Attracting and Retaining the Talent in Mining Industry

This report summarizes the HR practices and challenges for the attraction and retention of employees in mining industry. The challenges in attracting and retention of workforce in mining sector have been explored. The relevance has been given to five themes of HR and this is followed by a conclusion.

Attracting and Retaining the Talent in Mining Industry
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Title: Attracting and Retaining the Talent in Mining Industry
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Attracting and Retaining the Talent in Mining Industry
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Executive Summary
This report summarizes the HR practices and challenges for the attraction and retention of
employees in mining industry. A brief overview has been provided in introduction. The
challenges in attracting and retention of workforce in mining sector have been explored. The
relevance has been given to five themes of HR and this is followed by a conclusion.

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Introduction
The mining industry is undergoing through the shortage of qualified professionals which
are unable to meet its production needs. Every year, most of the people leave this sector for
pursuing careers in different domains. There are few prime reasons like industry image,
decreasing number of graduates from mining programs and draining of knowledge. These
challenges and trends have been widely discussed over traditional mining countries like Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Australia and United States. The Canadian mining industry recruits 25,000 to
65,000 employees over the next 5 years (Bartram, 2018). From the past 2 decades, there is
decrease in the number of individuals and it is expected to decrease by 10 percent. More than 30
percent of Canadian Mining employees will retire. Mining companies have started
acknowledging that current supply scarcity will have a lot of impact over the efficiency,
profitability and productivity of operations. The scarcity of skilled workers, which is in
combination with increased turnover rates are top factors which have an impact over the growth.
This is done by delaying or completely stopping the projects.
Employees are regarded as valuable assets, but mining industry considers it as a
backbone. The mining industry needs to spend money on training and recruiting of employees,
but also impact the staff productivity and morale. The challenges for Human resource department
are to retain talented workers. The mining jobs are demanding and employees cannot stay in
roles beyond an average age. The operations are followed by the truck drivers, service operators
and worker supervisors. The employment differences have been negative in the mining industry.

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Challenges in Attracting and Retaining a Workforce in Mining Sector
The Mining industry is undergoing through the retirement stage. There are traditional
challenges which are being suffered by the countries like Pakistan, United States and Australia
from past 2 decades. According to the statistics, more than 5 percent of the people retire form
mining industry every year. According to the business consulting, research, there are critical
risks for every industry (Lieber, 2012) -
1. Increased labor competition-Firms need to hire more labor when marginal revenue is
greater than wage rate. The labor market differs from market of goods and services
because labor demand is considered as the derived demand.
2. Expansion of skills-Skill up-gradation is required in few occupations. Finding a well-
qualified and well trained employee needs to focus on the productivity and innovation.
The greatest change is technological change can produce shifts in skill requirements
(Jamieson, 2018).
3. Increased competition from entry talent-pool- Competition is one of the biggest
factors which exist among the employees and the application and recruitment process
must be simple and automatic. It will be a win-win solution for every employed (Khoo,
2013).
4. Loss of retention rates and executive knowledge- The organization ability to retain its
employees. This is represented through the simple statistic. If the retention rate is poor,
then satisfaction and commitment will be withdrawn. The organizations will lose hope in
the employee and will start looking for other personnel (Traub, 2004).

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5. Impaired Productivity and stagnant growth-Productivity is everything in the long run.
In order to improve the standard of living, the country must be focused towards
improving the output of each worker (Cahill & Sedrak, 2012).
6. Changing environment-The present environment is affected by a number of variables.
These can be external or internal variable. An internal variable has a long term effect on
the workforce. The workers need to be motivated through high wages and special skills
training. The external variables which can have an impact over the organizations are
GDP, National income and export and import policies which can have a large impact
over the investments made (Cahill & Sedrak, 2012).
7. Loss of operational knowledge- The concept of risk is very broad. It represents an
opportunity and danger. There are abstract possibilities and controlling policies by which
ideal forms of projects can be developed. A classification system must be developed for
reshaping of the organizational change and mining processes (Bostjancic & Slana, 2018).
8. Weaker Management teams- At times, the organization has a weaker management team
due to which control cannot be exercised over the workers. This is mainly due to the
conflict of interests, breach of fiduciary duty, mismanagement, waste of organizational
resources; more than 50 percent of managers are ready to commit the crime. Crisis
management, risk management and corporate social responsibility are three variables
which determine the position of a firm in a long run (Ali, Metz & Kulik, 2015).
9. High Involvement work procedures- These days, the operational mining work
procedures are time-consuming and lengthy. The high involvement work practices must
engage the employees in a way so that firm’s productivity can be reached. The company
should focus on the employee productivity and fair remuneration. An employee

