Report: HRM Strategies for Managing People and Teams at MiningCo

This report analyzes MiningCo's human resource management practices, focusing on the challenges of managing teams in isolated locations with fly-in/fly-out staff. It explores the impact of human resource management on company performance, organizational design, and the roles of culture and ethics. The report details performance management initiatives, including their effects on employee motivation and productivity. It also offers recommendations to mitigate potential issues such as hysteria caused by economic crises, terrorism, and health concerns. Furthermore, the report emphasizes the importance of proper organizational design and ethical considerations in managing people, concluding with a discussion on the role of a crisis management team in remote mining sites.

MANAGING PEOPLE AND
TEAMS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Human resource management and its impact on company performance....................................1
Role of organisational design in managing people.....................................................................2
Role of culture and ethics in managing people...........................................................................2
Performance management initiatives..........................................................................................2
Recommendations to curb any hysteria .....................................................................................4
Crisis management team and its role at these sites.....................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
In the modern era of business it is important for the firms to manage its resources. In
managing resources one of the most important resource is human resource. Managers needs to
manage their teams comprising of people where they need to understand there needs and hence
fulfil their demands (Allan and et. al. 2014). In today's business there are various kinds of staff
members i.e. fly in and fly out. They all need to be managed in order to achieve maximum
capacity for an organisation. Improper management always leads to disruption in the working
procedures. Numerous strategies in this regard is being followed by firm's management so that
they can have most satisfied employees as well as availability of staff members at the required
time and place can be ensured. MiningCo is one such company that is operational in many
isolated locations and are having fly in and fly out staffs on a rotating two weeks roaster basis.
This report highlights the ways in which company manages its teams and peoples. It also
showcases initiatives that are taken by MiningCo to manage its staff presence at every location.
Human resource management and its impact on company performance
Today companies especially the bigger ones have large number of human resources that
are operational in many regions of the world. This increases the requirement of managing people
inside the firm. At workplaces its the role of managers to manage their team so as to achieve
their task in desired frame of time. There are several initiatives that are taken by this department
so as to achieve employee satisfaction (Böhm, 2013). In the present case study where the
company is operational in many isolated places it is very difficult for the companies to manage
people as the staff members do not want to work at these places isolating from there families and
society. At these places the HRM has to think about there various daily requirements which
ranges from basic amenities to entertainment. The working condition are generally exhaustive at
these mining sites so they demand for change in the shifts as well as short working hours. In
order to manage these in the countries like Australia the practice of hiring staffs for remote area
is based on fly-in and fly-out principle. By doing so HRM do not have to relocate them at these
places and take of the facilities that they will require.
These kinds of management increases the overall performance of the firm as the
employee satisfaction increases their level of effectiveness. Increased efficiency of staff
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members leads to increase in the productivity of the company as well as increasing the standards
of work place.
Role of organisational design in managing people
One of the most significant way of managing people inside the firm is setting up of
organisational design properly. Proper organisational structure always helps the company in
implementing effective strategies for staffs management (Bush & Middlewood, 2013). It helps
company in motivating their staffs and working for the the company as they understand their
clear line of control and their importance in such firms.
Role of culture and ethics in managing people
Working culture that is been provided to the staff members needs to comply with the
working culture of the societies they belongs to. There are many ethic related issues that are
present in the firm that arises while working in a team and managing people at work places.
Culture and ethics are two such factors that helps in enhancing the employees motivational level.
Performance management initiatives
There are several initiatives that are taken by the firms such as MiningCo to manage the
performance of the employees. Introduction of these management schemes helps in managing
the people as well as understanding the needs of people that will help in increasing their
efficiency. There must be an effective decisions that needs to made in this regard so that
company can make use of these when the proposed initiative reduces the staffs performance. The
mangers at various levels have to collect data related to the performance of the employees. There
are various ways in which the introduction of performance management initiative will impact on
motivation of staffs at these isolated locations.
