BHP Billiton plans to have half its workforce women by 2025

BHP plans to have half its workforce women by 2025, but may face blowback from institutions and male staff.

“No one’s job is under threat because they are male,” says CEO Andrew Mackenzie. Pic: Aaron Francis

BHP Billiton will tonight set out to drag the resources industry in to the 21st century on gender equality, with chief executive Andrew Mackenzie to announce a goal to have half of its workforce women by 2025.

To give the goal some credibility, BHP (BHP) will embed performance measures on reaching the target — women currently account for 17 per cent of the workforce — in the at-risk components in the remuneration packages of its mainly senior male executives.

But to steer clear of the potential for reverse discrimination litigation, particularly in the US, the 50:50 gender split will be labelled by Mr Mackenzie at tonight’s London annual meeting (10pm AEDT) as an “aspirational goal’’ rather than the greater certainty that would come from it being set as a target.

BHP can expect the same sort of blowback that Australia’s major banks have copped from institutional proxy advisers on the setting of aggressive gender balance targets.

But Mr Mackenzie will say tonight that more must be done to achieve gender balance, and that it will be good for business.

He will say that while BHP has made progress it is still not as inclusive or diverse as it could be. He will say that without new targets, it would take 30 years to get 30 per cent female representation.

He will say that while it is ambitious and challenging, it will deliver a major step change for the world’s biggest resources company.

Internal research has shown that BHP’s top 10 most inclusive operations perform at least 15 per cent better than the company average. It is a statistic BHP will need to share with its institutional shareholder power base to convince them that the benefits of a 50:50 gender split will not come at a cost to business performance.

Mr Mackenzie is also alert to a backlash from the male workforce. In a memo to staff ahead of the meeting he said some male employees have concerns they may be discriminated against, or that they may be overlooked for a promotion.

“So let me say this — the path to create a more inclusive and diverse workplace will be challenging as significant change often is. It will require us to make inclusion and diversity a greater priority. It will demand that we question our own biases when we make decisions, that we make our workplaces more flexible and that we challenge dated stereotypes about jobs in the resources industry.’’

“However, we will not disadvantage anyone. Instead we will give everyone — men and women — an equal opportunity. No one’s job is under threat because they are male. But we will work to remove the unconscious bias that, in my view, women have been disadvantaged by for a very long time in a male-dominated environment. Once we address that, we base decisions on merit, which is how it should be.”