Our people
Our people, both employees and contractors, are the foundation on which all our activities rest. Our success relies on identifying, recruiting, training, developing and retaining a talented, diverse, mobile and motivated workforce.
Karen Wood
Chief People Officer
In order to deliver on our aspiration to be the world's best resources company, we need to act in a consistent manner according to our Charter values, with clear strategic intent and in line with a defined operating model. Together with strong leadership, these elements constitute our way of doing things: The BHP Billiton Way.
Our operating model is designed to clearly define our respective accountabilities. 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 success for any organisation. Our leadership model is designed to foster superior performance that allows each of our employees to start the day with a sense of purpose and end it with a sense of accomplishment.
We remain committed to helping our people reach their full potential, achieve job satisfaction and maximise their contribution. During the year, we consolidated our approach to talent management and have focused on strengthening our talent pipeline.
Keeping our people safe
We continue to make safety our priority. Despite our efforts, 11 of our colleagues lost their lives while working for BHP Billiton during FY2008. In the year ahead, we will continue to strive to deliver on our obligation to ensure that each of our people goes home safely at the end of each day.
Good safety starts with good leadership and our safety programs are directly tied to our leadership model. Learning from experience is critical and we encourage the reporting of all actual or potential incidents. Sites are also required to adhere to our Fatal Risk Control Protocols that establish minimum performance expectations for managing potential fatal risks associated with our common activities.
Our primary safety performance measure is our Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate, a measure of incidents resulting in lost time per million hours worked. In FY2008, we improved this rate by 20 per cent from 7.4 in FY2007 to 5.9. Our target is a 50 per cent reduction by 30 June 2012; achieving this target will deliver a rate considered to be a world-class level of performance.
Great assets need great people. Talented and motivated people are our most precious resource. They form the fundamental platform of our strategic drivers and are essential to our success. Our people, wherever they are located, are our voice and our identity; they are our future.
People - Our Future
We continue to attract and retain skilled people despite a tight labour market across the resources sector. We are committed to open, honest and productive relationships based on our Charter values, to providing a healthy and safe workplace, and to assisting our people in their personal development. We also see our attractiveness as an employer of choice being enhanced by the diverse geographic and role opportunities available to our employees.
BHP Billiton's Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
A commitment to our people was at the heart of our Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games sponsorship.
Not only was the excitement of the Games experienced by the 13,000 staff that contributed to the production of the Beijing medals, but almost 50,000 members of BHP Billiton’s workforce, including contractors, spread over 25 countries, celebrated our sponsorship by attending one of 150 Company events, each with an Olympic theme.
A number of Olympic-based reward and recognition programs were also established to support the delivery of important health, safety and behavioural messages across the Company, including our absolute commitment to Zero Harm. For example, Ximena Chacon (pictured), from our Spence operation in Chile, was one of 10 employees selected to run with the Olympic Torch in China as a reward for strong commitment to our Charter values.