Securing our future

Managing our people effectively and respectfully

Our employees sit at the heart of our efforts to become the global leader in sustainable gold mining – and are fundamental to our bottom line. If we are to achieve our Goal of 5 million ounces of quality gold production by 2015, we need a well-trained, motivated and stable workforce.

This is particularly important given current competition for global mining talent. In this context, we are committed to ensuring that we stay an employer of choice within the mining sector – whether for technical experts, managers or operational personnel. As part of this commitment, we aim to provide a constructive and supportive working environment in which our employees can develop and excel to our mutual benefit. We also aim to ensure that our employees are properly rewarded for their efforts through competitive remuneration and benefit packages.

We endeavour to help build local capacity and broaden the pool of skills where we operate by employing and developing local staff at all levels of the business. This approach is in line with our efforts to empower historically disadvantaged individuals within our workforce in South Africa. By doing so, we aim to make it more representative of the demographics of the country, and to promote the employment of nationals in all the regions in which we operate.

Promoting employee health, wellbeing and productivity

The health of our workers is vitally important to the ongoing success of our company. In many senses, health poses as much of a legal, operational and reputational risk as our safety performance – albeit over a longer time scale. As a result, we go beyond an attitude of ‘compliance’ based on traditional measures of occupational health and communicable disease, and instead take a more holistic view of worker wellbeing.

As part of this approach, we believe that our responsibility towards our employees extends beyond their formal working hours, to also cover the rest of their 24 hour day. Pioneered in South Africa, we spent C2010 embedding our innovative and sector-leading 24 Hours in the Life of a Gold Fields Employee programme across the company. This includes initiatives around occupational health and safety, healthcare, living conditions, nutrition, education and sport and recreation.

Through this approach, we aim to ensure that we have a fit and motivated workforce that will carry us towards our production Goal of 5 million quality gold ounces by 2015.

Maintaining our social licence to operate

Gold Fields ultimately requires the support and cooperation of its host governments and local communities in order to be able to operate effectively. Given the long-term nature of many of our operations, it remains important that we demonstrate clear social and economic benefits to the people amongst whom we work in order to:

• Maintain a productive operating environment
• Access opportunities for future expansion and licences
• Demonstrate that we are living our Values, including our commitment to act with responsibility

Business ethics

Our Values commit us to the implementation of the highest ethical standards – both in our own actions and in the promotion of ethical practices in our external environment. We aim to go beyond legal compliance so that we can continue to enjoy the full and unreserved confidence of our shareholders, business partners and other stakeholders. Our approach enhances our share value, our reputation and our ability to secure new licences. It also ensures we maximise the development impact of the economic contributions we make in our host countries – and thus our social licence to operate.