Responsibility Report - Peabody Energy

employee responsibility | 30The company also invests in a four-year apprenticeship program with an externallearning partner to ensure apprentices are job-ready when they arrive on site.In addition, Peabody Energy Australia offers dependent scholarship grants andvacation student opportunities.Australia’s sustained prosperity and resources boom are expected to drive shortagesof around 240,000 skilled workers by 2016, according to government estimates.By 2020, the Minerals Council of Australia predicts the mining industry will requirean additional labor force of 58,000 to maintain current production. 7 As part of itsextensive recruitment efforts, Peabody launched the company’s first internationalrecruitment campaign in Canada and South Africa.Employee Learning and DevelopmentLifelong learning and skills development are important to employee satisfaction,advancement and performance. The company focuses on employee andorganizational development in four primary areas:• Feedback and coaching• Training and education• Work assignment opportunities• Knowledge and best-practice sharingPeabody’s Training and Development approach integrates four key Leadership Pillars:Inspiration, Innovation, Collaboration and Execution. Effective leadership inspiresothers to achieve, collaborate and innovate. These elements together drive execution,creating a high-performance culture that delivers results and engages employees.Every Peabody manager is required to provide timely feedback on career paths,personal strengths and developmental areas to help drive professional growth.This is fundamental to good management and practiced through the performancemanagement process and ongoing guidance. In 2011, the company offered additionalperformance management resources and training to help strengthen the process.Continuing education opportunities include:• The Peabody Tuition Reimbursement program, which provides salaried employees100 percent tuition reimbursement for achieving associate, undergraduate andgraduate degrees. During 2011, more than 90 employees participated in theprogram, resulting in more than $850,000 in paid tuition.The company’s Western Training Center in the U.S. Southern Powder River Basinhas become a global model, routinely hosting international visitors who seek toenhance safety and operational performance.• Peabody-provided training, which targets specific job groups and includes skillsand safety training for a variety of mining positions, orientation for new hires,management training for supervisors, and leadership development programs formiddle and senior managers.State-of-the-Art Training FacilitiesThe company operates two high-tech training centers in the Midwestern and WesternUnited States. These centers prepare new miners, safety professionals, mobile andmine equipment operators, maintenance mechanics, electricians and welders aswell as employees at the controls in preparation, load out and mine monitoring roles.Classroom instruction is combined with on-the-job training and technical courses.In 2011, the U.S. training centers presented curriculum to more than 8,000employees and vendors totaling more than 102,000 training hours. The WesternTraining Center graduated its first class of 12 electricians as part of an innovativeworkforce development partnership with Gillette Community College. The centeralso added new courses in maintenance, welding and safety and supervisororientation. The company’s Midwest Training Center mobilized mining equipmentsimulators to mine sites and initiated an acceleration development program formaintenance technicians and electricians.In Australia, employees benefit from robust internal and external training in theleadership, operations and technical arenas. Peabody Energy Australia also operates