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
Our success is underpinned by our people bringing their true individual selves to work, and living our values of Safety, Excellence, Accountability and Respect. We work hard to strengthen our culture of respect and transparency in communication and reporting, and
actively listen to our people to address their concerns.
Our focus is on attracting and retaining the best talent and providing a dynamic workplace that offers a range of experiences, career development opportunities, and an inclusive environment where all employees are treated with dignity 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 or other attributes. We are committed to respecting differences and enabling a diverse mix of people to work effectively together, by creating an inclusive environment where all people feel respected, connected, and can do their best work.
A range of policies are in place that outline the expected standards of behaviour and create the basis for an inclusive and diverse workforce, including a Code of Conduct, flexible working principles, Inclusion & Diversity Policy, and a range of employee support networks: Whistleblower policy, EAP and Workplace Contact Officers.
Our Performance
As of 30 June 2023, Evolution employed 2,729 Permanent, Fixed Term and Casual employees, compared to 2,689 at end FY22. 83% of employees chose to stay with Evolution which is a strong result in a competitive market.
Gender Mix Participation
Female representation in the workforce in FY23 was 18.4% (FY22: 19%) compared to the Australian industry average of 22% due to higher attrition rate of women versus men. The number of females in Senior Leadership positions increased to 14.3% in FY23 (FY22: 10%). Approximately 28% of the Graduate Development Program hires in the 2023 intake were females.
In FY23, Evolution announced gender workforce participation targets aligned to the Australian Mining Industry average. By the end of FY25, Evolution has committed to that 22% of the workforce will be female. Each operation will be developing and implementing targeted strategies within FY24 with attention to attraction, retention, and overcoming unconscious biases, to meet this target.
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. Indigenous people make up 6% of the Evolution workforce.
““Evolution has always focused on creating a positive and agile culture where our values underpin everything we do. We are equally committed to creating a fair, inclusive and diverse workplace that supports us in attracting and retaining talent”
Paul Eagle, VP People and Culture
Inclusion and Diversity
Management Approach
We recognise the benefits of having an inclusive and diverse workforce, where people’s diverse experiences, perspectives and backgrounds are valued and utilised. We aim to have everyone at Evolution 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 enabler as they drive business performance and success. It is our role to ensure the workforce feels equipped, engaged and motivated to succeed. We do this by providing a safe and healthy workplace, a supportive team, strong leadership, meaningful work and career and development pathways for those with appetite and ambition.
We believe in equal pay for work of equal value and continue to identify and address any gender pay gap issues. In the FY23 Remuneration Review, we analysed the remuneration of employees against their specific market data (Australia & Canada) addressing genderbased pay parity. We report annually to Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) and use the report and industry comparisons to look for improvements in policies and practices to address any gender pay disparities within Australia, with a 3% reduction in overall reported gender pay gap year on year in Australia.
Inclusion and Diversity Project
Inclusion and Diversity continues to be important at Evolution as it supports our values driven culture, the communities in which where we operate and our people to feel like they are included and belong at Evolution. We recognise inclusion drives more positive diversity, and
diverse backgrounds and thinking, respectful teamwork, innovative outcomes and stronger business results. In FY23, we:
- Implemented a Global Inclusion & Diversity Committee co-led by two senior leadership members and includes representatives across all sites. A focus for FY23 was understanding the structural barriers for females and other minorities across the organisation
- Refreshed our Inclusion and Diversity Policy reinforcing our commitments. It applies to all aspects of employment, including recruitment, training and development, remuneration and performance management
- Introduced an Inclusion metric through the ‘Your Voice’ engagement survey to understand our people’s perception of inclusion at Evolution. The result through the pilot was 64% favourable and 26% with a neutral response. The results give us an opportunity to lean into areas which need more support
- Implemented two education programs; Leading Inclusion for leaders and Inclusion Awareness for employees. 100% of leaders and 94% of all other employees completed the training
- Managers once removed held “Living our Values” conversations to check in on culture, values and Inclusion at Evolution with 100% of employees
- Conducted annual site audits of their inclusive practices, facilities and symbols
- Implemented a communications strategy to highlight the diversity of our workforce
- Investigated structural barriers for women and cultural minorities in Evolution, the outcomes of which will be implemented in FY24
- Launched two Flexible Working Playbooks and associated training supporting employee and leader conversations, aligned to our flexible working principles across Evolution
- 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 the Workplace Gender Equality Agency
Performance
During FY23, our female workforce decreased from 19% to 18.4% due to a higher attrition rate of women versus men. Employees identifying as Indigenous accounted for 6% of our workforce. The implementation of recommendations from investigations into structural barriers, the implementation of the ‘Inclusion’ and ‘Intent to Stay’ metrics in ‘Your Voice’, and associated drivers of inclusion, aim to support higher retention rates of females in FY24.
Refer to the ESG Performance Data document for more information about Evolution’s inclusion and diversity performance based on age, gender and Indigenous representation.
Employee Engagement
We recognise that an engaged and high performing workforce is essential for the success and growth of the business.
In FY23, we launched a more holistic listening strategy which will allow us to measure engagement and our people’s experience throughout the employee lifecycle using the Qualtrics platform (replacing Teamgage). The new tool enables benchmarking engagement externally against global, country and industry norms; and will be undertaken every 6 months. The engagement 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 employee
experience, employee engagement, intent to stay, manager effectiveness and inclusion. The insights to our culture will be valuable for us to proactively manage our people and their concerns across the organisation.
