Engaging our employees

Driving a values-led culture

Our organisational culture is central to how we work and deliver value. Our culture themes translate Exxaro’s purpose and values into everyday behaviour, strengthening collaboration, ethical conduct and shared accountability across our operations. They support consistent employee behaviour and guide how we engage with internal and external stakeholders.

Responsible		Acting ethically and treating others with dignity to foster a safe, healthy workplace
Ownership		Contributing to performance and innovation by working together
Diverse		Harnessing individual strengths to achieve exceptional outcomes
Open and connected		Achieving excellence through collaboration and shared accountability
Adaptable		Responding to change with agility and a willingness to learn

Exxaro conducts regular culture and engagement surveys as a structured listening mechanism to understand employee experience, track organisational health and inform leadership action. We conduct full culture and engagement surveys on a cyclical basis, supplemented by targeted pulse surveys during periods of transition or focused change.

Insights gathered through these survey processes inform targeted leadership interventions, organisational improvements and culture enablement initiatives across the group. This year, we developed a roadmap that outlines a multi-phase journey to embed a unifying culture that supports high performance, leadership excellence and long-term organisational sustainability.

The purpose of this journey will be to:

• Co-create a shared cultural foundation across the executive committee and BUs
• Socialise and model the culture so it becomes part of everyday behaviours
• Embed the culture into leadership practices and people processes
• Sustain and evolve the culture through rituals, measurement and storytelling

The aspirational culture journey positions Exxaro to:

• Strengthen leadership accountability and behavioural consistencys
• Build a unified organisational identity across BUs and functions
• Improve trust, engagement and collaboration
• Enhance alignment between culture, strategy and performance

Read the case study for more details.

Building a diverse and inclusive workplace

We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone is treated with dignity and has fair access to opportunities. Our DEI strategy, aligned with Exxaro’s values and the UNGC principles, guides our efforts to remove systemic barriers, build diverse representation and foster an environment where differences are respected. This strategy also shapes our employee relations framework and disability policy to ensure equal access to recruitment, training and development. Regularly reviewing the strategy for relevance and effectiveness is an important part of our ongoing improvement efforts.

Central to this approach is our anti-racism charter. Grounded in the principles of our code of conduct, the charter affirms zero tolerance for racist behaviour and reinforces awareness, solidarity and respect across our operations and host communities.

Our DEI approach includes:

• Inclusive recruitment and hiring processes that support a diverse talent pool
• Mentoring and leadership initiatives that support employees from marginalised backgrounds
• Employee resource groups that promote connection and shared learning
• Fair and transparent grievance processes
• Regular audits to identify and address inequities
• Training programmes that challenge bias and discriminatory behaviour
• Partnerships with labour unions, government bodies and institutions to support transformation
• Access to employee assistance programmes that provide counselling for mental health, trauma and harassment

Our DEI framework

The strategy enables us to:

• Create an environment built on trust and respect
• Recognise DEI as a business enabler
• Foster a workplace where employees thrive
• Implement policies and procedures aligned with South African legislation

Our employee assistance programme complements these efforts by providing confidential support for mental health, GBV and stigmatisation.

Employee relations

We promote constructive and respectful employee relations by aligning our policies and procedures with best labour practices and South African legislation. Our approach emphasises fairness, integrity and due respect when managing individual and collective employee concerns.

Established engagement structures facilitate regular communication across our operations, ensuring employees are informed about organisational priorities such as health, wellness, safety, operational changes and financial performance. These channels provide valuable insights that guide process improvements, strengthen workplace climate and support organisational change.

To build capability and ensure consistent application of employee relations practices, we provide targeted training and workshops for employee relations managers and line managers. This supports early resolution of concerns, reinforces shared accountability and promotes a healthy and collaborative workplace.

We also conduct culture and engagement surveys every second year at our corporate centre and BUs to track progress against our DEI strategy, leadership effectiveness and the integration of key culture themes.

Annual participation in the Top Employers Institute survey further demonstrates our commitment to benchmarking people practices against global standards and identifying opportunities for improvement.

Trade union engagement

Relationships with organised labour are based on trust, productive engagement and clear communication. We maintain strong working relationships with trade unions through formal structures and ongoing dialogue. As part of our capacity building efforts, we engage unions on organisational priorities, support their training needs and equip shop stewards to participate effectively in wage negotiations and organisational processes.

Monitoring, measuring and reporting

We monitor employee-related performance through established systems that track compliance, representation and people development outcomes across the group. Our monitoring processes ensure alignment with South African labour legislation, the Mining Charter and internal transformation objectives.

