PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mining major BHP is reportedly looking to cut up to 700 jobs across Australia, with up to 200 job cuts expected from the Perth office, as the company works to simplify its business and streamline its processes.

“BHP is working to simplify its business and in its support functions we aim to streamline processes, remove duplication, bureaucracy and hierarchy to improve effectiveness of decision-making and reduce time to implement and innovate,” a spokesperson for the company told Mining Weekly Online on Monday.

“This work began about 12 months ago and is across functions, including finance, human resources, technology and external affairs. The programme is ongoing and part of BHP’s cultural transformation agenda.”

CEO Andrew Mackenzie  previously said that BHP’s transformation programme would start with "world-class functions", which is geared around benchmarking all BHP’s functions against best-in-class from around the world, simplifying the internal processes by taking work away and reducing costs as a consequence, and also reducing cycle times, increasing speed to market in a number of areas.

“It includes something we call our new operating system, which is about our culture and how we organise our work. It is about teaching people at the frontline how to look almost move-by-move at how they can actually do their jobs more effectively,” Mackenzie said during the company’s full-year results in 2018.

Mackenzie said, at the time, that the push was expected to deliver "billions" in terms of benefits, and while it would require "some investment", it would be minimal.

Meanwhile, BHP on Monday announced that its iron-ore operations, in the Pilbara would advertising roles with a drive-in, drive-out (Dido) option, to increase the residential proportion of its workforce.

Mining Area C, South Flank and Yandi are expected to also transition toward Dido options later this year.

BHP Western Australian iron-ore asset president Edgar Basto said the move to increase Dido and residential employment in the Pilbara aligned with BHP’s focus on creating a more inclusive and diverse workforce and providing employees with a better work-life balance.

“I strongly believe in creating a workforce that is reflective of the communities in which we operate,” Basto said.

“Enabling more flexibility for our employees to transition to a residential lifestyle makes sense for us and it makes sense for the continued economic prosperity of the communities in which we operate.

“As one of Western Australia’s largest employers we need to ensure we are providing jobs that work for a broader, more inclusive and diverse talent pool.”