Evolution has always focused on creating a positive and agile culture where our values underpin everything we do. We want working at Evolution to be the highlight of people’s career. Providing a fair, inclusive and diverse workplace is key to delivering on this promise so that our people feel welcome, valued, respected and encouraged to be their best, every day.
Management Approach
We aspire for Evolution to be a career highlight for our people. Our long-term success is underpinned by our people being safe and healthy, feeling included, having a voice and living our values of safety, excellence, accountability and respect. As an equal opportunity employer, we do not discriminate on the grounds of gender, race, age, ethnicity, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, relationship status, religion and/or other attributes and we are committed to respecting differences.
We focus on attracting and retaining talent, monitoring and providing skills development for the future, and providing a dynamic workplace with a culture of inclusion, transparency and listening. Our policies outline the expected standards of behaviour, creating the basis for an inclusive and diverse workforce. This includes the Code of Conduct, flexible working principles, Inclusion and Diversity Policy, and a range of employee support networks including Whistleblower Policy, EAP, Manager Assistance Program (MAP) and Workplace Contact Officers.
Performance
As of 30 June 2024, we employed 3,101 Permanent, Fixed Term and Casual employees, compared to 2,729 at 30 June 2023. The increase in workforce numbers is largely attributable to the acquisition of Northparkes in December 2023. 87% of our employees chose to stay with Evolution in FY24 which is a ~4% improvement since FY23, and a strong result in a competitive labour market.
We measure employee engagement through the biannual Your Voice engagement survey which was implemented across our business in FY24 following a successful FY23 pilot. The April 2024 results indicate that 65% of our employees are engaged compared to the Qualtrics GlobalAverage benchmark of 77%. Some results, such as Engagement levels, that were below Global benchmarking can be attributed to FY24 being the first year of the survey being implemented across Evolution, and the ‘Neutral’ responses of our people. This indicates we have opportunity to continue maturing our awareness and use of this still relatively new tool year-on-year. FY24 will serve as a baseline survey with results presenting clear actions across the business to increase employee engagement, particularly concentrated on career development.
Gender Mix Participation
Female representation in our workforce in FY24 was 19% (FY23: 18%) compared to the Australian industry average of 22%. The number of females in senior leadership positions increased significantly to 22% in FY24 (FY23: 14%). Approximately 25% of the Graduate Development Program hires in the 2024 intake were females (FY23: 28%).
In June 2023, Evolution announced gender workforce participation targets aligned to the Australian Mining Industry average. We have committed to 22% of the workforce being female by the end of FY25. To meet this target, we need a material shift and have implemented targeted strategies with a focus on attraction, retention, and overcoming unconscious biases. Initiatives to increase the representation of women, particularly at senior levels include:
• Application of Evolution-wide Internal (Succession) Talent Pool processes that promote consistency, inclusivity and fairness into internal role appointments;
• Female participation in leadership programs and external mentoring programs;
• Implementing consistent inclusive recruitment processes and practices across the organisation;
• Embedding inclusion in all our leadership programs;
• A new Leader Transition Program including a bespoke coaching component for Managers; and
• Mandatory Respect@Evolution training for all new and current employees which including specific elements focusing on bullying, harassment and sexual harassment in the workplace.
We are committed to achieving higher female workforce participation rates and understand the importance of continuing to build our inclusive culture. Our short-term aim is to reach the industry average, and then apply stretch principles to see that we drive ahead for the benefit of the industry.
Indigenous Participation
The focus remains on growing a pipeline of Indigenous candidates, including to leadership, and proactively identifying experienced external talent with the skillsets needed by the organisation. In FY24, Indigenous people comprised ~7% of the Evolution workforce, a slight improvement since FY23.
"We want to be great at creating the Evolution experience so that working with us is a career highlight for our people; one in which they feel included, respected and inspired."
Paul Eagle, VP People and Culture
Diversity and Inclusion
Management Approach
We recognise the benefits of having an inclusive and diverse workforce, where people’s experiences, perspectives and backgrounds are valued and utilised. Everyone at Evolution should feel respected, comfortable and confident to bring their best self to work every day and to grow professionally and personally.