 It increases the competitiveness among the staffs which leads to increasing their capacity
as they are destined to be better than everyone else (Ferrazzi, 2014). This is a regular
practice and come from inside hence is very effective in its motive.
 When employee checks their performance on regular intervals they can understand where
they are lying so that they cannot feel bad when they do not get appraisals. It helps them
to understand the areas where they need to improve.
 As the staff members have many workplace related issues such as working in shifts
especially night shifts these all are introduced in the performance management initiative.
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This could be helpful in increasing the motivation as they will feel that MiningCo is
doing something that is in their interest.
 They also understand that these performance management initiatives will increase the
own set of skills that will be helpful for them when they will work for some other
company or getting promoted. This is one the best thing about this kind of management
as it motivates the people at most.
Performance management initiative is a long term process so there may be a situation
where many problems can arise while it is being implemented or introduced (Franz & Borum,
2011). One of the important thing that needs to be considered in this regard is that the ways in
which it is implemented in the firm. Proper implementation helps in disruption in the company
procedures. Proposed initiatives impact on decisions moving forward are as follows:
This will help in increasing the overall efficiency of the employee which will directly result in
increasing the total performance of the MiningCo firm. In the isolated locations these can be
highly beneficial as the working culture at these paces are different.
 This increases the productivity of the firm as the workers performance increases at the
firm.
 It enhance the effectiveness and quality of the firm that helps in gaining higher profits
from is operations.
 It also helps company in setting their goals that is larger from the last time and hence they
can achieve it successfully.
 It also helps in understanding the training needs of every employee so that they can mug
up to companies standards
 It also helps in construction of decisions that is associated with different operations and
strategic plans that are made for the having edge over its competitors.
 It is a proven fact that company who has the better staff members in terms of quality and
skills performs the best in the market as almost every firm of same scale have equal
amount of inventory as well as resources its the workers that helps in accomplishing what
they have set in the decision making process.
 There is sometimes negative impact of these kinds of introductions in the ways like they
increases negative competition that leads to effect the culture of working as a team
(Hoefling, 2012). They can work as a team when they feel that these management is for
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understanding there requirements regarding there skill sets which will be used further for
there training. It is the role of the managers to let these things be understood to its staff
members.
Recommendations to curb any hysteria
There are several factors that influences the working culture at any places. In the present
case it is comes with the factor that the company is operational at remote locations. At these
locations MiningCo company has many staff members that is employed on Fly-in and Fly-out
basis (Holtbrügge and et. al. 2011). Two of the most important factor in this regard is their health
and safety. These operational sites are separate entity in itself because they are operational at
such kind of places which result in less amount of cross overs or following of rotation policy. To
solve this problem company has to hire many personnels at the same time that could work in
different shifts which is again a problem as it increases the burden on the company in terms of
finance. Little rotations in shift increases the frustration in the minds of customers and hence
reducing their motivational level which can be highly difficult for the company in the long run.
There are several factors that produces hysteria at such locations:
 The economic crisis of Greece has made the workers of these company to re thinks about
the jobs that whether they want to continue working at these firms or not especially at
these locations (Katzenbach & Smith, 2015). This has reduced the number of workers
that came from other parts of the Europe as they did not felt right for working in such
kinds of environment of economic negativity.
 There is one more bigger thing that has impacted the working of these places i.e.
terrorism. These impact of ISIS terror activities especially in the middle east has resulted
workers to fled always from these places as there is feeling that its better work in the
society that is more safe protected by laws rather than working at these sites where
attacks and abductions easier to made.
 Health related issues is a one of the major concern that is present at these places as there
are many injuries that arises in these mining sites along with severe immediate
medication facilities as the companies have only the equipments for first aid so it may
leads to some serious damages on the workers side.
 There is also case that people cannot leave with their families and meet them on daily
basis this increases the frustration sin the minds of people and hence they decide to leave
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the job and hence making employee retention capability to come down. In the firms such
as MiningCo there are several employee who have their family members whom they need
to look out for. As the rotation are improper in these kinds of firm's entity so it makes
workers management difficult.
