BHP’s tenth Indigenous Development Program (IDP) launched last week, with 20 talented Indigenous employees from across WAIO, Nickel West and Operations Services coming together in Perth, half of whom are female.

The intensive focuses on providing the skills and tools to drive careers, and opportunities for leadership exposure through mentoring, networking, and delivery of continuous improvement projects.

Brandon Craig, Asset President WAIO said the program has been designed to address barriers to progression.

“We’re building opportunities to access training, strategies for resilience, enhancing verbal and communication skills, and helping people broaden their professional networks, together with Indigenous cultural elements,” said Brandon.

“With females comprising 50 per cent of the group, the program is also a key enabler for BHP to meet its female leadership targets, address their under-representation in leadership roles and encourage Indigenous women to aim for leadership opportunities.”

“Our focus on creating employment, development and leadership pathways for Indigenous people is key to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.”

The program directly contributes towards achieving BHP’s global eight per cent Indigenous participation by 2025 with gender parity (15 per cent in WAIO), and Indigenous leadership representation of three per cent manager-level and above by 2028.

Since 2015 our IDP has supported 139 Indigenous employees, with 47 per cent transitioning into new roles and 19 per cent progressing to leadership roles.

BHP currently employs 636 Indigenous women, comprising 32.6 per cent of BHP’s Indigenous workforce.