Mentions of the future of work within the filings of companies in the mining industry rose 35% between the final quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022.
In total, the frequency of sentences related to the future of work between April 2021 and March 2022 was 557% higher than in 2016 when GlobalData, from which our data for this article is taken, first began to track the key issues referred to in company filings.
When companies in the mining industry publish annual and quarterly reports, ESG reports, and other filings, GlobalData analyses the text and identifies individual sentences that relate to disruptive forces facing companies in the coming years. The future of work is one of these topics – companies that excel and invest in these areas are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.
To assess whether the future of work is featuring more in the summaries and strategies of companies in the mining industry, two measures were calculated. Firstly, we looked at the percentage of companies that have mentioned the future of work at least once in filings during the past 12 months – this was 53%, compared to 10% in 2016. Secondly, we calculated the percentage of total analysed sentences that referred to the future of work.
Of the 10 biggest employers in the mining industry, CIL was the company that referred to the future of work the most between April 2021 and March 2022. GlobalData identified 14 future of work-related sentences in the India-based company's filings – 0.13% of all sentences. Sibanye-Stillwater mentioned the future of work the second most – the issue was referred to in 0.12% of sentences in the company's filings. Other top employers with high future of work mentions included ArcelorMittal, Honeywell, and Nippon Steel.
Across all companies in the mining industry, the filing published in the first quarter of 2022 that exhibited the greatest focus on the future of work came from Anglo American. Of the document's 2,722 sentences, 15 (0.6%) referred to the future of work.
This analysis provides an approximate indication of which companies are focusing on the future of work and how important the issue is considered within the mining industry, but it also has limitations and should be interpreted carefully. For example, a company mentioning the future of work more regularly is not necessarily proof that they are utilising new techniques or prioritising the issue, nor does it indicate whether the company's ventures into the future of work have been successes or failures.
GlobalData also categorises the future of work mentions by a series of subthemes. Of these subthemes, the most commonly referred to topic in the first quarter of 2022 was 'workflow management', which made up 64% of all future of work subtheme mentions by companies in the mining industry.