We piloted the engagement survey with two operations in April 2023 with a participation rate of 51%. The overall combined engagement score was 69 which is 6 points lower than the industry average. To address the valuable feedback from this survey and to drive higher participation rates, a communication and action planning strategy has been implemented with people leaders across both operations. A broader roll out across the organisation will take place in October 2023 and will provide overall company metrics and will be reported further in FY24.
Talent Attraction and Retention
Talented people are important to the business, and we always aim to identify, attract and retain people who are highly skilled, and strongly aligned with our values. We develop our people by engaging and investing in their futures through a variety of internal and external development offerings. We encourage people to take up opportunities for development that complement their individual needs, short and long-term career goals and aligned to business requirements. By developing our people personally and professionally, we build organisational capability and capacity.
In FY23, we undertook several initiatives to enhance employee attraction and recruitment and better position Evolution to achieve its ambitious growth plans over the next two to three years. Initiatives included:
- Launching and progressing an Employee Value Proposition project to uncover why people join and stay, the main drivers around their employee experience and the key channels and approaches we can leverage to source great talent
- Implementing a holistic listening strategy which allows us to learn through “Living our Values” conversations with our people, stay interviews, and using data from exit interviews and employee engagement surveys, to help inform engagement and retention initiatives
- Implemented Flexible Working Playbooks to support our people to have conversations formalising flexible work arrangements, allowing employees to work in ways that better suit their lifestyle while maintaining access to development and career progression
opportunities - Implemented a proactive sourcing model enhanced in engaging with and securing talent increasing the utilisation of technology and platforms such as LinkedIn and Work180 to further promote Evolution and specific opportunities
- Consolidated the reporting of recruitment statistics through enhanced recruitment dashboards
- We continue to review feedback from onboarding surveys to enhance our hiring and onboarding practices and experience. Social media channels, e.g., LinkedIn and Facebook, showcase our diversity through sharing employee stories, community initiatives and local activities. Partnerships with Work180, Gold Industry Group and other local and community associations helped deliver targeted talent attraction messaging to the candidate market.
Retention rate
Strong levels of retention have been maintained across the workforce in a highly contested and competitive market with 83% of people choosing to stay with Evolution in FY23 (FY22: 82%). 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 the 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 FY23, 76 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 ninth year of offering all eligible Australian 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 goals and values, and their wider efforts. In addition, we have a generous Long Term Incentive Program with a 3-year vesting period in which all Superintendents, Senior Professionals 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 FY23, the continued focus on development, leadership and retention was measured through:
- 80% of people fulfilling their stated development goals
- Continuity in our leadership pipeline effectively retaining and attracting top talent in the Management group
- 258 of our Leaders participating in dedicated leadership development training, five cohorts of our frontline Introduction to Leadership program, two cohorts of our GOLD mid-senior leadership program and two cohorts of our senior Leader as Coach program
- 100% of people leaders at the superintendent level and above participated in a multi-year Leading Inclusion program aimed at leading with an inclusive mindset and behaviours
- Delivery of a total of 167,308 training hours in FY23: an average of 61.5 hours per employee (compared to 47 in FY22)
The delivery and embedment of our refreshed Leadership Development suite of programs continued; all programs being underpinned by our Leadership Behaviours. 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 fundamentals of being an effective leader. The upgraded GOLD mid-senior development program was delivered, focused on building leaders who are values driven, resilient, agile, commercially minded, inclusive and delivery focused. The Leader as Coach program also continued to support coaching capability with senior leaders.
Graduate Program
Our award-winning Graduate program supports the growth and development of Evolution’s future diverse workforce, through recruiting great new talent, and building mobility in early careers since 2013. The two year program provides broad exposure across many locations 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 while making a valuable contribution to Evolution. 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.
Employee Relations
Our approach to employee relations focuses on direct, two-way engagement with employees, 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.
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 for employees affected by workplace changes. Where we are unable to redeploy employees, our redundancy and outplacement programs support employees with the transition.
We have a range of communication and support channels available to our employees, including the employee’s direct supervisor or manager, People and Culture representatives, regular team meetings at each operation and functions, the intranet, incident reporting, EAP,
Workplace Contact Officers, Mental Health First Aiders, informal channels through Management, and grievance mechanisms, which also include an independent 24/7 whistleblowing hotline.
Performance
All our employees have the right to freedom of association and are supported by internal policies in the Fair Work Information Statement.
In FY23, 25% of our employees were covered by collective bargaining agreements. There were no strikes, lockouts or work stoppages of significance at our operations in FY23.
No operations have been identified as being at risk for incidents of child labour or having young workers exposed to hazardous work. We have a 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
Through the Code of Conduct and Inclusion & Diversity Policy, we are committed to creating an environment where differences are respected, and the working environment is diverse and inclusive. We do not permit discrimination, bullying or harassment of any kind at
any level of Evolution or in any part of the employment relationship.
In the event that there is a suspected breach of our Code of Conduct, or if concerns are raised, particularly in relation to bullying or harassment, 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 breaches to acceptable conduct.
