In 2019, Vale established a commitment to value diversity and promote inclusion by approving a global diversity strategy. This has four drivers: the promotion of a safe environment and respect for each person’s singularities; ensuring transparent and fair processes free of prejudice in hiring, assessing, promoting and involving a diversified labor force; not tolerating any type of harassment or prejudice; and stimulating debate and expanding awareness about diversity.

In this respect, Vale adopted the target of doubling the number of women working in the company by 2030, from 13% to 26%, and of increasing female leadership, from 12% to 20%. This commitment is aligned with our Global Diversity and Inclusion Policy, Global Human Rights Policy and our Code of Conduct.

We recognize we are at the beginning of a long journey. Our focus is on creating conditions and opportunities that will enable all talents to realize their full potential and contribute towards the achievement of company strategy, driving results for all stakeholders. The condition for this is the establishment of a relationship of respect and inclusion, anchored in open and transparent dialogue, elements which are also indispensable for the construction of psychologically health environments and the sustainable development of our businesses.

It is important for us to understand our culture, the nature of our people and our stage of learning in order to make robust progress. This has happened with the gender and LGBTIA+ agendas and, more recently, in the ethnic-racial and local talent areas.

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion report aims to increase transparency about how we are performing, objectively presenting our advances, challenges and opportunities in this long journey.

Access the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report

For further information:

• Diversity and Inclusion Policy
• Guide to Human Rights
• Human Rights Policy
• Code of Conduct

Some initiatives

We recognize that there are gaps and that we have a long way to go in promoting equality and effectively practicing inclusion.

We have implemented diverse structural measures that have contributed to the evolution of the company’s situation.

Below there is an overview of the initiatives – other points will be addressed in the course of this channel:

Gender equality

In 2019, Vale established the target of doubling the number of women in its work force from 13% to 26% by 2030.

In 2020, we reached the mark of 16.3% women in the work force on a global basis. We ended the year with 11,443 female employees, which corresponded to a 26% increase over 2019, when we had 9,050 women in the company.

We have reached 15.9% of women in senior management positions. In 2019, women represented 12.4% of senior managers in the company (executive managers, directors, executive directors).

Why 26%?

To transform Vale into one of the safest and most reliable companies in the mining sector worldwide and to promote full reparation in Brumadinho, Vale remains committed to transforming its culture. This process seeks to promote culture as a facilitator of strategy, influencing and modeling systems, integrating initiatives, as well as positioning the company’s leaders as drivers of change.

The main behaviors for the organization were defined based on the company’s essential values:

• obsession with safety and risk management;
• open and transparent dialogue;
• empowerment with accountability;
• responsibility for the whole;
• active listening and engagement with society.

A cultural diagnosis was undertaken in 2020 and indicated the need to build a culture of joint learning, with humility, discipline, a sense of the collective and, most importantly, a feeling of chronic discomfort in relation to safety. At this moment, the behaviors are being scaled up, with the measurement of advances.

Vale’s ambitions for the next five years have been defined within this context:

• to be a large company recognized by society as a benchmark in safety;
• the best and most reliable operator; 
• oriented to talent;
• leader in low carbon mining; and
• a benchmark in creating and sharing value.

Five levers are worthy of note in this construction: Safety, the Vale Production System (VPS), People, Innovation and ESG.

An integrated plan is driving the initiatives related to comprehension of the company’s organizational culture and behaviors, including leadership development and the review of organizational processes and systems. The cultural elements have also been integrated into the Vale management model - VPS. Indicators will measure the advances in strategic aspects and will permit the monitoring of the process over the coming years.

Leaders’ Forum

Held in 2019 as a space oriented to the development of Vale leadership, the Leaders’ Forum marked the company’s commitment to propagating the practice of the expected behaviors and to engaging everyone in the cultural evolution journey. In 2020, two meetings marked the continuity of the cultural transformation by means of collective learning.

The following actions stemmed from these meetings:

• 5 culture workshops with the Board of Executive Directors and focus on the cultural evolution in 2019 and monthly meetings complemented by individual coaching in 2020;
• 1 workshop with the leadership teams in Iron Minerals and Global Business Support;
• 6 meetings with the leverage (systems) leaders, with the objective of mapping the functional initiatives from a cultural perspective in 2019 and; coaching with the leverage leaders and sponsors of the Board of Executive Directors to work on the organizational systems in 2020;
• 2 cultural diagnoses that provided a quantitative and qualitative mapping of the organizational culture and involved the participation of more than 500 employees (at all levels);
• 3 workshops with the Board of Directors and interviews with all the members;
• 4 workshops to train approximately 60 executives with a focus on culture;
• 2 workshops on leadership at times of crisis and the conscious impact on culture with senior management at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Global launch of the Impact program for management level, with a focus on key behaviors – by the end of 2020, around 1,300 managers had participated in this development journey. In 2020, the version of the program for supervisors was also launched, with around 200 participations.
• Engagement of 200 executives in the theme cultural evolution in 2019 and expansion of the awareness of the role of leaders as role models for behavior in the cultural transformation through the curatorship of relevant contents in 2020;
• 360º assessments focused on living the behaviors conducted with approximately 60 executives.
• Implementation of pilots of the business transformation plan integrating culture and the management model (VPS) in 4 operational sites in Brazil with the participation of around 100 leaders;
• Formation of a global network of change influencers, with 40 catalyzers selected to influence and disseminate the key behaviors; and more than 50 HR leaders prepared to exercise the role of influencer and coach;
• Onboarding of suppliers and key stakeholders, focused on consistency, alignment of concepts, methodology, language and connections with Culture;
• Development of the Vale Purpose through engagement, listening and co-construction involving more than 50 executives and the participation of the Board of Directors and the Board of Executive Officers;

Performance

The Vale Career and Succession process is aimed at creating a culture based on merit, development and mentoring, with transparency and ongoing dialogue, generating value for Vale’s people and for its businesses. The process is aimed at (a) assessing the deliveries executed and how they are underpinned by the main expected behaviors, (b) assessing people’s competencies and (c) identifying employees’ potential and orientating their development and their capacity to lead their own career paths.

