Social
In line with our purpose of 'Providing a Better Life', we work hard at making a positive and meaningful difference to the health, wellbeing and prosperity of our people and the communities with which we work.
Our approach
Social Pillars
Management standards
Home without harm
Supply chain
Customer relations
Community
People and development
ESG KPIs
We achieve this through strong stakeholder engagement and consultation, maximising local employment opportunities and being proactive with social support and investment initiatives.
We have a strong social procurement programme and a number of long-term partnerships with the communities within which we operate.
Safety and health
We give effect to our commitment to the safety and care of our people and the communities we work in by taking reasonable and practical steps to minimise direct or indirect potential for harm.
Health remains a core enabler of the safety culture embedded across the workplace. Our employee wellness programmes along with our appointed external providers of comprehensive preventive care and counselling services, support our approach to health management.
The safety and health of our employees, contractors and other stakeholders at our workplaces is fundamental to the effective management and sustainability of our business. The Group identifies safety and health risks in its projects and work processes and implements measures to reduce these risks and achieve continuous improvement in safety and health outcomes. Consistent leadership engagement with employees, collaboration and accountability for safety and health enable our journey towards achieving our vision of “home without harm everyone every day”.
People and development
Investment in learning and development is a primary focus of the business as we seek to maintain and grow our position as an "employer of choice" and develop our current and future talent pipeline at every level, in line with our strategic growth ambitions.
As we transition into an international infrastructure, resources and mining Group, our people management supports the strategy by further strengthening leadership teams, improving performance, standards and governance, and driving diversity and inclusion in the core businesses, Moolmans and McConnell Dowell.
Focus areas:
Performance of core business
Ensure employees achieve their objectives through ongoing performance management and specific leadership development programmes for key current and future leaders.
- Ongoing executive group and individual coaching
- Executive team alignment in terms of functional accountabilities
- Performance contracts and KPIs in place for all site-based management
Embedding Aveng values, vision and purpose
Maintain focus on Aveng values. Entrench culture of high performance, accountability and teamwork cascaded to the lowest levels of the organisation.
- Performance, culture and values strategy setting
- Culture and engagement survey with employees across all sites
- Community engagement
- Safety mindset surveys conducted across operational sites
Leadership capability development
Continue developing existing leaders through succession planning, interventions and the renewal of senior and middle management leadership development programme.
- Senior, middle and supervisory development programmes aligned to mission-critical roles
- Various training and development programmes:
- Apprenticeship programme to develop future artisan requirements
- Graduate development programme
- Community operator development programme
- Women in Mining programme
- Operator development programme
Retention of critical talent including Reward and Recognition schemes
Ensure retention of critical talent in key positions. Maintain focus on improved business performance. Enhance incentivisation of employees.
- Individuals developed for future roles in the organisation
- Short-term and long-term incentive programmes
- Performance and target setting with individual development plans
- A revised site-based bonus scheme implemented
- Review of site-based employees’ conditions of employment
- Wage employee increases above minimum agreed Council rates
- A review of wage employee living conditions
Quality
Our commitment to quality starts with visible leadership throughout the business, focused on motivating and leading our people to deliver quality outcomes on all our projects.
As part of our ISO 9001, ISO 45001 and ISO14001 certified integrated management system, we set measurable objectives and targets for quality performance and ensure all our employees have the knowledge, training and competence to deliver the outcomes promised to our customers.
We plan and execute our work to minimise risk and non-conformances; and we provide adequate monitoring and measurement resources to verify the conformity of product and services and the effectiveness of our quality management system processes.
Our focus on continuous improvement helps us identify opportunities to improve and to prevent recurrence of non-conformities.
Diversity and inclusion
Diversity and inclusion across Aveng includes the transformation imperatives of our South African operations and a multi-country diversity and inclusivity programme across McConnell Dowell.
ESG in action
Embedding a safety culture – South Africa
Moolmans intervened in response to an employee survey in 2021. Interventions focused on proactive identification of potential risks relating to fire, tyre care and maintenance, and included fatigue monitoring, change management (especially for trackless mobile machine operations and pit design) and increased equipment maintenance.
Industry-leading "Integrated Approach to Wellness" programme
Our Mordialloc Freeway project was selected to pilot a WorkSafe Victoria’s mental health improvement programme called "Integrated Approach to Wellness". This was an industry-first programme specifically designed to promote positive mental health and prevent mental illness.
In 2018, an industry-wide survey and research report written by Professors Luke Downey and Con Stough shone a spotlight directly on the psychological impact of workplace stress and work-related factors on the white-collar population of the infrastructure construction industry. The report showed evidence that levels of depression, anxiety and stress exceeded Australian population norms by 37% and were twice that of comparison industries.
The research results motivated further discussions between Lysander, Professor Luke Downey from Swinburne University and Grant Fuller from McConnell Dowell, who joined together to create a consortium. The consortium was the successful fund recipient of WorkSafe Victoria’s WorkWell Mental Health Improvement Fund, supporting WorkWell’s strategic goal of making safe and mentally healthy environments, so employees thrive and the risk of work-related psychological harm or mental injury is reduced.
The result was “Integrated Approach to Wellness” – a 12-month facilitated pilot programme undertaken on the Mordialloc Freeway Project.
Over 12 months, the Australian-first programme recorded between 34% and 60% improvement across the five categories measured – work/life balance, burnout, depression, anxiety, and stress.
The programme was so successful that it is being rolled out across the industry and has seen changes to our customer’s (Major Road Projects Victoria) contract documents to introduce measures to ensure the results are replicated.
Aveng is a Level 4 BBBEE contributor
We consistently review our transformation performance outcomes against the belief that transformation should not be measured by the achievement of targets on the scorecard, but rather by the greater economic and social impact that the Group can achieve.
Female community operator training programme – Gamsberg South Africa
Our Moolmans team at the Gamsberg operations identified 54 female trainees from the surrounding communities within which we operate. These incumbents are being trained as dump truck operators.
Empowering people impacted by disability
On the Echuca Moama Bridge Project we formed a partnership with Vivid Disability Services, a regionally based not-for-profit Australian Disability Enterprise, which empowers local people impacted by disabilities. They provide work crews to companies through their mentored and supported employment services.
Vivid’s Work Crews provided the project with ongoing site maintenance and office, window and vehicle cleaning services. The Vivid crew completed over 25 000 hours on the project, with up to 20 people involved in its site operations over 24 months.
The project team also collaborated with Bendigo Kangan Institute (BKI) TAFE to provide formal training qualifications for 10 of the Vivid supported employees at BKI’s Echuca Campus. This educational pathway aligns with Vivid’s objectives of providing future employment pathways for their supported employees.
The employees commenced their studies in September 2020 and graduated in January 2022. This was the first time the graduates had followed a vocational education pathway and achieved a formal, nationally recognised qualification. During their studies, they attended BKI’s Echuca campus one morning a week, while continuing to work in a supported environment at the project site. At BKI, they experienced both virtual and face-to-face classroom learning and a real-time classroom environment aided by workbooks, with Vivid support workers in attendance.
Of the 10 Vivid graduates, three are now in mainstream permanent part-time employment, due to their increased personal confidence and work capacity.
