2.11 Employees

In order to deliver on our aspiration to be the world’s leading natural resources company, we need to act in a manner consistent with our Charter values, our clear strategic intent and our defined operating model. Under strong leadership, these elements constitute our way of doing things, The BHP Billiton Way.

Our operating model is designed to clearly define the respective accountabilities of the various segments of the Company. Specifically, it articulates the relationship between, and responsibilities of, the Group Functions, Minerals Exploration, our Customer Sector Groups and Marketing.

Strong leadership is a cornerstone of the success for any organisation. The BHP Billiton Leadership Model is designed to foster behaviours that lead to superior performance and allow each of our employees to start the day with a sense of purpose and end it with a sense of accomplishment.

We are committed to ensuring our people reach their full potential, achieve job satisfaction and maximise their contribution. During the year, we consolidated our approach to talent management to further strengthen our talent pipeline.

In order to be successful, we continue to strive to identify, recruit, train, develop and retain a talented, diverse, mobile and motivated workforce. Recent revisions to our employment recruitment branding, our performance review and enhancement processes and changes to remunerations structures.

We are committed to open, honest and productive relationships with our employees, based on the values of the BHP Billiton Charter. For further information on Employee policies and involvement refer to section 7.8 of this report.

During FY2008 we had an average of 41,732 employees working in over 25 countries and in more than 100 operations worldwide. We also have an estimated 61,000 contractors worldwide. Our workforce is made up of a wide variety of nationalities and cultures.

The table below provides a breakdown of our average number of employees, in accordance with our IFRS reporting requirements, which includes our proportionate share of jointly controlled entities’ employees and includes executive Directors, by CSG for each of the past three financial years.
CSG2008 2007 2006
Total (a)41,732 39,947 40,002
Petroleum2,143 2,299 2,182
Aluminium5,145 4,903 5,838
Base Metals7,443 6,545 6,521
Diamonds and Specialty Products2,043 1,853 2,064
Stainless Steel Materials4,223 3,626 2,927
Iron Ore3,105 2,809 2,705
Manganese2,142 2,076 2,223
Metallurgical Coal3,680 3,564 3,534
Energy Coal9,183 9,595 9,327
Group and unallocated2,625 2,677 2,681
  1. Average employee numbers include executive directors, 100 per cent of employees of subsidiary companies, and our share of proportionally consolidated entities and operations. Part time employees are included on a full-time equivalent basis. Employees of businesses acquired or disposed of during the year are included for the period of ownership. People employed by contractors are not included.
The table below provides a breakdown of our average number of employees by geographic location for each of the past three financial years.
2008 2007 2006
Total41,732 39,947 40,002
Australia15,426 14,897 14,036
Southern Africa10,860 11,414 10,793
South America9,342 8,455 10,293
North America2,994 2,898 2,567
Europe606 586 589
Rest of World2,504 1,697 1,724

Approximately 47 per cent of our labour force is covered by collective agreements and we believe that our relations with our employees are generally positive. In the current year, we have had one significant strike, at the Colombian Cerro Matoso operation in February 2008 relating to the renewal of the collective agreement.