Project nominated for the Excellence in sustainability Steelie Award 2020
USIMINAS is a company tha has been traditionally very highly dominated by men. The company has 13,000 employees, with an average ratio of 1 woman for every 9 men. A survey shows that companies with greater gender diversity in corporate positions have a 21% chance of presenting results above the market average. In the case of ethnic and cultural diversity, the figure rises to 33%.
The conversations on diversity at USIMINAS were started in 2018 by a group of employees who were interested in the subject. This led to the launch of the USIMINAS Diversity Progamme in January 2019, which later became the Diversity and Inclusion Progamme in October 2019. With the statement of the USIMINAS CEO, Sergio Leite, “we want to be a company of happy people.” The company intends to achieve this goal by becoming a more diverse and inclusive company each day. With the support of the management, the Diversity Committee was formed, composed of 18 officers and 18 appointed employees. It
is the driving force of the diversity actions throughout the company.
The Diversity and Inclusion Programme has five pillars; gender equality, generations, LGBTI, race and ethnicity, and persons with disability. Each pillar has an affinity group and an assigned sponsor from the top management, including the CEO.
As part of the programme, USIMINAS’ First Women’s Leadership workshop was held in May 2019, discussing how women can strengthen themselves and gain space in the corporate environment. An internal and external campaign was created in July 2019 to collect the CVs of people with disabilities with the motto, “we want everyone in our team!”
A training workshop on unconscious bias was organised by the HR department to bring the middle managers closer to the topic.
A communications team was also formed, which consisted of human resources personnel and the representatives of the 5 groups. It is responsible for approving all the materials and communications created, in addition to exchanging experiences on the subject.
The company is currently treading this path and would like to tell the industry what that journey has been like.