Our people are the most significant enablers for driving business performance and success. It is our role to ensure they feel equipped, engaged and motivated to succeed. We do this by providing a safe and healthy workplace, a supportive team, strong leadership and meaningful work with career and development pathways.
We believe in equal pay for work of equal value and continue to identify and address any gender pay gap issues. In the FY24 Annual Remuneration Review, we analysed the remuneration of employees against their specific market data (Australia and Canada) addressing gender-based pay parity. We report annually to the WGEA which, for the first time in 2024, published the gender pay gaps for individual companies and utilise the opportunity to review industry peers, and identify improvements in our policies and practices. Evolution has a higher gender pay gap for total remuneration, ~18%, compared to ~14% of same sized mining companies and ~15% of all mining companies. This is driven by a relatively low number of women making up our workforce and lower representation and tenure of women at senior levels compared to men.
Performance
Inclusion and diversity continues to be a highly important focus area with identified need for improvement, with open dialogue, initiatives and visible leadership targeted to make a positive difference. This supports our values driven culture, the communities in which we operate, and our people feeling they are included and belong at Evolution. We recognise inclusion drives positive diversity, diverse backgrounds and thinking, respectful teamwork, innovative outcomes and stronger business results. In FY24, we:
- Continued to focus on achieving our gender workforce participation target through attraction and retention of females in the workforce.
- Living our Values conversations were conducted by managers once removed to check in on culture, values and inclusion. 100% of senior management completed these discussions. Overall, 61% of the conversations were completed with employees, and while below the stretch target of 100%, the quality and value shown has reinforced our ongoing commitment to this activity.
- Implemented the biannual Your Voice engagement survey, with specific questions to understand our people’s perception of inclusion. The result was 61% favourable compared to a Global Average benchmark of 74%. The FY24 data provides valuable insights that will support further improvements in inclusion and diversity.
- Implemented mandatory Respect@Evolution training for all new and current employees, complementing the previous Leading Inclusion for Leaders and Inclusion Awareness for employees.
- Launched a comprehensive Employee Support Network, outlining the ways in which our people can access support as detailed in the Employee Relations section.
- Conducted annual audits of operations’ inclusive practices, facilities and symbols, including a third-party audit through an employment law firm to assess our compliance with Respect@Work.
- Integrated inclusion into our suite of Leadership Development programs, including introducing a specific Leadership Transition Program to support our people moving into new leadership roles.
- Implemented specific recruitment practices including requiring a gender diverse recruitment panel and at least one female on each recruitment shortlist, where practical.
- Continued to highlight our commitment to inclusion and diversity via induction and onboarding programs.
- Continued to act on gender equality within our workforce, including the matching of superannuation payments for our people on the unpaid portion of parental leave in Australia, provision of domestic or family violence leave, and the provision of parental leave for secondary carers, as reported to WGEA.
Refer to the ESG Performance Data document for more information about Evolution’s inclusion and diversity performance based on age, gender and Indigenous representation.
Talent attraction, retention and employee engagement
We recognise that an engaged and high performing workforce is essential for the success, growth, and organisational capability of the business. Talented people are at the heart of our success, and we always aim to identify, attract and retain people who are highly skilled, and aligned with our values. We aim to develop our people by investing in their careers through a variety of internal and external development offerings, and development opportunities and plans targeted to individual needs, short and long-term career goals and aligned to business requirements.
During FY24, our Your Voice survey allowed us to measure engagement and our people’s experience throughout the employee life cycle using the Qualtrics platform. The tool enables us to externally benchmark engagement, inclusion and retention against Qualtrics global, country and industry norms. The biannual survey is an important opportunity for people to provide honest feedback to our leaders on how Evolution performs across a range of key metrics including overall experience, employee engagement, intent to stay, manager effectiveness and inclusion. The insights into our culture support us to proactively manage our people and their concerns across the organisation.
