a separate gender diversity analysis to the
global business.
“We wanted to have a recognised
external body review our Australian
diversity programs to provide us with a
diversity ‘health check’ and a road map to
achieve greater diversity outcomes in this
country,” Latham says.
“Without a real focus on attracting,
developing and retaining female
employees we knew we would miss out on
the large portion of the local talent pool.”
AMMA is the facilitator of the AWRA
Recognised program and executive
director Tara Diamond says the assessment
is designed to give resource employers
specific recommendations to benefit from
gender diversity and inclusion.
“Caterpillar Australia’s gold rating
across three areas shows leadership,
recognises the barriers to women’s
participation and is working to build an
organisation that thoroughly supports and
leverages gender diversity,” she says.
CHANGING ITS APPROACH
While retention of female employees is not
so much a challenge for Caterpillar, Latham
says the attraction of female candidates
has been an issue for some time.
“Traditionally, female candidate
participation in our graduate programs,
as well as specialty engineering and
product development, and production
and leadership roles has been below
published benchmarks,” he says.
“However, we are starting to achieve
greater levels of female participation
across the board and this is the result of
changing the way we have traditionally
attracted talent.
“For example we found it difficult
to recruit female talent to product and
service roles within our autonomous
mining trucks area. So our recruitment
team reviewed the language used in job
advertising to focus on inclusive skills
and attributes and ensure ads were more
appealing to women.
“Interaction with female graduates and
candidates at careers fairs is also very high
and the percentage of female candidates
applying for non-traditional roles has
increased dramatically.”
It often takes an objective view to
identify where problems in an organisation
exist, and Latham says the AWRA
assessment pointed to some room for
improvement at Caterpillar.
“Communication was one area where
our leadership team thought we were
doing well but the results were not
convincing. We learned that our successes
should be communicated more widely
and clearly,” he says.
“We have already come a long way in
addressing this issue. We have several
regular newsletters to better communicate
with employees via their preferred avenue.
“Similarly, we ensure that our diversity
and sustainability programs, outcomes
and achievements are shared and
celebrated. This can only result in better
performance and team engagement.”
Over the next five years, Caterpillar will
focus on further lifting female participation
across its engineering, product
development and leadership roles.
“We are purposefully and methodically
working through action plans to build on
our gold assessment and continue to lead
our industry,” Latham says.
“Providing our talented female employees
with the opportunity to participate in the
projects and programs that develop their
leadership skills will ensure future diversity
outcomes are protected.”
RP
Scott Latham
Caterpillar want more women behind
the innovation of its mining equipment
RESOURCE
PEOPLE
SUMMER 2014-15
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