Recruiting women in mining

06/09/2017

In FY17 Downer launched a recruitment campaign aimed at increasing the number of female employees in our Mining sector.

Clare Hudson, Group Manager, Recruitment at Downer, said: “Downer is committed to increasing the number of female employees in our Mining sector. We are leading with a two-pronged approach; designating roles to females only and launching female-centred advertising templates.”

However, beyond the highly targeted recruitment advertising campaigns, Clare explains there are some practicalities that have also been addressed.

“One of the key challenges we face is that females have long been under-represented in the industry, making it difficult for us to find women with specific mining experience. Therefore we’ve also expanded our job criteria to include transferrable skills and experience, from any industry.”

Before launching the female-focused campaign Clare said all legal obligations were explored. “An organisation is permitted to implement strategies aimed at addressing a minority imbalance or the disadvantage of a minority group in all States across Australia (with NSW requiring additional steps to obtain an exemption from the anti-discrimination laws). Driving female equality in the workforce is hot on the national agenda and the law is shaped to support this. Downer is proud to be taking a lead on the issue.”