnic groups (Downey et al. 2015). The minimum standards of the business are followed by HR
department. The HR management has provided the options to support the women sent on the sea
for oil extraction. Thus the women employees of the organization feel secure that BHP Billiton
HR managers are quite worried about their well being. The HR team of the company has opened
sections that support the welfare of the LGBT communities within the organization. They help
to establish a proper working environment that would motivate the non-native employees in a
complicated atmosphere. This would be relatively helpful in different cases for keeping up the
brand reputation of BHP Billiton (Downey et al. 2015).
Measures to ensure and monitor diversity and inclusion
The organization BHP Billiton has always played a pioneering role in the diversity and
inclusion management all across the world. Their policies and strategies have always been
wonderful that have supported the lives of minority ethnic groups within the society. Their

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slogan ‘#BalanceforBetter’ has been an inspiring factor for all those people. They monitor their
diversity and inclusion management systems by celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD)
on 8th March. The women employees in the organization have always been given the respect and
gender-balanced boardroom, gender-balanced media coverage and other facilities. In the
previous years, very few people would have an idea about the fact that women would be given
the importance in the mining industry (Downey et al. 2015). However, women have gained that
spot in BHP Billiton and their continuous efforts to give women fair amount of opportunities to
overcome the odds. This is how the organization has been able to gain the momentum in creating
a gender-balanced working ambience in their business structure.
Suggestions for improving diversity and inclusion management
Apart from gender balance within the organization, there are some other things in which
BHP Billiton will have to focus on.
 The organization should always give their attention on the safety management and
measure the safety performance from time to time.
 The maintenance performance should be improved as diverse workforce of an
organization will be able to adhere to the plans of their supervisors.
 They have to monitor how the employees from different groups will be able to cater to
the plans of employee engagement in a better manner.
 The feedbacks should be taken from the employees about their leaders, their supervisors
and work process. These feedbacks should be recorded and better options should be
found on how BHP Billiton will be able to improve their facilities and employment
benefits for the employees hailing from diverse cultural groups.

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 The performance metrics should be analyzed. It might happen that employees of minority
cultural groups might not be able to perform as per expectations. They will have to be
motivated for better performance.
Compare and contrast with other diversity policies
According to the legislations of the diversity policies to be implemented in Australia, it
has been suggested that employees should be provided with equal opportunities all over the
country regardless of their ethnicity, gender, caste, religion or color of skin (Lawcouncil.asn.au.
2019). Another diversity policy that could be named here is of Woolworths Company. It is one
of the retail giants and their diversity policy has been named as the no.1 diversity policy in
Australia (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2019). Woolworths has always given their entire focus on
the betterment of the work culture by providing facilities to people from all sorts of probable
backgrounds. Apart from providing women employees with the senior roles in the management,
they have also worked in favor of indigenous Australians. As per the rules of Law Council,
indigenous people should always be given the proper facilities (Lawcouncil.asn.au. 2019). This
is somewhat contrasting with the diversity and inclusion policies of BHP Billiton since BHP has
addressed the welfare of the women only. Additionally, Woolworths has also given the
employment facilities to the disabled people in the society (Woolworthsgroup.com.au 2019).
This is also one of the most crucial facts of the Australian Law Council apart from gender
balance aimed by BHP.
Conclusion
On a concluding note, it can be stated that BHP Billiton is one of the leading companies
in Australia and they have many responsibilities to perform within the society. Therefore, they

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have applied some important measures to ensure that their diversity and inclusion management
policies cater to the needs of the community. The role of their leaders and HR managers has also
been discussed in this paper. The diversity and inclusion policies of Woolworths have been
highlighted to compare and contrast with that of BHP. The important legislations regarding
diversity and inclusion have been discussed as well.

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References and Bibliography
Barak, M.E.M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.
Bhp.com (2019). BHP | A leading global resources company. [online] BHP. Available at:
https://www.bhp.com/ [Accessed 30 Apr. 2019].
Bhp.com (2019). BHP | Inclusion and diversity. [online] BHP. Available at:
https://www.bhp.com/our-approach/work-with-us/inclusion-and-diversity [Accessed 30 Apr.
2019].
Brewster, C., Chung, C. and Sparrow, P., 2016. Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge.
Brewster, C., Vernon, G., Sparrow, P. and Houldsworth, E., 2016. International human resource
management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Downey, S.N., van der Werff, L., Thomas, K.M. and Plaut, V.C., 2015. The role of diversity
practices and inclusion in promoting trust and employee engagement. Journal of Applied Social
Psychology, 45(1), pp.35-44.
Ferdman, B.M. and Deane, B., 2014. Diversity at work: The practice of inclusion.
Lawcouncil.asn.au. (2019). Diversity Policy. Retrieved from
https://www.lawcouncil.asn.au/policy-agenda/advancing-the-profession/equal-opportunities-in-
the-law/diversity-policy

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Mor Barak, M.E., 2015. Inclusion is the key to diversity management, but what is
inclusion?. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 39(2),
pp.83-88.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management:
Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Sabharwal, M., 2014. Is diversity management sufficient? Organizational inclusion to further
performance. Public Personnel Management, 43(2), pp.197-217.
Williamson, S. and Baird, M., 2014. Gender equality bargaining: developing theory and
practice. Journal of Industrial Relations, 56(2), pp.155-169.
Winters, M.F., 2014. From diversity to inclusion: An inclusion equation. Diversity at work: The
practice of inclusion, pp.205-228.
Woolworthsgroup.com.au (2019). [online] Woolworthsgroup.com.au. Available at:
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/icms_docs/183931_Diversity_Policy.pdf [Accessed 30
Apr. 2019].