Company has gems in the workforce
THREE employees from GEMCO’s operation on Groote Eylandt were recognised at the Women in Resources Northern Territory Awards for their contribution to gender diversity at South32.
Brooke Naughton, Natalie Bruce and Andrew Bigg were recognised for their work in breaking down barriers for women and building a workplace which reflected broader communities.
The Exceptional Young Woman in Resources award went to Brooke Naughton from the Site Services team.
Ms Naughton manages a team of eight people across two remote mine sites and mentors several women.
With a personal passion for helping disadvantaged young people, she initiated, developed and ran an indigenous Work Experience Program for local youth on Groote Eylandt.
Her manager, Natalie Bruce, received the Exceptional Woman in Resources Award.
Ms Bruce is responsible for site services for more than 1500 employees across South32’s Northern Territory and Queensland mine sites including catering, cleaning, village maintenance, training, emergency services and aviation operations.
When she moved to Groote Eylandt, Ms Bruce, also a fulltime working mum, quickly realised that the lack of after school care and the impending closure of the day care service would make it hard for working mothers.
Her advocacy resulted in the creation of the Alyangula Outside Hours School Care and she also took on the role of president of the Groote Eylandt Day Care Centre Committee, transforming it into a viable service and lobbying GEMCO to provide $3.2m for a new facility. Ms Bruce and Ms Naughton also tied for the overall Woman in Resources Award. GEMCO operations manager mining Andrew Bigg was named Gender Diversity Champion.
Andrew’s approach to encouraging more women into the mining sector was to remove barriers that prevented women from working on-site, with a focus on practical actions such as providing suitable facilities.
His efforts contributed to an increase in women working in his direct leadership team, growing from nil to 25 per cent in just two years, and the number of female supervisors has increased to 23 per cent.
It was a successful night for South32 with six finalists in the awards from 10 nominations, highlighting the strong talents of their people and their commitment to building a more inclusive workplace.