Key indicators include:

• Black ownership at group level
• Representation of people with disabilities
• People development spend as a percentage of payroll
• HDP representation across top, senior, middle and junior management levels
• Women representation across management bands

We review these indicators regularly to identify progress, address gaps and inform targeted interventions. Findings support compliance reporting and enable continuous improvement in line with Exxaro’s people strategy and transformation commitments.

2025 performance

Our workforce

		2025		2024		2023
		Number	% of total workforce	Number	% of total workforce	Number	% of total workforce
Exxaro
Permanent employees		6 742	32	6 966	31	6 797	33
Contractors		14 555	68	15 300	69	13 868	67.0
Total employees		21 297	100	22 266		20 665
Cennergi
Permanent employees		45	3.6	31	6	35	20
Contractors		1 216	96.4	520	94	143	80
Total employees		1 261	100	551		178

Workforce numbers remained consistent year on year, reflecting stable operational activity and continued investment in developing internal talent. Our permanent workforce, contractor base and Cennergi teams together provide the capacity and specialised skills needed to sustain production and support long-term organisational performance.

Improving our employee relations management

Advancing equity and transformation

Employment equity

Our employment equity and skills development measures support Exxaro’s transformation objectives and contribute to South Africa’s broader goal of building a non-racial and inclusive economy. Each BU and employer monitors progress against its approved employment equity plan, supported by targeted people development initiatives and affirmative action measures.

We have met our employment equity targets for the past seven years in line with Mining Charter III requirements.

Steady progress continues across all management levels, and we achieved most of our set targets. The updated five-year employment equity plans, aligned with our DEI strategy, position us to strengthen compliance and deepen transformation across the organisation.

B-BBEE

Exxaro was certified as a level 2 B-BBEE contributor (2024: level 2), maintaining our position as one of South Africa’s leading black‑empowered mining and energy companies. Work to maintain our B-BBEE performance is ongoing, including enhanced learning and development marketing aimed at underrepresented groups and the continued absorption of learners into permanent roles.

Employment equity		Black male employees		All female employees		HDP1		Mining Charter III targets (%)
Management category		Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Top management		–	–	1	25	1	25	50	20
Senior management		36	41	33	37.9	69	79.3	60	25
Middle management		300	39.8	360	47.8	660	87.6	60	25
Junior management		1 204	49.3	887	36.3	2 091	85.6	70	30

1	Includes white female employees.

Building an engaged, inclusive and values-driven culture

In 2025, Exxaro placed increased emphasis on enabling authentic dialogue, trust and inclusion through facilitated conversations, leadership storytelling and employee-led forums. This included the launch of our employee value proposition to promote talent acquisition and retention.

Top Employers Institute survey

We have continued to improve our performance year on year and were once again recognised as a Top Employer in 2025. We surpassed the certification threshold by 24.4% (2024: 18.39%) and achieved an overall score of 89.40%, up from 83.39% in the previous year — a 6.01% improvement from our last participation.

This certification reflects our performance across several themes:

Culture and engagement surveys

In 2025, during a period of organisational transition, Exxaro introduced a targeted culture pulse survey to assess employee sentiment and test progress against themes identified in our 2023 culture survey, which serves as the baseline for employee sentiment and cultural integration across the group. The pulse survey achieved a participation rate of 24% and feedback from employees indicated that:

• Employee pride remains a strong foundation of the culture
• Communication gaps are creating uncertainty
• Psychological safety needs strengthening
• Listening must be more intentional and action-oriented

The results did not yet reflect the desired improvement across all focus areas identified in the 2023 survey and highlighted priority areas requiring focused leadership attention.

In response, we undertook a structured process to develop action plans across all BUs and conceptualised a culture reset roadmap.

Structured leadership action plans were implemented in 2025, with clear ownership, timeframes and accountability mechanisms to address the issues raised. These plans support our broader objective of strengthening leadership effectiveness, psychological safety and employee experience as ESG enablers.

To support transparent tracking of progress, a follow-up pulse survey will be conducted in February 2026. A full culture and engagement survey is planned for the third quarter of 2026 to assess progress since the 2023 baseline and enable deeper analysis of long-term cultural trends.

By the end of 2026, Exxaro aims to embed a culture reinforced through systems, role-modelled by leaders and sustained through rituals and measurement, setting the stage for a refreshed roadmap for 2027 to 2028.

Employee value proposition

Exxaro introduced our employee value proposition this year to support our talent attraction and retention efforts. The employee value proposition covers six pillars that reflect the Exxaro possibility promise: