Positive workplace culture

To support our workplace culture, we focus on the physical and mental wellbeing of our people and provide skills development and challenging opportunities to advance their careers. We provide health, wellbeing and social initiatives tailored to each region, and incorporate health and wellbeing features into our workplaces where possible. These include recreational and fitness facilities, break-out spaces, and garden areas. In addition, Goodman’s long-term incentive scheme helps to build collective responsibility in our people and alignment with the interests of our stakeholders.

• Innovation – New ideas push our business forward. We focus on the future, proactively looking for new opportunities and improved solutions for our stakeholders that will make the world a better place for all of us.
• Determination – Determination gets things done. We are motivated by excellence and work hard to achieve it, actively pursuing the very best outcomes for our stakeholders.
• Integrity – We have integrity, always. We work inclusively and transparently, balancing the needs of our business and our people, with the needs of the community and those we do business with.
• Sustainability – We’re building our business for the long-term. That’s why we consider the planet and the people on it in what we do. Our initiatives demonstrate our ongoing commitment to having a positive economic, environmental and social impact on the world.

The value of diversity

A key area of focus is gender diversity. We are actively working towards increasing our female senior management representation to reach our target of 40 percent by 2030, which involves succession planning, recruitment and career development.

Our Inclusion and Diversity Policy supports:

• Workplaces free of harassment or unlawful discrimination
• Recruitment and promotion based on merit
• Equal access to personal development, management skills and career opportunities
• Cultural differences
• The needs of individuals with family and carer responsibilities
• Customers’ diversity and their expectations
• An inclusive work environment where ideas and opinions are shared
• A range of philanthropic channels for community contributions
• Increased career advancement opportunities for women.

Supporting the Group’s efforts to increase female representation at senior levels, several regions reported encouraging female recruitment rates during FY23. 60 percent of recruits in Japan were female, while 75 percent of new starters in New Zealand were female. Increasing the number of females in roles that have been traditionally filled by males in our sector is an area of focus.

Getting to 40% by 2030

We are committed to reaching 40 percent of females in the senior executive category globally by 2030. In FY23, the number of senior females remained stable at 30 percent, even though we continued to focus on targeted recruitment, talent reviews and career development.

Our global workforce remains just under 1,000 people across a relatively flat organisational structure. So, when evaluating if an employee should be categorised as a senior executive, we consider:

• Proximity of the employee on the Group’s organisational chart to the Group CEO or Regional CEOs
• Scope of the role
• Potential commercial impact
• Accountability for risk factors
• Total remuneration level.

Increasing the number of females in senior positions is a priority for Goodman. We are making progress – with our teams in Australia, Mainland China, Continental Europe and Brazil now exceeding our global 40 percent target, and actively supporting promotion and leadership opportunities for females. In regions where we saw a material number of promotions, 37 – 57 percent of the total promotions were female team members.

While we’re achieving progress, low voluntary turnover and high retention impacts the numbers of females reaching senior roles. As do cultural and historical barriers which hinder the availability of females in the recruitment pool in some regions where Goodman operates. In Japan, for example, recruiting females within an industrial real estate company is challenging, which is why achieving a 60 percent female recruitment rate in FY23 is noteworthy.

Flexible working

Human centred design

People resources and skills

Goodman’s Group Head of HR reports to the Remuneration and Nomination Committee on remuneration, succession planning, gender equity and related matters. This Committee also oversees the Group’s succession plan at senior levels. A detailed succession plan was developed and discussed with the Committee during FY23.

Building capacity

We have graduate programs in Australia, Mainland China and Hong Kong SAR to identify and attract emerging talent to Goodman. In FY23, we recruited nine graduates in Australia, five in Mainland China and two in Hong Kong SAR.

A key step to building capacity and expertise across Goodman’s global teams is to identify potential skills gaps. While Goodman is a specialist global industrial property group, we acknowledge that our customers’ requirements and priorities of our investment partners evolve. In addition, regulatory, corporate governance and disclosure obligations mean our teams require ongoing training.

Goodman invests in training its people to help develop the skills they need. We provide training in a number of ways, including both internal and external training resources, in-person sessions and through the online learning platform, LinkedIn Learning, which provides a catalogue of content via the Group’s global learning system, Aspire. Aspire is Goodman’s gateway to a range of professional development and self-paced skills training relating to compliance, technical and management skills.

Other types of training provided to our teams in FY23 include:

• General management and leadership
• Corporate governance, bribery, corruption and harassment
• Legal compliance
• Resource management
• Effective communication
• IT systems and platforms
• Health and safety including height safety and hazardous substances
• Diversity, modern slavery, respect and inclusion
• Wellbeing and mental health.

During the year, 72 percent of Goodman’s global workforce accessed LinkedIn Learning to view 9,773 hours of training across both internal and external courses. To help our people keep their skills current and encourage greater access, this was expanded to incorporate more AI in the design of learning pathways, plus the inclusion of Japanese language content for our team in Japan.

Initiatives like Goodman’s In-Focus program, where team members present on an area of technical expertise, are highly valued and help to create a culture of learning through peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. And this year we continued with the global communications training program, facilitated by an external writing expert. The program has been rolled out in Australia, New Zealand, Continental Europe, Hong Kong SAR and the US to date, with plans for in-language training in Japan underway.

Goodman’s Greater China team previously developed its own competency framework designed to assist employees identify what skills and experiences they require to progress their development and learning pathways. Different training formats are also being utilised to cater for various learning preferences and contexts, with sessions customised to accommodate both individual needs and collaborative learning.

Managing our team

Our team looks at human capital metrics such as gender representation, gender pay equity, remuneration, diversity, learning, turnover and absenteeism. Some of which are included in the ESG metrics section of this report. Voluntary turnover in FY23 across Goodman Group remains low at around 6 percent since FY21 (FY23: 6.24%, FY22: 6.4%, FY21: just under 6%).

We do background checks on new employees where relevant and ongoing checks on employees where required by regulatory bodies. Our Code of Conduct covers all employees, and regular governance compliance training takes place to increase awareness of employees’ obligations.

Aligning remuneration

In Australia, our parental leave benefits extend beyond the 16 weeks of paid parental leave. We maintain superannuation contributions to parents in Australia throughout their entire leave period, not just while they are being paid. In addition, Goodman’s parental leave policy for Australian-based employees was extended to now include time on parental leave in long-service entitlement calculations. The US team also updated its parental leave policy to provide a 40 percent salary subsidy to reduce the parental leave pay gap.

Career direction

Crucial to the development of our people is monitoring performance and providing competitive remuneration and benefits. The annual performance review and development process helps focus on career aspirations, goals, and potential training. It helps plan for role progression, identifying any specialised management training that is required. This training includes peer-to-peer engagement with Goodman’s senior leadership team and management committees, further assisting with succession planning and leadership for the longer term.

Our people are offered incentives to study during their career at Goodman. This includes study support schemes, which in some regions includes an allowance of up to AU$8,000. For example, during FY23, 13 people from the Australian business participated in post-graduate study partially sponsored by Goodman – nine of which were female.

Our safety strategy during FY23 was to continue proactive and practical implementation of Goodman’s Minimum Construction Safety Standards. This is particularly important in regions where the industry standards are below our expectations – and for the second year running, we’re pleased to report there were zero fatal accidents on Principal Contractor controlled sites.

We adapt and adjust our proactive approach to safety. We find the most effective way to implement Goodman’s safety standards is directly with our contractors on our projects. In some regions, Goodman contracts full-time safety representatives to work directly with our Principal Contractors and help implement our standards. If required, we issue contractual penalties and stop-work orders to contractors deemed to be non-compliant with Goodman expectations, helping influence contractor safety standards overall.

We actively monitor our safety standards and track incidents. It helps with promoting a hands-on culture and positively influencing high safety standards on our sites. It supports our contractors’ safety personnel identify and mitigate safety risks and address underlying hazards. These insights help Goodman identify where it can adjust contractual safety standards and control measures for high-risk activities, to help us create and maintain a safe working environment.

Modern slavery is a serious form of exploitation, referring to a range of serious human rights violations, including forced, bonded, trafficked, and child labour. It arises in circumstances where coercion, threats, or deception deprive people of their freedoms and right to select their own work.

Modern slavery impacts many industries. We are conscious that some elements of the property and construction sector have an elevated modern slavery risk and have designed our modern slavery strategy in response to that risk. Our focus on the protection of the human rights of our people and workers in our supply chain is aligned with our values and our commitment to safety and sustainability.

We recognise that identifying actual or potential instances of modern slavery demonstrates the effectiveness of our modern slavery approach. It also facilitates remediation for affected workers, including addressing root causes. Globally, in FY23, we did not identify any instances of modern slavery in our direct supply chain. We are committed to understanding our modern slavery risks, beyond our tier one suppliers in FY24, and combatting modern slavery through effective partnerships and collaboration.

Our modern slavery strategy continues to mature each year. Our continuous improvement approach has resulted in the adoption of a range of targeted initiatives and measures in FY23, so that our processes and actions remain effective in preventing and addressing modern slavery.

Our FY23 actions:

• Targeted risk management actions in high-risk sourcing categories and geographies to mitigate modern slavery risk
• Global integration of our modern slavery commitments and regional consultation
• Building internal capacity through global operational and supplier standards and training
• Enhancing supplier capacity building through awareness and collaboration.

Our Framework considers both social and environmental impacts. It encourages engagement with suppliers to support fairness and equality in their workforce and broader supply chain. It also promotes consideration of the environmental impacts of the materials we use, like embodied carbon, and opportunities where we can re-purpose existing products and reduce waste.

Implementing our Framework

As a global company operating in 14 countries, there are challenges implementing a consistent framework. Cultural and socio-economic differences, varying policy and maturity of sustainable procurement practices require a tailored approach in each region. Our Framework also allows us to share knowledge and best practices across our global teams.

Sustainable sourcing workshops were held across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Brazil, and the US, to increase awareness within our teams. And we’re increasing sustainable sourcing engagement with contractors, including two Principal Contractors in Australia and six suppliers in Hong Kong SAR which provide cleaning, security and property management services.

Goodman is working to provide tangible and substantive benefits for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, through both our community and business activities as we move along the path of our RAP.

This includes $3.2 million invested by the Goodman Foundation in community partnerships since 2012 that provide opportunities for First Nations peoples. We’re currently working with the Clontarf Foundation, St Kilda Football Club and FareShare, on education and employment pathways, health and sport, housing, food security, and access to nutritious food.

Goodman employed a Head of First Nations Engagement to lead our strategy, and introduced a sustainable sourcing framework that includes supporting First Nations employment and businesses. We’ve introduced cultural protocols and cultural immersion opportunities for our people, and we’re exploring the incorporation of Country and First Nations design principles into our property portfolio. We will continue to invest in initiatives to close the gap in First Nations outcomes.

In FY23, Goodman received formal endorsement of our inaugural Reflect RAP and we have clear commitments that will see us deliver on the next phase of our RAP. We appreciate we have a distance to travel yet and recognise that there is still much to learn but as we move through the RAP process, we will create a framework to guide us as we continue to build meaningful and lasting relationships with First Nations peoples.

Artist statement

This bespoke piece of art has been created recognising the history that connects a place and people; raw materials like timber, grass and ochre; and layers signalling the story of past, present and future. Using lines, the artwork demonstrates the traditional craft of weaving and use of natural materials. When something is woven it becomes stronger; it brings in an element of strength and growth. The horizontal lines represent the earth, Mother Earth, layers of earth, time, and history. The vertical lines are adding a new layer of history. These lines are not complete – a nod to Goodman’s RAP journey – which is still a work in progress.

The U shapes are a traditional symbol for people. Represented facing opposite directions denotes male and female.

The centre circles are a traditional symbol.

They represent a meeting place, Goodman.