<>Sustainability Report 2022

Increasing diversity, equity and inclusion

AngloGold Ashanti has a global footprint of operations and projects across nine countries, making it a vibrant and diverse employer. As an organisation, we endeavour to ensure societies in our global footprint are properly represented in our employee base.

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) is more than simply a collection of policies, programmes, or headcounts. Equitable employers outpace their competitors by respecting the unique needs, perspectives and potential of all their team members. As a result, diverse and inclusive workplaces earn deeper trust and more commitment from their employees.

Our commitment

We aim to create, nurture and support a diverse and inclusive workforce. Respect for all ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, cultures and religious beliefs is at the core of our corporate culture and is vital to ensuring an equitable workplace.

We comply with local legislation and Company-specific DE&I policies and practices. We follow change management practices to address assumptions and unconscious bias, and performance incentives are structured to drive and support the right behaviours.

Increasing the proportion of women in leadership roles and in talent pipeline continues to be a focus, and we have set a target of 25% female representation in senior leadership by 2025. Targets have also been set for recruitment, talent management and succession planning. See more in People engagement and development.

Our approach

Our approach to DE&I is aligned with the UN SDGs and UNGC. We were one of the first signatories to the UNGC’s Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPS) and participated in the Target Gender Equality Programme. The adoption of these principles strengthen our contribution to SDG5, which calls for equal female representation, participation, and leadership in business globally. We also completed the WEPS Gender Gap Tool for two consecutive years in 2021 and 2022.

As a member of the ICMM, we are bound by its performance requirements, including updates to the Mining Principles aimed at improving Company performance on DE&I, announced in June 2022. These included additional actions aimed at eliminating all forms of harassment and unfair discrimination from the workplace, while setting proactive steps to achieve gender equity. AngloGold Ashanti has been actively involved in providing input into the proposed revisions and is committed to implementing and improving its performance on this critical issue.

AngloGold Ashanti’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Framework, which was launched in 2019, aligns the Group’s objectives to foster the empowerment of all staff, irrespective of race, gender, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. It acts as a guide in the application of the diversity and inclusion principles across AngloGold Ashanti operations. The framework is supported by our Diversity and Inclusion Policy, our Global Transformation Policy and our Gender and Empowerment of Women Policy.

Leadership

Properly integrating DE&I into our business depends on the commitment of our leadership team, which in turn is overseen by our Board. Our Global Diversity and Inclusion Framework, which includes the role of the Board SES Committee in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, was approved by the Board in 2019. The SES Board Subcommittee sponsors our diversity and inclusion initiatives, with identified Executives championing DE&I.

Leadership teams have set DE&I targets and clearly defined priorities and actions for the next two to five years. In an effort to ensure that DE&I objectives are embedded in all processes, leadership teams are provided with implementation guidelines to assist in the roll-out of each of these priorities and are encouraged to identify and manage barriers that may impede progress.

The formal DE&I journey, in which inclusion gained more focus, began in 2018 with the development of a globally consistent approach to diversity as a business imperative and an enabler of our business strategy.

Our progress in 2022

In early 2022, we conducted an analysis of global gender data across job level, function and country. In South Africa, this work also looked at racial and gender representation as required by the Employment Equity Act.

Gender diversity was chosen as the lens through which to assess global diversity because it is a common diversity element across the countries where we operate, and is the focus of our Diversity and Inclusion Framework. This work was carried out to inform our DE&I strategy and is a step forward in using a data-driven approach.

Progressing gender diversity has been an intentional focus from 2021. Several interventions have been implemented and we continue to learn about what works and celebrate progress along our journey. Female representation at Board and Executive Management level is 30% and 38% respectively, placing the Company on par with, and in some instances above, competitors within the industry.

In 2022, there was a slight improvement in the representation of women in middle management and above from 17% in 2021 to 19% in 2022. In South Africa, the Company has achieved the country’s Historically Disadvantaged South Africans (HDSA) targets set for middle management (64%), junior management (71%) and semi-skilled employees (100%).

Representation of women

No. of womenNo. of men% of women
Board3*730
Executive management3*538
Employees1,80512,19013
  • Gillian Doran joined the Company on 1 January 2023 as an Executive Director

Systematic approach

We recognise that a more intentional, systematic approach is required to improve the diversity profile of the Company. In 2022, the Board SES Committee endorsed several strategies and interventions, including targets. Other interventions include:

  • Leveraging workforce movements to change the diversity profile
  • Talent mapping with a focus on female successors in technical functions and countries where under-representation is more pronounced. The external market will also be scanned for female and HDSA talent
  • Accelerated development programmes
  • Instituting DE&I committees in every country. Our analysis indicated that better gender representation is evident in countries where diversity committees are in place, for example, Ghana, Brazil, Australia and South Africa, so we plan to leverage best practice
  • Tracking of progress on a quarterly basis to give visibility to Executive Management and the Board

AngloGold Ashanti was listed in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) for a third consecutive time in 2023, scoring 69.28% overall. This constitutes an improvement from our 2022 score of 61% and places the Company above the average sector score of 56%. The GEI is a standardised reporting tool used globally to acquire comprehensive workplace gender data from public companies featured in Bloomberg’s ESG dataset. The universal criteria for participation in the GEI include publicly disclosing information on efforts to develop inclusive workplace policies, improving gender representation across all levels of the organisation, increasing opportunities for female leadership pipeline development, and enhancing the role and career paths for women.

Looking ahead

We remain resolute in the pursuit of our DE&I targets, and will continue to intentionally and systematically improve our diversity profile through:

  • Visible leadership, with each Executive member expected to communicate and actively own their DE&I goals of 21% female representation
  • Working towards a minimum of 50% female representation and HDSA (South Africa only) with DE&I a mandatory consideration when recruiting or promoting across all functional areas and business units
  • Ensuring at least 30% female representation and HDSA (South Africa only) should be mandatory for successors identified (preferably internal) for critical roles
  • Continuing to identify and eliminate barriers to inclusion, including harassment and discrimination, and the provision of basic amenities
  • Continuing education on diversity, equity and inclusion across the business globally

We remain resolute
in the pursuit of our DE&I targets, and will continue to intentionally and systematically improve our diversity profile.

2022 suite of reports

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