We have identified key drivers to improve our peoples’ experiences, including development of career goals supported by clear roles and purpose, ensuring confidence in senior leadership, management of change, providing honest, meaningful feedback and communication and giving recognition. In response, we have implemented a bespoke career development leadership essential program, focused on senior leadership, supported by the new Communications and Corporate Affairs team.
Attraction
In FY24, we undertook several initiatives to enhance employee attraction and recruitment and better position Evolution to achieve its growth strategy over the next three years. Initiatives included:
- Strengthening our Employee Value Proposition (EVP) including refreshed internal and external messaging focused on why people join and stay, the motivators and drivers of their experience and building a career in Evolution. A new Careers Website was launched to inspire and connect people to our EVP.
- Consolidating the reporting of recruitment statistics with enhanced and accessible recruitment dashboards enabling dynamic analysis and decision-making.
- Streamlining and more consistent onboarding and exit surveys, enabling increased data collation and deeper insights into our peoples’ motivators and experience at Evolution, improvement opportunities in onboarding
and mitigating controls to prevent people leaving.
Retention rate
Strong levels of retention have been maintained across the workforce in a highly contested and competitive market with 87% of people choosing to stay with Evolution in FY24 (FY23: 83%). This reflects the targeted work undertaken to
attract and retain quality people to and within the business. We continue to provide an environment where employees want to do their best work, learn, develop and experience a highlight of their career.
Recognising and Rewarding our People
We have built a culture where our people ‘Act Like an Owner’ (ALO) by treating Evolution as if it is their own business. In FY24, 68 Group-approved ALO initiatives were generated that delivered significant value for the business through change, improved safety, innovation, cost reductions and efficiency gains.
We are in our tenth year of offering all eligible Australia-based employees $1,000 worth of Evolution shares, through the employee share offering program, enabling our employees to be owners of the business.
All our people participate in annual performance and career development reviews, and bonus review, aimed at recognising and rewarding their on-the-job performance in alignment with organisational objectives and values, and their wider efforts. In addition, our rewards include a generous Long Term Incentive Program with a three-year vesting period in which all Superintendents and above are eligible to participate.
Training and education
Extensive training is provided to increase or improve skills and knowledge that mitigate the risk of health and safety incidents, meet compliance requirements, and increase employees’ understanding of their responsibilities towards the environment and our communities. The annual performance review also covers training and development needs and goals.
In FY24, the continued focus on development, leadership and retention was measured through:
- 65% of people fulfilling their stated development goals;
- Continuity in our leadership pipeline effectively retaining and attracting top talent in the Management group;
- 342 of our leaders participating in dedicated leadership development training, five cohorts of our frontline Introduction to Leadership program, one cohort of our GOLD mid-senior leadership program;
- Introduced a bespoke Leadership Transition Program for all people transitioning into new leadership roles (Superintendent and above); and
- Delivery of a total of 240,402 training hours in FY24 (vs 167,308 in FY23): an average of 55.5 hours per employee (compared to 61.5 in FY23).
The delivery and embedding of our refreshed Leadership Development suite of programs continued; all programs are underpinned by our Leadership Behaviours, inclusion and management of change. The leadership suite includes Leadership Essentials; practical bite-sized learning for all leaders, delivered on site; and Introduction to Leadership to support frontline, new and emerging leaders build the fundamentals of being an effective leader.
The GOLD mid-senior development program was delivered, with an enhanced focus on innovation, as well as on building leaders who are values driven, resilient, agile, commercially minded, inclusive and delivery focused. FY24 also saw additional offerings to the suite of Leadership Essentials training programs.
Graduate Program
In 2024, Evolution was ranked second in the mining industry and 17th in Australia for employers of small graduate intakes by the AAGE. The rankings are determined from data collected via AAGE’s annual Graduate Survey, with feedback gathered from graduates who have spent up to 12 months working with these organisations. In 2024, we hired 28 graduates (25% female), who are now providing our business with a wealth of skill, knowledge and diverse thought experience – enhancing our teams with their different perspectives and fresh thinking.
