OIM Consulting’s Group CEO Arjen De Bruin shares the most common workforce mining challenges found in Africa, Australia, South or North America – and what to do about them.
When we’re faced with a seemingly insurmountable hurdle, many of us are guilty of believing that the problems we’re facing are unique to us only; and that there is no one else going through what we are.
The same is true in the business world. For those working in mining in a particular region – be it Africa, Australia, South or North America – we see things through our regional lens, often not considering that the same day -to-day a challenges we face are similarly encountered by our global counterparts.
Arjen de Bruin, Group CEO at OIM Consulting, says it is important to understand that many of the workforce challenges we encounter are shared by other organisations in other countries. “When we understand this commonality, the problems become surmountable, as we realise the interventions that worked for other companies and countries will work for us.”
A snapshot of the global supervisor
A recent global survey that assessed over 9000 mining supervisors (who had been exposed to the same training and protocols) in different regions identified certain key strengths in supervisors, depending on the area they were based.
For example, in Australia and North America, the study found that supervisors were streaks ahead of their global counterparts in the following capabilities:
– Mental processing
– Dealing with complexity
– Technical skills
“In terms of societal construct, Australians and North Americans typically have a solid foundation in schooling, which means they are well-equipped to grasp and process complex issues, which assist in developing their technical skills. The industry is also very process-driven, with workers complying with the rules,” explains De Bruin.
In Africa, as well as both South and North America, supervisors were stronger than Australian front-line leaders in:
– Social processing skills
– Application
– Safety proficiency
“Africans are very community-centric, and this creates strong social processing skills and application, as well as an understanding of the importance of collaboration and teamwork, says De Bruin.
“Africa, North and South America also score slightly higher on safety proficiency, which some might find surprising given the robustness of the Australian regulatory environment.
“However, because many of the variables that could lead to injuries or safety incidents are removed as a result of this process-driven environment, Australian supervisors might not need to develop such strong powers of observation or to be as attuned to the unexpected as their global counterparts, which is possibly why they ranked lower on safety,” he suggests.
Aside from these regional differences, the survey found far more similarities between the industries, with the 10 most common shared problems being:
- Frequently missed daily targets
- Upward delegation
- Lack of team engagement
- Too many initiatives delivering sub-par results
- Lack of confidence in the supervisor
- Non-standard work approach (“firefighter” mode)
- Lack of clear accountability
- Recurring safety issues
- Increased turnover of supervisors
- Problems with extended spans of control
With offices in South Africa and Australia, OIM Consulting’s own research supports these findings, with its assessments revealing that 91% of supervisors follow an unstructured and reactive approach to work which directly impacts output, while only 12% regularly set direction, engage, and empower their teams for target attainment.
“The first critical intervention, regardless of what region you’re in, is to get your supervisors united around the organisation’s purpose and direction. They are your front-line leaders and culture carriers and for any strategy, programme or initiative to be effective, you need to align their role, performance and behaviour around your goals, so they understand the real contribution they make,” says De Bruin.
Developing leadership and intellectual capital is critical, he says, which can be achieved through training and classroom learning. “However, the most important step is on-the-ground coaching, critical to embed these new skills for execution excellence.”
These challenges are universal, regardless of where an organisation is based, says De Bruin. If we are to drive universal operational excellence, we need to put our people first – “they are the heart of our organisation, and sustainable change can only start with them,” he says.
