Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

Our employees are our greatest asset, and we regularly celebrate their rich and diverse cultures, traditions and histories. As we build upon our legacy of offering innovative sustainability solutions, we will continue to create and foster a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment where everyone can feel empowered to contribute their unique skills and talents; employees feel respected and valued; and everyone can contribute, advance on merit, and realize their career goals. 

Fostering Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Our sustainable business growth depends on developing and retaining a diverse workforce that reflects the ever-changing demographics of where we do business, who we do business with and the communities in which we operate and live. In alignment with our purpose narrative, Sims supports all employees and celebrates the differences they each bring to the workplace. Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion focuses on four key principles:

  • Foster a culture that shares a common set of values where difference is appreciated and accepted to support our business strategy
  • Leverage cultural competence and knowledge to inform and accelerate the pace of our strategies and approaches
  • Positively impact employee engagement through a strong focus on inclusion
  • Develop and enhance our relationships in the external marketplace

Goals and Achievements

Attracting Diverse Talent

We aim to attract and retain the most talented people to help us advance our purpose. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and to support our employees’ development. Our industry has traditionally been male-dominated, and we are committed to providing a working environment that is fit and welcoming for all employees.

We’ve set goals for female representation across our entire company. In fiscal year 2021, 30% of all new hires for advertised positions were from applicants who self-identified as female. At the end of that fiscal year, we were able to report that our female employee representation increased to 22% of our total employee population, and the female board of director representation was 44%, demonstrating that we are making progress toward our overall goal.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

At Sims, we share a common set of values where differences are appreciated, and we challenge the norms daily. Each year, we celebrate and raise awareness for different cultural groups to honor and educate our employees about the contributions of our society, while promoting a culture of inclusion. Our corporate celebrations include acknowledgement of key dates throughout the year, such as Black History Month, Hispanic-Latino Heritage Month, International Women’s Day, Juneteenth, Pride Month, NAIDOC Week, Women’s History Month, and World Mental Health Day.

Last year, we acknowledged the International Women’s Day theme of “Choose to Challenge” to celebrate women’s contributions to society and take action against bias and equality. Employees, including our executive leadership team, shared what they chose to challenge.

Working Towards Reconciliation

With more than 100 years of history in Australia, we recognise the role our company must take in both telling the truth about the past and building a future of shared, sustainable prosperity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

In 2021, we formalized our first Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), Reflect RAP, which outlined the first steps on our reconciliation journey. The RAP is a formal document endorsed by Reconciliation Australia that forms an important part of our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion across our global operations. Since the implementing the Reflect RAP, we have spent more than $1M AUD with Indigenous-owned businesses and administered cultural competency training to more than 80% of our frontline leaders and commercial teams in Australia.

In 2023 we advanced our commitment to reconciliation with the launch of our Innovate RAP. For the next two years, we will be focused on furthering our commitment to forming new, respectful relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and organisations, and creating sustainable opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our business and value chain.

Download Our Reconciliation Action Plan

Women Working @ Sims

In 2018, acting on feedback from the Women Working @ Sims Forum – our employee resource group designed to inform our approach to attracting and retaining qualified women in our industry – the company embarked on a journey to provide a minimum level of paid parental leave for all employees globally. See “Parental Leave Policy” description below.

Sims demonstrates an inclusive mindset, as well as values and appreciates each unique opinion of our employees. We now regularly conduct an employee engagement survey to inform and plan our engagement strategies and initiatives, including forming focus groups, which are led by members of our executive leadership team, focused on driving improvements in employee experience and engagement.

In 2021, we launched our Women Leading @ Sims program that offers a coaching and development workshop for emerging female leaders at Sims Limited. This will support the next generation of women leaders across our various business divisions, as well as expand on the work we started with the Women Working @ Sims forums.

Parental Leave Policy

Parenthood is a significant milestone in the lives of many people, and it’s no different for Sims Limited employees. We strive to have our standards and policies reflect the inclusive culture that we are cultivating in every office and facility across the globe.

In keeping with industry best practices, and in support of our ongoing diversity, equity and inclusion work, we underwent an internal review to modernize and standardize our global paid parental leave policy in 2018. As a result of the review, we are happy to share that our updated parental leave standard promotes the shared responsibility for all parents and caregivers – regardless of gender, location or circumstances. We have also decided to improve the paid parental leave entitlement standard for primary and secondary caregivers to provide:

  • A standard of 12 weeks paid leave for primary caregivers paid a basic pay
  • A standard of six weeks paid leave for secondary caregivers paid at basic pay
  • A consistent standard of 26 weeks service requirement prior to benefit eligibility

We will, of course, defer to the statutory requirements in countries where the benefit is greater, or service eligibility is lesser, than listed in our global standard.

Training and Development

Investing in developing the knowledge and skills of employees is an important tool for the achievement of our business goals. We support learning through on-the-job experiences, formal educational resources, and mentoring and coaching activities.

Sims University

Sims University is our global corporate university dedicated to global excellence through individual development. Sims University strives to provide best-in-class learning solutions that are relevant, strategic and build a collective understanding of the business. It delivers online and class-based learning programs through the Sims University Learning Center, our global learning management system that was launched in April 2018.

Management Trainee Program

The Management Trainee Program is designed for recent college graduates or experienced professionals who are interested in developing a career in commercial/trading, operations or manufacturing and want a clear path to advancement in a global sustainability company. This program enables the next generation of emerging talent to fully participate and contribute toward our purpose, create a world without waste to preserve our planet. Participants learn side-by-side with industry experts in order to position themselves as future leaders at Sims Limited, within one of our business divisions, or within the sustainability industry.

Social Responsibility and Community

The communities in which we operate are key to our success, and we want them to see us as a trusted partner. Our communities fuel our sustainable growth by providing links to the local workforce, suppliers and infrastructure. We also aim to have a positive, long-term impact by investing in projects that enhance social, environmental and economic well-being. Our sites support a large number of community initiatives with financial donations and volunteering, and we aim to launch a Volunteer Policy, which will allow our employees paid time off to volunteer in their communities.

Each year we celebrate Human Rights Day. This year’s theme, equality, was focused on finding solutions for deep-rooted forms of discrimination that have affected the most vulnerable people in societies, including women and girls, Indigenous people, people of African descent, people who identify as LGBTI, migrants, and people with disabilities, among others.

As Sims Limited continues its diversity, equity and inclusion journey, our strategy will continue to operate under the three pillars – People, Inclusive Leadership and Communities. These pillars will guide a continued focus on a diverse and inclusive workforce that is treated equally with visible and active leadership, enhanced sustainability and corporate responsibility in our communities.

Social Responsibility and Community

For more information on social responsibility and community, please view our sustainability report.

Sustainability Report

Careers

If you are good at what you do, you can work anywhere. If you are great at what you do, come work with us. We offer the chance to build a rewarding and fulfilling career with a leading, publicly-listed, global sustainability company.

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