In 2024, Gold Fields identified safety performance as its most critical priority focus area. Supplied by Gold Fields
Gold Fields’ recent safety transformation provides a compelling case study in how a new outlook, rather than process alone, can reshape outcomes.
In 2024, the company identified safety performance as its most critical priority focus area, following a period marked by regrettable fatalities and serious injuries. These events reinforced the urgent need to rethink the company’s approach to safety. It became clear that achieving the company’s aspiration, to ensure every person goes home safe and well at the end of each shift, would require more than improved systems and processes. It demanded a fundamental shift in leadership behaviour, risk ownership and organisational culture.
To support this journey, Gold Fields partnered with dss+ (formerly Du Pont Sustainable Solutions), a global operations management and transformation consultancy, with expertise in operational risk, safety, leadership culture change and sustainability.
The diagnostic provided a fact‑based view of the current maturity, helping to identify quick wins that could immediately reduce risk and strengthen safety culture and performance. It also established a broader roadmap of priorities and opportunities for improvement, which informed a standardised safety transformation approach across the business. This ensured that safety improvement was not treated as a series of isolated initiatives but anchored within the operational risk management system and aligned to the broader business strategy. This approach reflects a broader trend across the mining industry, where companies are moving beyond compliance-driven safety frameworks toward more integrated, risk-based and behaviour-led models.
The company recognised that sustainable improvement in safety performance required a deeper shift in how leaders think about safety, how they support their teams, how risk is managed and how the organisation learns. The first step was strengthening Visible Felt Leadership and the way leaders show up through structured field engagement and coaching. Leaders are expected to engage more intentionally with frontline teams through moments that matter to reinforce the company’s culture of care and accountability as well as shared responsibility. dss+ has been supporting the transformation by building leadership capability and consistency, helping leaders lead with a risk-based mindset.
The partnership also focused on strengthening operational risk management by embedding critical risk-based decision-making into everyday work. The early emphasis was on risk containment with dss+ supporting leaders in the field to identify and proactively manage risks that could lead to serious injuries or fatalities. At a systemic level, the work also highlighted the need for clearer standards and more consistent risk routines that connect strategy, governance and frontline execution. Given the mining industry’s reliance on business partners (contractors), it was equally important that the company’s contractors and their leadership were included in all aspects of the journey.
Already, the impact of this work is being seen at an operational level. Leaders are embedding Visible Felt Leadership into their routines, with greater field presence and more meaningful engagements focused on creating workplaces where people feel respected and safe to speak up. A 2025 cultural survey showed significant improvements, including:
• 78% of people indicated that their line manager cares about their well-being.
• 80% of people indicated that they are comfortable reporting incidents or feel empowered to stop work if deemed unsafe (psychological safety).
There has also been a stronger focus on learning from high-potential incidents and sharing those learnings across the operations, helping to reduce repeat events, particularly those linked to critical risks. Work is also underway to standardise the approach to risk management, strengthening how critical risks are controlled and how information is used to support more effective data-informed decision making.
The maturity shift, underpinned by leadership behaviours, contributed to the company reporting its first fatality-free financial year in 2025. While leading and lagging indicators improved, the company remains clear that success will only be achieved when it can deliver a predictable and sustained reduction in high potential events. As a result, the company continues to focus on leading indicators such as the quality and frequency of leadership safety engagements and frontline hazard reporting, to help identify emerging areas of concern (chronic unease) earlier.
The broader lesson for the mining industry is that transformation starts with understanding the current state: the culture, the behaviours and the effectiveness of safety systems through a risk-based lens. It also requires deliberate focus on the areas that will have the greatest impact. The role of leadership is critical to ensure alignment with the organisational values and a clear connection to the collective “why”. That begins with a commitment from the top, but it must ultimately touch the hearts and minds of every person in the organisation.
Culture and safety cannot be separated. Leaders set the direction, but culture is shaped by the collective. Building a strong safety culture requires bringing the whole organisation (including business partners) along on the journey. It is not a standalone safety initiative but a broader cultural transformation. This means close collaboration across Health and Safety, People, Technical and Business Partner Management functions to embed consistent behaviours, reinforce shared values and drive lasting change.
This case study highlights that transformation is not immediate. It requires sustained commitment, discipline and a willingness to learn. As the industry continues to grapple with complex safety challenges, those organisations that invest in cultural and leadership-driven approaches, alongside robust systems, are likely to be better positioned to deliver lasting change.