Engineering & Mining Journal

FEB 2013

Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr

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HUMAN RESOURCES tances potential employees who seek a positive work/life balance. As an alternative, executives are seeking to access non-traditional and under-represented labor pools including women, transitioning workers, and Aboriginal people. MiHR launched the Aboriginal Engagement Initiatives and Australia introduced Pathways to the Pilbara, a program to train unemployed and under-employed Indigenous Australians in basic mining skills. Both of these initiatives attempt to create career opportunities that advance under-represented parts of the workforce while helping to address the labor shortage. In other parts of the world, companies are replacing expatriates with local workers. For example, localization policies in Ghana require companies to employ a reasonable level of indigenes in all operational areas. Efforts such as these help to increase local ownership while decreasing both costs and employee turnover. From Competency to Proficiency Since 1946, Alexander Proudfoot has undertaken hundreds of significant mining projects around the world across a wide range of surface and subsurface mines, smelters and refining operations. Based on these extensive experiences, the company realizes that more must be done to address the critical labor shortage. The current actions of mining companies are valiant efforts but do not go far enough to fill the immediate gap confronting today's executives. The ability to identify, attract and retain critical operational skills is more important now than ever before and is imperative to the future of the industry. The companies Proudfoot works with are developing differentiated employee value propositions and incorporating enhanced incentive pay structures to attract the talent necessary to continue growth. Its focus is what you do with people once you get them through the door—developing talent to address the burgeoning knowledge gap caused by the aforementioned factors. Many workers we see from day to day are being forced to step up in their careers at a much faster pace. For this progress to be seamless, Proudfoot believes executives need to up-skill their employees by focusing on two core areas: competency and proficiency. • Competency: Mining employees must first become competent in their roles, meaning they know how to operate the necessary equipment and perform the required tasks. • Proficiency: Once employees reach a certain level of competency, they then need to develop proficiency in a given area. This translates to being able to operate equipment in a way that will not impede the operation, while meeting production targets and being able to take corrective actions when issues are identified. Employee Skills in Focus Proudfoot has worked side-by-side with companies to develop employee and supervisory skills at all levels of an organization. As an example, a gold mining company in Ghana needed to improve volume to take advantage of rising gold prices. Seeing that its human resources processes and people improvement initiatives were deteriorating, the company turned to Proudfoot to improve employee performance through an overhaul of its human resources approach 58 E&MJ; • FEBRUARY 2013 www.e-mj.com

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