Human Resource Management in the Mining Sector: Problems and Strategies

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
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Author Note

1HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Introduction
The power of a good human resource management team in an organization cannot be
undermined. An employee forms the backbone of an organization and due to this reason, it
becomes extremely important for any firm to have a good employee base or else they might not
be successful in the long term (Colleran et al. 2010). The mining sector has been facing certain
problems recently relating to the human resource management.
Many organizations believe that it is just enough to hire good employees, but it is not the
case and although hiring is easy managing of employees is definitely not. Mining industry is
relatively a large industry but quite a dangerous one. There are several health hazards associated
with the job of mining and this is the primary reason why different organizations find it relatively
difficult to attract and retain good employees.
The primary objective of the given essay is to examine the problem relating to the human
resource management in an organization and analyze the reasons behind the same. This shall be
followed by strategies to attract and retain staff in the mining industry (Sadath, 2013). The last
part of the essay will be in the form of certain recommendations which shall highlight the ways
to foster a good human resource department in an organization. There are various reasons behind
the problems of human resource management in the mining sector and those relating to the
attraction and retention of employees will be discussed effectively.
Current problems in the mining sector

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Attraction of the new employees is a problem which is deemed to be the largest in the
mining sector. The given problem has been prevalent since the last 10 years as a large majority
of the workers have resigned and the rest are on a verge of majority.
The workers known as baby boomers have reached recruitment and thus a large number
of posts are vacant. According to the demographics which was observed considerably showed
that in the coming years, around one third of the mining workforce will be retiring and this shall
lead to a potential knowledge gap (Nandwani, 2013). This knowledge gap will be prevalent
because there will not be enough workers to work in their place. Mostly three types of workers
needed in the mining industry which are the baseline, expansionary and the contractionary.
It was observed that within these three realms it is the occupation of the heavy equipment
operators, surface miners skilled trades and other highly professionals like that of engineers and
geo-scientists are the ones who have been facing the most problems. These are highly manual
jobs and the employers are thus looking out for those with the minimum current employees.
There are several labor market trends such as the availability of the labor and the quality
of labor available which acts as a challenge in attracting the new employees (Shen, Messersmith,
& Jiang, 2018).The average age of workers in the given industry with respect to the retirement of
the employees is 60 years.
Hence, alongside these problems which relate to the attraction of the new employees, the
retention of the existing staff also tends to serve as a huge problem in the given sector (Kehoe,
Collins & Chen, 2017). Due to the highly unsafe working environment in the given industry and
the low pay, the employees are unwilling to work in the given company and are looking out for
better opportunities in other sectors which will provide them with safety and security as well.

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For this reason there are several factors leading to the lack of proper attraction and
retention of the employees in the mining sector and these factors will be discussed in details in
the next section.
Reasons behind the problem
The given section will be discussing the primary reasons why the attraction and retention
of employees is a problem in the given sector.
The first reason why the employees are difficult to attract and maintain is the reason
related to the unsafe work environment. The unsafe work environment which often leads to
blasts and spillage in the mining areas is the cause behind the unwillingness of the different
employees to continue working. Furthermore, the employees which are considerably new to the
opportunities did not want to get involved in the given field.
The second reason behind the human resource problem at the mining sector with respect
to the attracting and retaining employees relates to the low compensation package being offered
by the different companies (García-Lillo, Úbeda-García & Marco-Lajara, 2017). Although the
companies earn in large scale, they are unwilling to share this with the workers and thus the
potential as well as old employees are not willing to work for the sector. Only higher post jobs
are provided with good job positioning facilities but the ones involved in the extra mechanical
work are not provided with such facilities.
Furthermore here does not exist any potential growth prospects in the given sector. The
workers who are working in the lower posts receive little or no recognition and continue to work
in the given post for a major part of their life (Lord, Jefferson & Eastham, 2012). The other
employees who are provided with adequate growth options generally find the mining work