Employee development
The value of talent
Our business will only be successful and sustainable in the future if we can attract and retain the best talents and the right skills.
We have a whole range of programmes and initiatives designed to develop the people we already have, and recruit the leaders of tomorrow's ArcelorMittal.
We put huge importance on developing the talent we already have, and give internal candidates priority whenever a new job vacancy arises. 13,000 people have used the internal JobMarketOnline website since it was launched in 2007, and it's also been instrumental in opening up international opportunities across the Group.
We've also set up a Group-wide Engineering and Technical Programme, which is designed to create a global pool of engineers and technical specialists. We aim to recruit and train up to 300 high achievers each year.
Performance management and leadership development
Our approach to performance management puts as much emphasis on how employees achieve their goals, as what they achieve. We want to encourage ways of working that support our values and create role models for our future success.
The Global Executive Development Programme, in particular, provides a systematic and transparent process for managing an individual's performance, strengths and development needs. It offers regular feedback and on-the-job coaching to help motivate people and accelerate their progress.
We also have a competency framework, which sets out the skills we need from tomorrow's leaders. These include change management, decision making, a focus on results, strategic thinking, teamwork, full awareness of our stakeholders, effective communication, and a commitment to learning and development. Having a single framework like this makes it easier to have consistency standards across the Group, and an objective method for assessing both abilities and potential.
We're backing this up with a new 'Speak Up' survey, which will help us measure how well we're combining competitiveness and human resources management. The survey is being piloted in Kazakhstan and the Ukraine, before being rolled out globally.
Diversity
Few companies are as genuinely international as ArcelorMittal. We operate in over 60 countries, and employ almost as many nationalities. There are eight different nationalities on the Board alone.
We work hard to make our Code of Business Conduct a practical reality, by treating everyone with equal fairness regardless of their race, colour, sex, age, religion, ethnic or national origin, or disability. As part of this we're in the process of developing internal diversity programmes as part of our commitment to the UN Global Compact.
ArcelorMittal University
Our corporate university offers a detailed and comprehensive set of training programmes. It provides everything from English language teaching to professional engineering qualifications.
During 2008, the ArcelorMittal University invested just under $20 million in training, and had 17,751 participants from 23 countries in its academies and induction programmes. This represents almost 40,000 training days throughout the year
We have also set up a Learning Council, which will focus on creating Group-wide training and development policies, and learning from our extensive experience at local level. The Council includes the head of ArcelorMittal University and ten development experts from across the Group.
We also have strong regional programmes, including virtual classrooms in South Africa, which can offer real-time and video training to different sites across the country simultaneously. We're exploring how we can use new technology like this in our proposed mining academy, since it's an excellent way of sharing best practice from established sites to new operations in places like Senegal and Liberia.