Since 2013, the two-year program has supported the growth and development of Evolution’s future diverse workforce. It provides broad exposure across our operations and disciplines of our business with the purpose of developing personal, technical and commercial skills. Graduates are given the opportunity to learn on the job via a development plan personally curated to ensure they have exposure that is relevant and enables ownership. Through mobility and rotations across our operations, graduates experience unique and remote parts of Australia and Canada, connect and immerse themselves within our local communities, find mentors, get exposure to corporate operations and access to both our Site Leadership and Group Leadership teams.
Mentoring
Mentoring opportunities are offered to our employees as they enhance the mentee’s personal and professional growth, which contributes to the skillsets and success at Evolution, and enables networking and relationship building across the business. Our people are provided with internal resources to initiate and sustain a mentoring relationship internally and external of Evolution. Read the related case study here.
Employee Relations
Management approach
Our approach to employee relations focuses on direct two-way engagement, establishing and maintaining strong working relationships with employees and unions, being proactive in consulting on any change, and providing open forums for employees to raise concerns.
Operating in a Tier 1 jurisdiction with strict legal frameworks, especially as an ASX listed company, Evolution is at an extremely low risk of not paying employees and contractors living and minimum wages. We ensure compliance with employment law obligations and pay in accordance with enterprise agreements, minimum wages and other employment terms. We ensure competitive remuneration by comparing within the industry via the AON remuneration surveys in Australia and Mercer remuneration surveys in Canada. We recognise the right to work for fair wages in safe and healthy conditions as a fundamental human right and we ensure sites are designed to protect the safety and health of all workers.
We actively manage recruitment and seek redeployment or retraining of employees impacted by workplace changes. Where we are unable to redeploy employees, our redundancy and outplacement programs support employees with the transition. In April 2024, we transitioned our Mt Rawdon Operations to day shift only with support in place for employees to understand the change and potential impact on wellbeing, access to face-to-face counselling sessions, implementation of career conversations and opportunity for employees and contractors on site to attend outplacement sessions.
We have a range of communication and support channels available to all employees. These channels include access to: the employee’s direct supervisor or manager; People and Culture representatives; regular team meetings at each operation and function; the intranet; incident reporting; EAP; Workplace Contact Officers; Mental Health First Aiders; and informal channels through Management. Formal grievance mechanisms are also in place supported by an independent 24/7 Whistleblower hotline, which have clear reporting lines to the Leadership Team and the Board.
Performance
All our employees have the right to freedom of association. This is supported by our internal policies and National Employment Standards as legislated within the Fair Work Act.
In FY24, 22% of our employees were covered by collective bargaining agreements. There were no strikes, lockouts or work stoppages of significance at our operations in FY24. Our Enterprise Agreement at Cowal, Evolution Mining (Cowal) Enterprise Agreement 2024, was renewed during FY24 with no disruption to the workforce. No operations have been identified as being at risk for incidents of child labour or having young workers exposed to hazardous work. We have strict proof of age requirements for our employees and contractors upon hiring that prevent anyone under the legal industrial working age from obtaining employment at any of our operation or exploration sites. Similarly, operations are not considered to be at risk for incidents of forced or compulsory labour as is referenced in our annual Modern Slavery Statement.
Non-discrimination
We are committed to providing a respectful workplace for our employees, one that is free of any form of harassment, discrimination, bullying or violence. This is a matter of priority for us, and we continue to make progress, reflecting the emphasis we place on this.
Evolution, throughout FY24, continued to work and recognise our positive duty under the December 2022 introduction of Respect@Work legislation. Our Board of Directors recognises our responsibility to manage our positive duty obligations to identify and eliminate issues of sexual harassment, sex-based discrimination and victimisation. Both the Evolution Board and Leadership Team have direct oversight over these matters to ensure we are upholding our values, policies, standards and Code of Conduct.
Our Code of Conduct and Inclusion and Diversity Policy prohibits discrimination, bullying or harassment of any kind or in any part of the employment relationship. In the event of a suspected breach of our Code of Conduct, or if concerns are raised, the People and Culture team determine the appropriate course of action to ensure we resolve and implement corrective actions aligned to our policies, relevant legislative requirements and our values. Evolution is committed to disclosing any breaches, including unacceptable conduct.