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involvement program is participative management. This program allows the workers to
get into decision making power (DuBow, 2014). Workers unions comprises of elected or
nominated employees, which are consulted through management in decision making
procedures. The direct participation can help the organizations fulfill the mission and can
meet with the objectives. The workforce will be applying its own ideas, efforts and
towards problem solution and making decisions. Employee involvement is a practice
which is adopted by the companies that will have a direct impact on the jobs and
employee empowerment is a corporate body which allows non-managerial workforce to
take decisions (Ogle & Eaves, 2017).
10. Research Limitations- the Company must identify the shortcomings of the mining work
and how these research limitations can have a major impact on the mining research. The
research can have numerous limitations, but it is essential to discuss those are stated in
the research objective (Dillman, 2000). Formulation of research objectives must be
narrowed to a level of focus and studies can be conducted. An implementation of data
collection practices requires extensive experience and there are high chances that the
methods adopted can be flawed. A sample size is dependent on the research problem
(Bhandari, 2018).
Five themes
1. Gender Discrimination at Work
Gender discrimination means treating the individuals in a different form in employment
because of the respective genders. There are instances where the rejection takes place due to

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employment or fired or harmful effects in employment, and then there is gender discrimination
in the organization. In most of the laws, sex and gender are interchangeable terms, but these have
two different meanings (McKenzie, 2011). The term sex has been used to refer the person’s
biological identity as male or female. Discrimination is considered illegal regardless of sex or
gender. Hiring/promotions and firing are based on the gender discriminations. The individual has
made application for the job, having the similar experience and excellent qualifications because
of the premise that supervisors can handle the men in the mining industry (Elias, 2008).
Women entrepreneurs can grow in small scale mining industries, but people are finding it hard to
grow and business development (De Cieri, Zhang & Dowling, 2018). Gender discrimination will
be adding more challenges and preventing woman from accessing the money for enhancement of
activities. Women entrepreneurs lack financial resources. There could be a lot of ease in the
mining industry if labors were paid easily and women may not be reluctant to work with men.
Financial institutions practice the bureaucratic tendencies and prevent the floating of money into
the scale of operations. There are mining businesses which are unable to reach the full potential.
The women are appealing for every sector and ensure financial resources are provided to the
women, it must not be any obstacle to conducting the good business (Czarniawska, 2006).
2. Organizational ethics and HR- the mining industry worldwide has been making use of
large labor stocks for the achievement of organizational objectives. A lot of studies have
been conducted for determining the HR practices that are currently followed at the
Pakistan, China, Bangladesh and USA. The mining companies need to adopt the result
based approach which can act as a benchmark with the present HR practices is compared
to. The research data has been gathered through the convenient HR managers (Valentine,
Hollingworth & Francis, 2013). Mining companies in Australia need to interact with the

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different stakeholders group. A different range of programs must be undertaken by the
communities to assist the public profile and land access. Depending upon the cross-
cultural diversity, initiatives must be taken towards the power sharing and broadening the
organizational interface and adopting more ethical practices in the mining industry. The
mining companies which are operating in Australia are changing drastically (Duncan &
Loretto, 2004). There is a need of changing the human resource practice and evolving a
set of criteria’s which have simply economic or productivity output. The effective
utilization of workforces is necessary and identification of factors to promote the
strategy. If a mining company uses the resource based view, the greatest results can be
produced with little cost as possible. A company is presented with external opportunities
and decreases its internal weaknesses to create a competitive advantage among others.
HR practices must be developed in the way that it is too hard to imitate the measures by a
different company (Geimer, Zolner & Allen, 2017).
3. Job Analysis-Mining supervisors need to ensure the underground resources like metals,
oil and gas and minerals must be extracted safely. There are a number of job
responsibilities which will assess the commercial benefits and feasibility of new sites. Job
analysis of union councils and the workforce must comply with health and safety
requirements. For instance- On a track record the commodity prices in Australia are
having increased value; this can be accounted to expansion periods. The value of mineral
exports has been increased to a point where it can cover half of the export value. Mining
expansion plays a significant role in the rising exchange rate of Australia. The non-
mining sectors are under pressure due to high exchange rates. Manufacturing in Australia
has been declined 5.5 percent over the last year. The number of international tourists

