Women make up nearly a quarter of social media-driven applicants for jobs boon at BHP’s Olympic Dam mine
PROFILING its female staff has paid dividends for BHP’s drive to recruit more women to its Olympic Dam mine.
PROFILING its female staff has paid dividends for BHP’s drive to recruit more women to its Olympic Dam mine.
Women have accounted for nearly a quarter of social media-driven applicants for one of 350 new jobs as part of its expansion into the Southern Mine Area at the copper, gold and uranium mine, Jacqui McGill has revealed.
Olympic Dam’s asset president, speaking at a SACOME/Women in Resources SA lunch last week, said using social media to share videos of female employees had received “incredible engagement”.
“Reaching an audience of more than 60,000, and with some really promising results — including over 22 per cent female applications received,” Ms McGill said, adding the company had doubled the number of female applicants.
“Above all what we do in our industry, in our company, in our operations, it is all about reflecting society — society in our communities are made up of men and women.
“And I think it’s the right thing to want our operations, our mining companies, our resource industry to reflect the community in which we reside.”
The Advertiser revealed in May that BHP wanted to recruit an extra 350 positions at Olympic Dam, with the story among the most widely shared business stories this year.
Of those positions, the company has said in excess of 200 had been filled.
“We also identified a further 1880 candidates who have been moved into various talent pools for current and future vacancies across the operation,” she said.
“Through this process, we also identified a significant number of female candidates in areas like truck driving, fitters and trade qualified, technicians, master data specialists, engineering, scheduling and planning — which is great news as we aim to build a more diverse and inclusive workforce that is reflective of the communities we operate in.
“And through natural attrition, as well as current and future growth projects, we expect to continue to have a rolling requirement for around 250 roles at any one time.”
BHP last year committed to a 50-50 gender split by 2025.
Ms McGill will be keynote speaker at an American Chamber of Commerce lunch on Friday where she will give an update on Olympic Dam’s performance over the past year, what is projected for Australia’s largest underground mine, and what it means for SA.