Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Talent in the Mining Industry

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes challenges and solutions for attracting and retaining staff in the mining industry.

Attracting and retaining staff in the mining industry
The mining industry is considered as the booming industry in terms of economy and growth.
According to Measham (2013), in Australia mining sector is on the boom either financially or
operationally. The author focuses on different areas of its growth such as the trade market of
the mining industry is growing eventually. It was given that mining sector was increasing in
its shares. Investors are investing in the industry because of its productivity terms. Since the
historic era, the mining industry was facing a boom in a different respect, like gold boom,
mineral boom, and energy boom. Due to these kinds of boom and being an increasing
dominating sector, investment is increasing rapidly in this sector. As White (2013) also says
that mining sector is improving and helps in maintaining the financial stability of the
country and stands as a dominating sector in the growth of the country. Mining industry
needs a lot of human resource for performing mining-oriented tasks. Since mining is
considered as a profitable and financially dominating sector, it also consists of some
challenges and issues related to Human Resource Management, due to improper practices,
systems, and policies that lead to the changed behavior of the employees along with their
changed performance and attitude. The change was faced by the managers towards labors of
the mines. This change may be due to the improper management of the policies towards the
workers of the sector. According to Cooke (2015), mining activities should be performed
with a high-end strategy. He says that the implications of human resource management
(HRM) should be examined properly and adequately. The increasing mining firms across the
globe must be governed and with their expansion, the management effects must be addressed
adequately. Through ventures across the international market, the firms are developing
organizational capacity to acquire a human resource. The mining industry should govern the
manager-employee relationship because their relationship is based on the legal context, their
action restraints, and their values. Some general political and social morals must be guided in
their decision-making process and their behavior, stated in chapters 3, 4 of Kramar, (2013). If
an employee faces any issue regarding personal right and unfair means in the job then the
government of Australia enacted the Registered Organisations Act 2009 in year 2012 for
industries, says Mccrystal, (2014) in his research work. The research work says that there
were few changes in the Fair Work Act (FWA), including ‘anti-bullying’ implementation
that consists of friendly measures for the employees so that they can be encouraged to consult
and discuss any issues with higher authority or employers. The changes in the act and
legislation raised the managerial power of employers but reduced the job security of the

employees in mining sector and other sectors as well along with the employment conditions.
The policies should be made for the more employment opportunities to the public in mining
sector irrespective of the designation, including the occupation safety and health of the
employee or worker working in mines and facing a lot of health-related issues. To cope with
the issues and challenges the work design should be prepared along with it the analysis of
the job should be done to overview the organizational structure. The factors that have an
impact on job design and analysis must also be examined. The factors may be discrimination
at the workplace, health and safety issues related to occupation, as stated in chapter 6 of
Kramar, (2013). According to Parker, S. (2014), there is a large number of jobs that are of
poor quality, the government must have attention to influence the policies and practices for
promoting the implementation of enriched and effective work design. ER i.e. Employment
Relations is a standard practice that is practiced in many organizations of Australia. ER is
considered a core activity, which is essential for daily operations. According to Nyamubarwa,
(2013) mining industry is considered as the largest stock workers in order to achieve the
objectives of the organization. The author studied and researched the samples of mining
industries in Zimbabwe, he found that in mining industries employees are treated as a
valuable asset and they provide them job security along with social welfare services and
rewards. The organizations have adopted some innovative methods to manage their human
resources and considered as rare resources whom they can deploy to fulfill their
organizational needs. It was found that departments of HR practices Resource-Based View
(RBV) approach to manage the human resource in their particular organization. Since the
employees are the one who suffers at the end so some measure should be taken at the HR
level in respect of giving compensation and rewards to their workers. These steps are an
important part of the Human Resource Management activities of the mining organization, as
stated in Chapter 13, 14 of Kramar, (2013). Kim, (2013) and other authors state that the
policies like pay for performance, contribute to the economic and financial performance of
the company. The empowerment practices of the company will have a positive relationship
among firm performance and pay for performance plans.
The challenge that HR of any mining firm faces is how to attract the best candidates and
how to retain talented employees and workers of the firm. Since employees are considered
as the valuable assets of the company but in the mining industry, they are considered as the
backbone of the organization. If the number of staffs reaches the turnover it may have
consequences like spending more money on their training and recruiting process, in addition

to this, the productivity and morale of the staff is also impacted. When people came to know
that there will be the introduction of multiple projects in 2018-19 in Australia, they became
more choosey for the companies to sign with. This became a challenge for HR professionals
for retaining and attracting good and talented workers in the organization. The biggest
reason for an employee for leaving any firm is job dissatisfaction. If an employee is happy
with his work and engaged to do productive work with their organization then there will be
less mobility of workers (Pfeffer, J. 2010). People want job satisfaction and if an
organization fails to do so then its workers will find any other organization in hope to find a
better job. The other reasons for mobility include the kind of work they have been assigned,
total hours of work, job security, and flexibility and balance between work commitments
and personal life. Labour mobility is considered a common process and relatively stable.
According to Measham, (2013), the mining industry is prone to various issues in itself that
can be the cause of worker’s mobility and the job left. One of the biggest reasons is that there
is no life security in the mining industry. People working in coal, ore or mineral mining are
getting affected by the harmful gases filled in the surrounding. This job may badly affect
their health, and this may be their first thought while leaving the job. The health issues may
include skin cancer, asthma, allergy, etc. Workers who don’t have any job for a long time
tend to join the mining industry just for the sake of getting income for living. White, (2013)
in his research paper investigated the effects of mining activities on the environment and
found that it is not safe for the health and security of the workers working in the mines.
Mining also had a bad impact on our earth environment as it is contaminating the
atmosphere increasing the toxic everywhere. If any organization stood to protect this from its
consequences then it will cost them heavy in terms of environment and social.
It is very important to find out the reasons behind the fact the staff of mining industry is
facing a large number of challenges. The reasons could be many. It is important to focus on
each and every aspect of the industry to get the accurate finding behind the situations
happening in the industry. From the study it has been found the employees working in any
industry, are the most important assets for the industry. All the needs, requirements and
satisfaction of the staff working in the industry should be given the first priority. Treating the
staff people just as the workers will result in the staff members quitting their job. In the
industry of mining, the reason of the staff people for getting uninterested in their work profit
is due to the fact that no appropriate importance has been provided to them which make them
feel to leave the job. The safety and privacy of the people working in the industry is the