At the same time, development and qualification guide Vale’s educational strategy by means of a portfolio of training courses and assessments that reinforce the competencies that the employees need to work in the company. The internal and external recruitment model has been intentionally reformulated to drive greater adherence to the cultural goals and the focus on diversity.

The performance review process for Vale employees is based on the key behaviors defined for all the company’s leaders and is intended to reinforce the pursuit of better performance, recognition of merit, as well as stimulating the cultural transformation desired by Vale.

Regarding the process itself, in addition to performing a self-assessment and being assessed by their immediate manager, employees may request feedback from other employees, via system, to better understand their opportunities for development. The assessments are also discussed by a committee comprising the immediate superior and his/her peers. The objective is to ensure weighting of the performance of the employees compared with the other appraisees in pursuit of greater balance in terms of merit.

The reviews impact the annual bonus of the executives, their eligibility for the long-term incentive program, as well as merit increases in their fixed remuneration. It is worthy of note that development measures are also based on the employees’ performance and there are incentives for ongoing feedback throughout the year and not just during the annual performance review.

The combination of the conducive environment and the management model is a powerful tool for driving cultural change. For this reason, the implementation of the revised management model has been integrated into the movement of cultural awareness for leaders with a view to accelerating the connection between the aspirations and the impact on the daily routines of the operations.

Training

By means of its Corporate University –Valer, Vale has developed a portfolio of training courses and development measures for its diverse audiences. The focuses include technical, management and leadership skills, as well as cross-cutting topics that are key to company strategy, such as safety, the VPS management model, risk management and sustainability.

In response to the challenges posed by the pandemic, with the migration of a large part of our work force to remote working, we managed to expand our digital learning platform, Valer Digital, to more than 30,000 employees globally.

An example of the speed of adaption to the new situation was the organization of the Annual Meeting of Specialists and Operational Improvement. The format was 100% virtual, with more than 8,000 employee accesses over a two-day period, with programming that included presentations of projects, talks, an exhibition fair and a great deal of networking, constituting an incredibly immersive experience for our employees worldwide.

In 2020, we maintained our focus on technical specialization for engineers and geologists, by means of postgraduate and master’s programs adapted to a virtual format. We maintained our commitment to the development of the 131 young talents in our 2020 Global Trainee Program, guaranteeing the ongoing active management of our leadership pipeline. The whole program had been designed before the pandemic and was revised and adapted to the virtual format.

What would be considered an unfavorable context for learning ended up opening new paths that reinforced mobility, networked learning, diversification of formats and the proactive stance of our employees in pursuit of self-development.

Succession

Succession planning measures the organization’s capacity to provide opportunities for people demonstrating superior performance over time, to develop behaviors aligned with the desired culture, to constantly stimulate high performance, to foster the expansion of skills and to unlock individual potential, ensuring the future success of the business.

In this respect, in November 2019 we established the Global Talent Review to identify and develop successors, not only for positions on the Board of Executive Officers, but also for critical leadership positions, with a focus on generating future value for the business.

In 2020, we established that, on average, 30% of the company’s critical positions should have options of successors in the short, medium and long-terms. The purpose was also to foster the oxygenation of talents between the businesses and promote gender diversity. We exceeded this target, reaching an average of 50% of positions meeting these criteria.

Attracting Talents

As part of Vale’s cultural transformation, we want to attract and retain the best professionals, aligned with our purpose and our culture and to be recognized as a talent-oriented organization. In 2020, the concept of strategic recruitment, aligned with the Vale Production System, was implanted throughout Brazil. This focuses on the candidate’s experience and uses artificial intelligence to ensure a more effective search for suitable profiles. Furthermore, diversity is a key pillar in the company’s talent attraction and selection strategy. In 2021, we are seeking to stabilize these practices in Brazil and initiate global expansion, starting with Canada.

We included the elaboration of an Employer Brand Value Proposition to reinforce the qualities of the organizational culture and more attractive work experiences for employees and candidates. The EVP provides the main attributes and topics that sustain all the employer brand activities and communications. It is the basis for the underlying content to be transformed into messages and a communication strategy to bring the culture to life and to connect different groups of candidates.

Relationship with unions

Vale maintains good relations with unions worldwide, seeking to resolve any potential conflicts by means of ongoing meetings with representatives of these associations.

Worthy of note is the fact that from 2011 to 2020 there were no strikes or stoppages, in accordance with the terms of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) – which defines as a “strike” or “stoppage” movements lasting longer than 7 days.

Since 2005, company employees elect the effective members of the Administration Board and their respective alternates by direct vote. The elections are conducted jointly by the company and the unions.

Company labor relations representatives at different levels meet union representatives weekly to discuss routine questions and reinforce mutual dialogue.

A total of 97% of the labor force in the direct operations are covered by collective agreements.