Mining for Diversity
How Woodside Became a Champion for Diversity and Inclusion
An Inclusive Environment:
Management consulting firm McKinsey & Company found that companies with more diverse workforces perform better financially.
Aside from strong executive leadership, the organisation itself and people at all levels must foster an environment where diversity and inclusion thrives. Woodside has several key organisations that give visibility and credibility to different groups and allow people to bring their whole selves to work.
Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity outperform their competitors by 15% and those in the top quartile for ethnic diversity outperform their competitors by 35%. If you need to create a diverse solution or product, you need a diverse team and leadership and there are several key factors organisations must have in order to achieve this.
A Supportive and Engaged Executive Leadership Team: For diversity and equality in an organisation to flourish, executive support and commitment is critical. However, it should go beyond mere words to embodying and exemplifying inclusion strategies—and this is where Woodside succeeds. Duhe says that Woodside’s CEO, Peter Coleman walks the walk on everything, supporting gender equality and diversity initiatives, pushing for internal conversations about gender and recognising inbuilt biases within the system. Almost a decade ago, he recognised that Woodside’s graduate female intake sat at 16% and immediately challenged the recruitment side to improve their hiring rate. For the past three years, the intake has been 50-50 and the attrition rate has been roughly equal. Duhe herself is a firm believer in encouraging new and diverse talent within the organisation. Every time she makes a hiring or promotional decision, she makes sure she has a wide range of candidates to choose from. One of the most important things she asks herself is “am I falling into old stereotypes or behaviours?” and says it has been an ongoing journey to challenge her unconscious biases. She has a friendly competition with Megan O’Neill, Woodside's Chief Operations Officer, to be the first in the organisation to have a 50-50 male-female team and believes it would be a failure of the commercial and finance team if they lose.
CULTURAL TIMES | OCTOBER 2019
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Gender Equality Matters: Out of a 3 500+ workforce, around 1 200 people are now part of the Gender Equality Matters organisation, which advocates for gender equity and inclusion across Woodside. The organisation has four pillars; elevating role modelling, challenging norms, supporting the modern worker and dismantling barriers through advocacy.
Spectrum: Launched in 2016, Spectrum is Woodside’s company sponsored LGBTI+ groups, aimed at ensuring people feel comfortable and supported at work regardless of their sexuality, gender identity or gender expression. Not only does it advocate for inclusion within the Woodside head office, but members have personally taken the inclusion conversation to remote sites, international offices and the external community.
Reconciliation Community: In 2016, Woodside launched its 2016 – 2020 Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), directly employing 130 Indigenous employees and increasing the number of Indigenous tertiary scholarships. The Reconciliation Community has increased 60% in group membership and is dedicated to ensuring nonIndigenous employees both understand the bloody history of Australian colonisation and how to work together with Indigenous Australians in a more seamless way.
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