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coming to Australia has reduced as people tend to choose the cheaper destinations
(McCarthy, 2004).
Most of the mining jobs are well paid and 99 percent of people living in
Queensland have high housing costs, high interest rates and lesser tourism jobs,
agriculture and manufacturing. Research shows that people have overestimated the
economic effects and little consideration has been provided to the economic costs. The
mining boom can make larger profits for foreign owners and companies can easily
benefit through unions who are in close association with industry. However, it is easy to
take up the advantages of the Australian mines. The mining industry is very quick to
claim profits and revenue through job retention, but reluctant for the adverse impacts of
the expansion of different activities.
4. Ageing Workforce and HR planning
The business leaders have a strong focus towards the people strategies. The
present era is witnessing demographic shifts in Australia, Pakistan, USA and has resulted
in labor and skills shortages. This can threaten the business growth and potentials. In
mining, these trends are known through economic cycles, ageing workforce and
volatility. Moreover, the mining companies have started shifting towards the strategic HR
practices, HR analytics, workforce planning and workforce optimization (Sharma &
Sahoo, 2013). Workforce planning is a short term which requires recruitment planning
and need based staffing plans must be integrated so as to allow the organizations to
mitigate the business risks.

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The mining business needs to measure the workforce and forecasting requirements and
invest proactively in the retention and growth of the workforce. The union workers must
be imparted with the right knowledge, abilities and skills must be in the right place and
right time for meeting the business objectives. Strategic workforce planning must be
adopted for reducing the fluctuating commodity price and economic cycles. The mining
industry allows for efficient and effective use of union workers and management
decisions must meet with the long term and immediate needs. Advanced workforce must
be designed to help the industry workers what are the economic obstacles and which
proactive plan will be needed over the longer time period. The mining sector composes of
a wide number of organizations-small companies to lean operations, flat corporate
organizations to multinational organizations with extensive design organizations.
Irrespective of the differences existing in organizational structures, mining industry is
competing for skilled labor. The employers face tough competition and management
needs to address the long term conflicts in a coordinated industry approach for attracting
and retention of the workforce (Varney, 2008).
5. Fair Work Commission and Employee conflict resolution
There are different mechanisms for employee representation and voice in the mining
industry. The procedures are connected with the employment relationships which include-
1. Delegated regulation-This type of regulation is dependent on the operational mode of
the company being in question, whereas individual voices will not have any great effect.
Collective voices will come through the organization’s role in dispute processes.

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2. Statutory regulation- In statutory regulation, voice is raised politically. Individual
mechanisms can come through a political party membership. This can grant legal rights
to individual employees.
3. Individual contracting- In individual contracting system, workers will be directly
dealing with the organization, employer and formally agree to the employment terms
(Pounder, 2009).
4. Collective decision making-This is dependent on the organizational model as employees
can participate through collective means like trade unions and ratify the agreement.
5. Managerial Unilateralism-the workers will be participating as individuals through the
complete acceptance of rules which are made by management. The company can allow
selected employee input through employee councils, but operation takes place at the
management discretion.
The disputes can occur at any stage. Union councils need to productive and cooperative
and grievances must be taken seriously through the employers. There is always an opportunity
for independent union councils to assist in the resolution of a given dispute. Conflict resolution
can take place only by bringing disputes to an end. Foremost, the union council, employer and
employees must engage in negotiated outcome. Here, the parties will sort the things themselves.
Another way of solving conflicts in the mining industry is through the mediated income. The
parties will be using the independent mediator services and arrive at an agreement. The mining
companies can also engage in adjudicated or arbitrated outcome where the court will determine
how the conflicts will be resolved and binding decision to the effect.

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Conclusion
The union councils have interesting consequences for balancing the acts between
collectivism and individualism and therefore the employee voice. The dismissal of unfair
provisions provides the individuals with the opportunity to initiate the complaint. The employees
were reliant over the trade unions for the treatment of their dispute. At present, mining industry
must understand the advantages associated with the collective agreement which can encourage
the employees to become a part of trade unions. The compulsory arbitration means a guaranteed
role for trade unions towards the provision of different rules.
The negotiation needs to be done with the employers and strategies must be adopted
which are focused towards organizing model rather on servicing model. This encourages
decentralization of the locus of power and provides ranking opportunities to union members.
Workers can directly exercise voices and participate in the negotiation of the collective
agreements. The Workplaces Relations act allow the employees to make an appointment of
bargaining agents. This is simply drawn from the management laws and must be presented to the
employees for approval. However, employers should be prohibited to compel the employee for
signing an agreement and preventing the employer for providing the job to take it or leave basis.
The voice mechanism structures are appealing.

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