Since the employees comes from different ethical and cultural backgrounds so it
increases the need of imbibing a mixed environment that forfeits with every other culture. This
problem increases at the time of festivals as they want to be with their families and some extra
leaves and work loads or improper rotation increases the frustration level of the employees (Levi,
2015). The role of management is very important in the way that they are the only ones who
have to talk to the staff members and manage their teams. This problem is more with the
company's officials as they are reluctant to be present at these places because of their life style
they lead in the society. Most of the officials wants to be at the head offices rather than being
present at these places this increases the chaos in the minds of employees at these places when
they need immediate supervision or decision making that needs to implemented at that time.
There are various steps that could be followed by the MiningCo in order to reduce or curb with
such kind of hysteria. Some of them are as follows:
 First of all the company needs to set up time table for the workers that is less. This will
reduce the burden on employees and proper rotation can easily be possible in a short
while of time.
 Officers needs to be paid high for working at these places so that it can satisfy what they
want and help in their retentions at these places.
 MiningCo needs to set HRM department at these places so that employees view point and
there needs can be addressed. It also helps in managing the daily requirements of the
worker and the places where they are operating. They act as a bridge between
organisation and staffs so that there views can also be listened.
 There is a need of primary health care centres at these places so that proper medications
can be provided to the workers (Morabito and et. al. (2012)). There are many fatal
casualties that occurs sometime. To tackle these situations there must be proper team of
doctors or general physicians and a rapid ambulance team so that it the condition is
serious then they could be referred to main hospitals. This improves employee
motivation.
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 Proper security arrangements needs to be present at these entities so that there is a feeling
of security in the minds of the people and they can work in a safer and healthier
environment which ultimately increases their own efficiency and hence higher
productivity can be assured.
Crisis management team and its role at these sites.
One of the important aspects or elements of these places is the crisis management team
that manages various kinds of situation that arises all of a sudden. This teams role is vary large
from managing the overall operations in the firm at the time of crisis to responding in case of any
fatal casualties. It provides immediate response to managing risk, stakeholders interest in
response to any disaster (Mukherjee and et. al. 2012). They are basically designed to accomplish
variety of incident response function. Team has a role of analysing and accessing potential
damage that could be posed by the situation arised and provide warning for the staffs in case of
emergency. It comprises of members from all sections of the operations teams so that if any
situation arises they can immediately respond to it. They must be able to properly coordinate
with the employee using communication mediums. There roles starts way before the crisis arise
in the form of virtual trainings. They conduct seminars and workshop so as to train staffs that
how would they react in the particular situation and coordinate with crisis management team.
Creation of crisis management team for MiningCo:
 It comprises of leaders or senior manger that will coordinate and instruct overall
operations of team. They are the decision makers of the team as well as they reinforce a
particular purpose of the team and assigns the role of each individual at the time of crisis.
They decide the structure and operating mechanism of the team.
 Security manager: They have the role of providing review about the security condition
based on the inputs gained from observation in that situation.
 Public affair advisor: He is responsible for checking all aspects of communication that is
required at that situation (O'leary, Mortensen & Woolley, 2011).
 Human resource advisor: maintains all the details about the employee so that they can
immediately contact with various employees.
 Legal advisor: In case of crisis it is important to have legal representative so that they can
check any legal implications that occurs at the time of crisis (Developing a Team for
Crisis Management. 2017).
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 Administrative member: This member will have all the administrative resources that will
be required at these times.
 Other Team members: It comprises of doctors or medical advisors, Engineering heads,
environmental and safety experts, technicians and other subject matter experts and many
more so that they can immediately respond to any kind of situations arised.
