Our business will only continue to be successful and sustainable if we can attract, develop and retain the best talent, and inspire the workforce of tomorrow. To that end, we know that attracting, building and developing a diverse and inclusive workforce brings important value both to our innovative working culture and to our employees’ wellbeing, and helps us attract from the widest talent pool.
Diversity and inclusion
We want to create an inclusive culture and to attract the very best talent across genders, age groups and disabilities. The history of our industry has built a workplace in which male employees by far outnumber female employees. Therefore, when it comes to diversity and inclusion, we place a particular focus on achieving a stronger gender balance within leadership positions and the talent pipeline.
Our Approach
Our policies on diversity and inclusion, and human rights, are both designed to ensure individuals feel welcome and respected in our workplace, and can realise their full potential regardless of race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, ethnic or national origin or disability.
We have completed internal and external benchmarking of best practice on diversity in heavy industry, as well as reviewing our women’s development and unconscious bias programmes at our training centre of excellence, the ArcelorMittal University. Several of our sites now offer flexible working and childcare support.
We now use the following KPIs to track progress, and these are reported to our Board Committee on sustainability:
- % women recruited (exempt and above)
- % of women in management (GM and above)
- % women on key positions succession plans
Our sites each take their own approach to diversity which may include women’s discussion groups, intranet blogs, award schemes, childcare support and flexible working schemes. When female colleagues are recognised in women’s award schemes (two have been included as among the most inspirational women in mining in recent years), this contributes to a culture of acknowledgement for the value women create within the business internally and externally.
Increasing the diversity of our management overlaps with our ambition to support future leaders in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). A number of our sites, for example in France and the USA, have introduced science, technology, engineering and medical (STEM) partnerships designed to encourage women to become involved in engineering or steelmaking. An internal survey found that in some two thirds of the countries in which we operate, we run STEM projects focused on women and girls.
Employee development
Our business will only continue to be successful and sustainable if we can attract, develop and retain the best talent, and inspire the workforce of tomorrow. To that end, we invest in training our employees, enabling them to develop their careers, fulfil their potential and make the best possible contribution to the success of the company.
Our approach
Our global employee development programme (GEDP) is the cornerstone of our people strategy and fosters leadership development among our non-exempt (salaried) employees by managing their performance, potential, development and careers. At a local level, our site-based exempt employees are trained and helped in their careers by their local supervisors and managers – each according to the strategy of the business.
One of its main components is the individual development planning that aims to identify strategic needs for development, raise the competence levels in the organisation and provide career progression to our employees. As an outcome of formal reviews between individuals and line managers – and supported by regular feedback and coaching – they discuss not only what the company needs from them to pursue its strategic objectives, but how they can develop themselves to help us achieve this. The ArcelorMittal University offers a wide range of personal, professional, technical and leadership development programmes through its regional campuses, for example in Luxembourg, Canada, Spain, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, South Africa and Brazil.
The ArcelorMittal University is run by a world-wide network of learning professionals, backed by a governing board. They help our employees learn, grow and connect through leadership, management, technical and language programmes tailored to the development needs of both the company and the individual. Currently there are 15 functional academies – examples include steelmaking, research and development, risk management, finance and sustainable development. These are run both online and through classroom sessions.
Outside the ArcelorMittal University, training and development initiatives are managed locally, to address both the needs of the site and the needs of the employee.
We encourage employees to be the actors to their own development, while the support of line managers remains integral to motivating and engaging people in planning their career development.
Our induction programmes are also managed locally. They aim to help new team members understand who we are, what we do, where we’re going and how we will get there – in other words, not just our vision and strategy, but our values, and our commitment to integrity.
Employee engagement
Our company has long been committed to open dialogue with our people. This ensures we have a strong mutual understanding between the employees and leadership of each business unit, no matter how difficult the economic climate. Good communication helps our workforce feel respected, cared for, empowered and rewarded.
Our approach
Communication: We value a working environment based on mutual trust and respect for our employees, contractors and union representatives. Some of our communications channels are formal (like the biennial employee survey and dialogue with our unions), while others are more informal. The aim in all cases is to give everyone the chance to give feedback, ask questions and offer ideas. Our survey is particularly important in helping us understand and therefore address any issues employees may have.
Other ways of communicating include our monthly newsletter, the One magazine, our interactive intranet portal MyArcelorMittal, webinars on specialist topics and talks by experts at particular sites, such as the lunch and learn sessions held in South Africa, Paris, Luxembourg and elsewhere. These sessions with our senior management are a unique opportunity for a two-way communication on topics of interest for the company.
Employees’ rights: We support the right of every employee to freedom of association and we are party to collective labour agreements with employee organisations in a number of countries. We’re committed to maintaining non-discriminatory employee practices and upholding internationally recognised employment standards. This commitment is underscored by both our employee relations policy and our human rights policy, which covers unlawful discrimination, harassment, and violence in the workplace. We’ve developed our own tool to assess how well we’re managing employee relations at each of our sites, and regularly consult with managers, workers and their representatives at plant level. In parallel with these efforts, we build strong labour relations through constructive dialogue with our unions and our European Works Council.
All employees have a contract or employee collective agreement that states the minimum notice period. This will vary depending on labour agreements and local regulatory requirements.