People and Culture
One of the biggest challenges we face as an industry is attracting and retaining talented people. We want working at Evolution to be the highlight of our people’s career and we believe we have the right group of people with a strong sense of purpose who are focused on the continued delivery of our strategy.
Our Approach
Evolution has a values-based culture with clear expectations around behaviours, that aims to create an environment where our people are informed, engaged and have strong working relationships with their Leaders and work colleagues.
Aligned to this, we believe that developing our people is vital to our success as a business and to ensuring our people’s time at Evolution is a highlight of their career.
As part of our people strategy we focus on growing outstanding leaders, building capability across the business and driving an inclusive culture that leverages our diversity and optimises workforce performance. We aim to create safe work environments that promote dignity, respect and wellbeing, in which the contributions of all employees are recognised and valued.
We ensure our approach to remuneration is competitive and supportive of delivering quality outcomes, whilst recognising the significant efforts of our people.
Our Performance
As of 30 June 2021, Evolution employed 1,977 Permanent, Fixed Term and Casual employees, compared to 1,448 in FY20. The acquisition of the Red Lake operation and Battle North Gold added 753 employees to our workforce. 87% of our employees chose to stay with Evolution which is a strong result given a competitive market.
Indigenous Participation
The focus remains on growing a pipeline of Indigenous candidates, and proactively identifying experienced external talent with the skillsets needed by the organisation. Our directly employed Indigenous workforce increased from 127 to 139 people, representing 7% of our workforce.
“Our ability to maximise the value of our portfolio is underpinned by an engaged and enabled workforce. An inclusive culture that leverages diversity and values employee wellbeing is key to our success”
Paul Eagle, VP People and Culture
Diversity and Inclusion
Evolution is passionate about creating a workplace that’s inclusive and supportive; a place where everyone can truly be themselves. A diverse and inclusive company is a stronger, more successful company. Improved diversity yields many benefits, including positive impacts on organisational culture and reputation, employee attraction and retention, as well as enhanced stakeholder relationships and business outcomes.
We continue to support a flexible and inclusive working environment that assists employees to balance their responsibilities between work and home. We report annually on the gender mix within our workforce via our Workplace Gender Equality Public Report.
Gender Mix Participation
Female representation in the workforce increased from 16.5% in FY20 to 20% in FY21. In addition, 44% of the Graduate Development Program hires in FY21 were females.
Indigenous participation
The focus remains on growing a pipeline of Indigenous candidates, and proactively identifying experienced external talent with the skillsets needed by the organisation. Our directly employed Indigenous workforce currently represents 7% of our workforce.
Employee Engagement
Monthly voluntary employee engagement surveys are conducted, providing people with an opportunity to let their leaders and team members know what is important to them.
During FY21, an average of 54% of our team members responded to the survey (compared to 53% in FY20). The results demonstrated that we successfully sustained or improved over the period against our key culture measures, which are aligned to our values.
We received a combined staff engagement score of 78, which is a strong result, consistent with FY20. In FY21 questions were added on wellbeing (physical, social and psychological), culture (supportive workplace culture) and belonging (sense of belonging as part of their workplace).
These questions scored consistently in the 73 – 79 range. We were pleased that engagement was consistently high despite the COVID-19 crisis.
Combined Score Average: 78
Talent Attraction and Retention
Talented people are core to our business, and we are always keen to identify, attract and retain people who are highly skilled, with strong alignment to our values.
In FY21, some enhancements included: streamlining the recruitment process; implementing new sourcing and selection tools; and consolidating the reporting of recruitment statistics through enhanced recruitment dashboards. Social media channels, eg LinkedIn and Facebook, are used to showcase diversity through employee story sharing, community initiatives and local activities. Our partnerships with Work180, JT Academy, Gold Industry Group and other local and community associations help us deliver targeted talent attraction messaging to our candidate market.
As highlighted above, strong levels of retention have been maintained across our workforce. This is a reflection of the targeted work undertaken to attract quality people to the business and the provision of an environment where they want to stay, thrive and do their best work.
As part of our commitment to a diverse workforce, we increased our engagement with, and employment pathways for, Indigenous People across Australia and Canada. Evolution strives to continue to develop and grow our employees by engaging and investing in their futures through a variety of internal and external offerings. We encourage our people to take up opportunities for development that complement their individual needs, short and long-term career goals and business requirements. We focus on developing people both personally and professionally, which enables the Company to build organisational capability and capacity.
Training and Education
Extensive training is provided to increase or improveskills that mitigate the risk of health and safety incidents,meet compliance requirements, and increase employees’ understanding of their responsibilities towards the environment.
All staff participate in annual performance and career development reviews covering their on-the-job performance, our values and training and development goals.
In FY21 our continued focus on development, leadership and retention was measured through:
- 82% of people fulfilling their stated development goals
- Improved continuity in our leadership pipeline effectively retaining and attracting top talent in our management group
- Enrolment and participation of 283 of our leaders in development programs despite COVID-19
- 42% of our vacant roles appointed through succession and internal candidates
- Growth in our pool of employees identified as “ready now succession” to 31% against a target of 20%
- Delivery of a total of 116,092 training hours in FY21: an average of 59 hours per employee
Graduate Program
Our Graduate Program has been running since 2013. We are delivering diversity and equality in our graduate talent pipeline supported by a robust and engaging recruitment and selection process.
A sixth cohort of new graduates were welcomed to the business in January 2021. Across their two-year journey, the graduates are supported
and encouraged to flourish in both their personal and professional development through formal workshops and webinars, customised development assessments and learning, mentoring, exposure to the Senior Leadership Team, and a dedicated development guide.
Recognising and rewarding our people
We have built a culture where our team members ‘Act Like an Owner’ (ALO) by treating Evolution as if it is their own business.
In FY21, 231 ALO initiatives were generated that delivered significant value for our business through change, improved safety, innovation, cost reductions and efficiency gains.
In addition to this, Evolution is in its seventh year of offering all eligible Australian based employees A$1,000 worth of Evolution shares, through the employee share offering program. Therefore, they can truly be owners of our business.
Evolution undertakes an annual pay review and bonus process, aimed at recognising and rewarding employee outcomes aligned to organisational goals as well as the efforts of our people throughout the year.
