HRM Issues in S Afr Mining

The mining industry is a highly cyclical industry marked by a ‘boom and bust’ cycle. This places enormous pressure on mining companies to attract and retain good people when times are good and retain only the best when times are bad. Coupled to this is the perception amongst school leavers that mining is a dinosaur resulting in the best and the brightest entering some of the ‘trendier’ professions such as banking and IT. These two factors require an ever-increasing emphasis on attracting and retaining the right people for the job. Internally, mining companies have been seen as very poor at Human Resource Management (HRM), however the author believes that this is slowly changing. Managers are starting to recognize that the human capital in a company is at least as important as the other resources.

Ideally performance management systems are two-way. The employee should have an opportunity to discuss both the performance review and the developmental goals. A one-way performance management system will criticize the employee, but will not take into account issues that are beyond an employees control eg organizational effectiveness.

Job sculpting could possibly mean that all roles in an organization can be filled by people whose life interest correspond in some measure to the tasks they perform. It is, however, more likely that job sculpting will give you another tool to retain those people you cannot afford to lose.

All too often, the mining industry falls into one of two traps; employing the only candidate that presents themselves in the timeframe required; and falling into the ‘Bruce Clarke trap’ in that we tend to employ people we know from the past or through mutual colleagues and think that they will fit.

The 360° feedback method works particularly well where the workforce are in a team environment – where the performance of the individual has a large impact on the performance of the other team members and where they are working closely together. It is unlikely to work well where employees are generally sole operatives, with little or no interaction with other employees.

Many of these structures have supported successful businesses, but this is where the structure has allowed the organization to meet its strategies. Organizational structures have often failed the organization, as they haven’t met the basic business requirements.

Some topics in this essay:
Performance Management, South African, South Africa, Human Resources, South Africans, Gordon Moore, Butler Waldroop, Principles HRM, Corporate Structure, Deep-six Rub, mining industry, performance management, succession planning, job sculpting, course notes, human resource, resource management, human resource management, leadership styles, rijamampianina course notes, management systems, management system, performance management systems, performance management system, harvard business review,