utmost priority of the mining industry (McKenzie, F, 2011). Working in mining industry is
very risky at each point in time when the staff is working on the site. It has been analyzed that
the job of staff working in the mining industry is a very risky job which can cost them their
lives. That is why many staff of mining industry left their job in the very early stages of their
working years. Many times, the staff members have to get shifted toward some remote areas
to get their job done. Shifting to some remote localities makes the staff members feel
uninterested in their job as they do not want to leave their preferred location. From many
studies, it can be stated that staff members of the mining industry do not get better carrier
progression on a long term basis. People need better growth and overall development, which
is comparatively very slow in industry mining. When no better exposures are provided to the
people, they start getting frustrated towards their work, and working culture. The working
cultures of mining industry of many countries are not preferable to the people which
ultimately results in the staff to get shifted from their job profiles. In context to the Human
Resource Management of mining industry, the staff working in the industry must be
provided with all the essential benefits which belong to their overall betterment and growth.
Providing people with all the benefits will make the people get interested in mining industry.
Mining industry has proven to be one of the riskiest industries to work in. The legal and
safety context of the human resource management of mining industry is very important. So it
is very essential to provide all kind of safety benefits to the staff working in the mining
industry. As the industry of mining is an industry where there is a need to gives so many
efforts in working and surviving in such environment, the staff of the industry wants that they
get paid as per they are applying efforts in doing their work. From the research, it has been
found that people are not getting paid as per the amount of work they are doing in the mining
industry. Workers get motivated to work in the mining industry if they will be provided with
all the benefits which they need while keep continuing in the work culture of mining industry.
Providing with the motivation, rewards, and compensation to the people who are applying
so much effort in work will get motivated to work in a more better and efficient manner.
All the problems analyzed in the mining industry if get solved, then it will result in the
attracting and retaining more number of staff towards the mining industry. It is the duty of the
government of the country to find out best possible solutions for the mining industry so that
the staff of the mining industry does not feel like quitting their job and get shifted toward
some other industry (Jayasuriya, C., Dayasiri, L., & Munaweera, M. 2010). As the mining
industry plays a vital role in the growth and development of the country so it is important

from both industrial and governmental point of view to implement some kind of rules and
regulations in the industry which are in favor of the workers working in the industry. When
making the workers feel safe about their work, they will never think of quitting the job. The
biggest challenge of the industry is to retain the staff to continue working in the mining
industry. If better solutions are provided for all the problems analyzed in the industry, the
mining industry will never face the challenge of staff members getting un-attracted towards
their job. Creating a healthy workplace environment can make people feel interested to
work in critical situations that redundantly occur in the industry of mining. Providing the
people with all the necessities like proper network coverage, internet accessibility and other
important factors which can help the workers to get in touch with their families while they
work in some remote areas will reduce the chances of workers to quit their jobs (Moltz, M.
2019). Providing regular reward and recognition to the workers who are performing
outstanding work in their field will motivate the workers to keep continuing with their work
in an even more efficient manner. It will also attract other staff member to do better work
who were not interested in doing the job when no recognition was provided to them (Otelea
Mihaela, & Popescu Cătălin. 2014). If the staff member of mining industry will be provided
with better growth opportunities that can help them to progress better in their carrier, no
worker will think of quitting the job. Workers in every industry want that they get better
platforms from which they can progress in their carrier in the path of working in any industry.
The same rule is applicable to the mining industry. If opportunities are provided to the staff
members, then it will result in retaining staff of mining industry to a great extent. One of the
best ways of attracting and retaining people in mining industry is by finding the reasons why
they are leaving the industry. Conducting an exit interview for the people who are leaving
the mining industry for finding the reasons behind their action of quitting a job can be a good
solution. If more work will be done in resolving the issues which are forcing staff to leave
their job then better solutions can be provided for reducing the rates of a number of staff
quitting their jobs. If all such solutions are taken care in an efficient way then it will result in
attracting and retaining staff of mining industry.
This article gives descriptive information about the mining industry and the ways of
attracting and retaining staff in the mining industry. The article focuses on the human
resource management related to the mining industry and all the other components related to
human resource management like human resource management strategies, ethical and safety
context of HRM, etc. The article gives a brief description of the challenges faced by the

mining industry in context to attracting and retaining staff. Analysis has been made on such
challenges and some solutions have been provided in the article that can help the mining
industry to attract and retain the staff. It has been highlighted that the mining industry plays a
very important role in the growth of any country. So it is the responsibility of the industry to
make better solutions that can attract and retain the staff toward the mining industry.

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