Modern Mining August 2022

miner’s initiatives have been a decade in the making and continue to deliver impressive results, as they tackle issues at grassroots level and unpack key challenges women face on a daily basis. “We have a number of focus areas aligned with De Beers’ forward-looking goals, all of which talk to workforce inclusion and equal opportunity for all,” says Perumalpillai. According to Perumalpillai, the diamond miner’s female representation journey has been a Group-wide focus for more than five years, during which time De Beers has worked to under stand the experience of women in the organisation and what is needed to change in order to encourage women to join and remain at De Beers. Among the actions implemented by De Beers to support a more inclusive environment have been its formalised inclusion and diversity policy com mitments, rolling out unconscious bias training, training and guidance on inclusion and diversity in the hiring processes, reciprocal mentoring for its executive committee and closely tracking indicators to achieve its commitment to gender parity in leader ship appointments. For the African diamond miner, it has been essen tial to understand, track and unpack the particular challenges faced by women in all its areas of opera tion, especially in the African and South African mining sectors. “It is important that we don’t overgeneralise peo ple’s experiences and need to try and understand the experiences of women across different geog raphies – for instance, the experiences of women residing in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia or Canada – in the context of their specific regions,” Perumalpillai explains. The De Beers team has thus implemented listen ing exercises within the organisation to learn about the different perspectives and priorities for people in different geographies. “In 2016 we undertook a listening exercise with a

series of focus groups (including men and women), specifically to understand the nuances around gen der diversity. We will continue with this programme as it helps us to compare and contrast what we heard at the first session to more recent conver sations. Such undertakings assist us to respond appropriately to the diverse needs of our workforce and aid in recognising how aspects such as race intersect with gender, disability and LGBT issues, and respond to different perspectives and experiences,” Perumalpillai says. In 2021 , De Beers launched the ‘CountYourSelfIn’ initiative which looks to improve its understanding of its workforce composition and demographics. The vol untary diversity data collection campaign worked on the philosophy, When you know better you can do better. Establishing industry partnerships to attract talent In paving the way for increased inclusivity in the

High school students in South Africa participating in a De Beers Group and WomEng workshop.

In 2021, De Beers launched the ‘CountYourSelfIn’ initiative which

looks to improve its understanding of its workforce composition and demographics.

Keatlaretse Ketlogetswe, haul truck driver approaching vehicle, Jwaneng Mine.

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