One of the main aspect of these teams is that it should be flexible and can intake
members as per the size or demand of the crisis so that it can accommodate strategic and tactical
needs of the incidents (.Pryjmachuk and et. al. 2012). There are three parts of crisis management
team that will be required at the individual entities of the MiningCo. i.e. Regional emergency
management team which manages the impacts and issues at regional entity levels, Business
support team which manages business facilities and impacts implementation of Business
Continuity Plans when required as well as Site Emergency Response Team which provides off
scene response.
The structure that this team should follow is horizontal so that each member has there say
on the decisions made by this team. Team leader is the supreme head and give final decisions on
how to tackle the arisen situation.
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sources 1: Crisis management team, 2017

The selection criteria for this kind of team are:
 They must have faced these situations earlier or they are the subject matter heads and
have considerable amount of experience.
 They must have worked for this organisation for a while so that they are aware of all the
ethical, cultural issues that arises in the firm.
 They must be having the information about the best practices that are practised in the
industry in terms of crisis management and situational handling procedures.
There are several ways in which they can be rewarded:
 Promotions: It is one of the oldest methods to appraise any excellent work (Roberson &
Williamson, 2012). This increases the motivational level of the employee much beyond
what other forms can do.
 They can be rewarded with some monetary benefits for their outstanding work at the time
of any crisis situation.
 Sometimes appraisal in the form of words from senior management can helps in this
regard. It is a appraisal that motivates the employee or team for the short interval of time.
CONCLUSION
From the above based report it can be concluded that in the era of globalisation
companies like MiningCo has many kind of operating places that are situated in the isolated
locations. There are various needs and requirements of workers at these location which all needs
to be fulfilled in order to increase there productivity. Managing team and individuals is important
because it lifts up the overall capacity of the firm if managed well. One of most crucial role
regarding this is played by human resource management team. The organisational structure is
very important in this regard as it defines the ways that needs to be followed so as to manage
there people in order to ensure that staffs are always available at the time of their requirement.
From this report it can also be deduced that the Fly-in and Fly-out staffing procedure is very
popular in countries like Australia and hence there needs are different which has to fulfilled. The
officials of the firms do not want to work at these places as they have deficiency of certain kinds
of basic infrastructures such as hospitals. Introduction of performance management system is
helpful in increasing the motivational level of the employee if implemented properly There must
be a Crisis management team that handles the situation that are suddenly arised. It comprises of
members that are different subject experts and is being lead by leader or senior manager.
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REFERENCES
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Franz, S., & Borum, R. (2011). Crisis intervention teams may prevent arrests of people with
mental illnesses. Police practice and research: an international journal. 12(3). 265-272.
Hoefling, T. (2012). Working virtually: Managing people for successful virtual teams and
organizations. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Holtbrügge, D. and et. al. (2011). Managing and training for virtual teams in India. Team
Performance Management: An International Journal. 17(3/4). 206-223.
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Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (2015). The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance
organization. Harvard Business Review Press.
Levi, D. (2015). Group dynamics for teams. Sage Publications.
Morabito, M. S., and et. al. (2012). Crisis intervention teams and people with mental illness:
Exploring the factors that influence the use of force. Crime & delinquency. 58(1). 57-77.
Mukherjee, D. and et. al. (2012). Leading virtual teams: how do social, cognitive, and behavioral
capabilities matter?. Management Decision. 50(2). 273-290.
O'leary, M. B., Mortensen, M., & Woolley, A. W. (2011). Multiple team membership: A
theoretical model of its effects on productivity and learning for individuals and teams.
Academy of Management Review. 36(3). 461-478.
Pryjmachuk, S. and et. al. (2012). School nurses’ perspectives on managing mental health
problems in children and young people. Journal of clinical nursing. 21(5‐6). 850-859.
Roberson, Q. M., & Williamson, I. O. (2012). Justice in self-managing teams: The role of social
networks in the emergence of procedural justice climates. Academy of Management
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Online
Developing a Team for Crisis Management. 2017. [online]. Available through :
<https://www.universalclass.com/articles/self-help/crisis-management/developing-a-
team-for-crisis-management.htm>. Accessed on 18th October 2017.
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