At Diggers, the Gold Industry Group announces massive focus shift towards culture in order to attract workforce.
What do candidates for mining jobs want to know more than anything else during the application process?
MPI Mining Engineering Consultant Emma Lewin, who’s in Kalgoorlie this week for Diggers and Dealers, said the answer would surprise most people in the industry.
“It’s not ‘what’s the roster’ or ‘what’s the pay’; it’s ‘what’s the culture like?’” Emma said.
Culture the hot topic at Diggers
Organisational culture was a hot topic on day two of Diggers, as 180 delegates attended the Gold Industry Group’s breakfast on the sidelines of the annual mining forum. At the breakfast, a panel of gold industry leaders (including Evolution Mining Executive Chairman Jake Klein, Northern Star Resources Executive Manager People and Culture Marianne Dravnieks, Westgold Resources Managing Director Wayne Bramwell, Curtin University Future of Work Institute Research Fellow Cheryl Yam and NSW Deputy Chief Scientist Darren Saunders) shared their views on how gold miners could “accelerate an industry-wide workplace inclusivity push” and how they see the sector evolving over the next year.
The gist? The gold sector, which has been a bit of a poor cousin to the wider mining industry in recent years, has a massive opportunity to establish a competitive advantage over other commodity miners by “having the safest and most inclusive workplaces in the resources sector”.
An inspiring day in Kalgoorlie
While this year’s Diggers has drawn criticism for its small number of women on the programme, Emma said the breakfast panel’s enthusiasm for embracing the opportunities of culture and diversity and inclusion were inspiring.
“They were talking about quite transformational change in their culture and making sure they lead from the front and do what they say they’re going to do,” she said.
Emma said from a recruitment expert’s perspective, the Gold Industry Group’s strategy was sound.
“Culture is one of the top three questions that candidates ask me about now,” she said. “They want to know what the culture is like. They want to know what the opportunities are for learning and development, what the support looks like.”
Lip service not enough to attract skilled workers
But Emma has a warning for any mining companies or recruiters who pay lip service to culture—we’ve been in a skills shortage for a long time and candidates now have quite a sophisticated understanding not just of what culture inside a mining company can and should be, but of the kind of buzzwords that sound good in an interview process but mean nothing in reality.
“There’s been a shift,” she said. “You can’t just throw out buzzwords like collaborative and supportive and diverse. It’s not enough. Candidates want to know what the expectations are from day one. Is there a structured onboarding plan? Will there be support and resources to upskill them in areas of development?”
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Emma’s advice to mining companies and HR professionals was to be open and honest about these sorts of questions with your recruiters and provide full answers.
“Describe the environment, be transparent, and talk about what you’re working on as opposed to where you want to be,” she said. “Be honest about your culture and the journey you’re on. Clients are apprehensive to share anything like that with a recruiter and I think they’re missing an opportunity, because we’re the conduit between the candidate and them; we’re the one who can sell that story for them, if they just give us the information.”
It sounds like the gold sector has recognised that reality and is making changes. They see the competitive advantage in doing so. But it’s also something every single mining company can do.
MPI has almost 30 years’ specialist experience helping mining companies find the best candidates across every job category. Find out more here or get in touch today.