Business Action on Global Inclusion and Diversity
Newmont is a member of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), a global non-profit organization that works with a network of more than 250 member companies and other partners to build a just and sustainable world.
Recently, members of our team, including Beatrice Opoku-Asare, Director, Global Inclusion and Diversity, Adiki Ayitevie, Newmont Ghana’s Senior Director, Communication and External Relations, and Boakyewaa Glover, Regional HR Manager, Organizational Effectiveness, participated in a BSR webinar titled Business Action for Women’s Economic Empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Alison J. Taylor, BSR’s Director, Advisory Services, kicked off the webinar with a brief introduction to the organization’s research into the state of women’s empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa. Alison and her team found evidence that companies can generate additional business value from inclusive economic growth and gender equality. While the report gives recommendations for ways that the private sector can contribute to women’s economic empowerment, Alison highlighted that real progress requires implementation: “It’s easy to say what companies should be doing, but what does this look like when you’re inside a company trying to make this happen?”
To provide insight on the work happening inside our company, Beatrice shared Newmont’s global inclusion and diversity strategy and spoke about the priorities inside each of its key pillars: workplace, workforce and community. “Our focus to enhance understanding of our inclusion value company-wide is supported through formal structures, such as Business Resource Groups, while our work to build a workforce that better reflects the diversity of society is supported through leadership training and advocacy. We want to make sure we are tapping into the different skill set that every individual brings to the organization, and are working to make sure that when people hear about Newmont, they see it as a company where they can thrive and where they can be themselves.”
Boakyewaa and Adiki joined in the conversation to share Newmont Ghana’s region-specific efforts as they relate to the BSR business action framework, one of which includes the formation of the Ahafo Women’s Consultative Committee (WCC) to enhance women’s participation in community decision making. Boakyewaa added, “Building inclusion and diversity does not happen by accident. It must be deliberate and proactive. Our formal strategy in the region is set in three-year blocks so we can be concise and concrete about what we want to achieve.”
Newmont’s focus on inclusion is critical to engaging the whole organization – not just female employees. As Beatrice explained, “We want to make sure that we get to a point where inclusion does not become a stand-alone item, but is really integrated into all of the work we are doing from a supply chain perspective, from a safety perspective, and just woven into the organization as a whole.”
Read more about BSR’s recommendations for business action on their website, and to find out more about Newmont’s global inclusion and diversity strategy, visit our 2016 report, Beyond the Mine.
