Talent Management Essay: Challenges And Trends In Mining Industry.

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Background of the Research

Mining industry is the strongest performing industry for Australia for a long time. At its recent peak the industry with respect to the total GDP contributed close to 9% as the investment value (The Economist, 2017). The industry is highly resilient as seen in the recent world wide low price based crisis time. The current research report in that context would investigate the current challenges faced by the mining sector in terms of talent attraction and talent retention in the long haul and how it would help to contribute towards building up a sustainable competitive advantage for the mining industry in Australia.

This research would also examine how the future trends in the mining sector would eventually have an impact on future talent induction and retention. This research is a case study research and for the context of this research, the researcher has chosen BHP Billiton to be the case study organisation. BHP Billiton is one of the largest mining companies in Australia and the researcher would try to provide a detailed insight into the existing talent management approach being followed within the organisation.

Background of the Research

The last 10 years had proved to be a roller coaster ride for the global mining sector as the industry has reached historic highs and lows. The industry has been witnessing a tough time since the global recession in 2008 which had resulted in a drop in the global demand for products and commodities that are catered by the global miners (Pratley, 2015). The lack of global demand for commodities invariably created a significant decline in the market prices of the commodities that eventually caused huge losses for the global mining sector.

The main culprit for the downturn of the global mining sector has been attributed to the fall in demand from China which during the time was the principal importer of commodities provided by the global mining sector (Jamasmie, 2018). China was the largest commodity market of the world and a fall in demand from the Chinese market invariably resulted in the commodity prices falling rapidly which surmounted the losses for the global miners that had already been reeling from the weak global demand for commodities. However, just as every cloud has silver linings similarly the global mining sector has successfully weathered the storm and experts have been saying that the worst is over and the market situation can only improve from here onwards (Calam, 2018).

In the changing business scenario, talent management and talent retention would become a major challenge for the organisation. The improving market scenario resulting from increasing global demands would make the mining industry more competitive in the coming years and so there would be a rising demand for talented and qualified professionals in this sector. This is why it has become the need of the hour for global mining companies to develop and design effective talent management and talent retention strategies which would help them to improve their organisational performance and productivity in the long haul (Roberts, 2018).

Project Topic

Project Topic

Talent management approach for the mining industry based on current challenges and trend:  A case study of BHP Billiton.

Purpose of the Research   

The year 2017 had been a remarkable year for the global miners as they have been able to witness positive growth in their business operations. The top 40 global mining companies saw their combined market capitalisation swell by almost 30% to $926 billion as compared to the previous year while revenues have recorded a steady year-on-year growth of 23% to touch almost $600 billion (Calam, 2018). The turnaround in the global mining sector has largely been attributed to the recovery in the global commodity prices that have been essentially fuelled by the global economic growth. Moreover, global mining companies have been quick to realise that there has been a temperamental shift in their operational realities that has been necessary in the face of the digital revolution that the world has been witnessing in the last few years. Companies need to incorporate the necessary changes and improvements in their existing business strategies and functionalities .

if they want to be successful in the near future as the industry is going to witness a sea change in the coming years (Xerfi.com, 2018). The mining industry is going to grow and evolve at a rapid rate because of the rapid pace of scientific and technological advancement that we are witnessing at present. This changing scenario necessitates better talent retention strategies on the part of the mining companies as they would require more talented manpower in the coming years in order to effectively cater to their changing future business needs and requirements. This research would try to focus on the changing market dynamics in the mining sector and how it is eventually influencing the talent management and talent retention strategies that are being utilised in the mining sector (Cappelli, 2008).      

Several commodities are expected to witness a bull run in the next 10 years as the global mining sector is going to witness a transition due to the disruptive technologies that create new dimensions for the mining sector and eventually revolutionise this industry. The industry is set to undergo a major transition in the coming years and this would largely be due to the future bullish growth that the industry experts widely anticipate in the coming years. Under this changing scenario, it has become extremely important for the mining companies to ensure a highly qualified and skilled manpower within their ranks as they would be the instruments for their future growth and success in the market thereby becoming the most important and vital asset for the organisation (Scullion and Collings, 2011).

Cappelli, (2008) has opined that as the mining industry makes a full recovery from the global slowdown and recession that it witnessed in 2008, there companies would be facing increased manpower requirements for their growing business operations in the market. Individuals possessing the right set of skills and qualifications that would make them competent for the mining sector would really become highly sought after by the different mining companies and this would invariably result in high employment turnover in the mining sector (Schultz and Grimm, 2008).

Purpose of the Research

Companies would be willing to provide better remuneration and perks to experienced professionals and this would invariably create a situation where employees would leave their existing jobs in search of better career growth opportunities. This is why companies need to be better equipped to face the future challenges pertaining to the retention of their skilled and experienced manpower in the market or lease it could be detrimental to their business operations in the market (Cappelli, 2009).

According to Schultz and Grimm, (2008) it has become the urgent need of the hour for the companies in the mining sector to develop and design effective talent attraction and talent retention strategies that would help the organisation to foster job satisfaction and job loyalty among their staffs. This would help them to provide better motivation and inspiration to their staffs and as a result they would be able to retain their staffs for the long haul. Business establishments nowadays must incorporate an efficient talent management model which would help them to ensure a highly skilled and competent workforce at their disposal (Collings and Mellahi, 2009).

By utilising an effective talent management model, organisations would be able to monitor the performance of their employees and identify the gaps that exist in their skills and competencies in the market. This would help them to identify the skill requirements of their staffs and they would be able to impart the right training and guidance to their employees which would eventually make their employees more efficient and proficient in their jobs.

According to Deery, (2008) the importance of as talent management model resides in the fact that it helps an organisation to identify the right individuals for the right jobs roles and responsibilities. Organisations need to ensure that their employees are provided with equal career growth and development opportunities at the workplace and this would make them more competent at their jobs. Talent retention is a critical component of the talent management model and this could be done by providing the employees with good remuneration and perks that would keep them motivated and engaged at their jobs (Scullion and Collings, 2011). This would help the business establishments to retain their staffs for the long haul and thus they would be able to address the future challenges that would be encountered in the mining sector.          

This is a secondary research and all the data and information that have been incorporated and utilised in their research have been obtained by the researcher from secondary sources. The secondary sources of data and information included all industry reports, business journals, magazines and articles that are available from both online and offline sources. The researcher has undertaken a descriptive analysis of the secondary literature that that have obtained from diverse sources (Heaton, 2008).

Research Strategy

The present research is a case study research as the researcher has selected BHP Billiton as the case study organisation in this research. The researcher has tried to provide all data information pertaining to BHP Billiton in order to provide the readers with a comprehensive understanding about the talent management approach being utilised by BHP Billiton to attract and retain existing and new prospective talented personnel within the organisation (Noor, 2008).

The Changing Talent Dynamic

Data Analysis

This is a secondary research and so that researcher has opted for a descriptive thematic analysis about their chosen research topic. This has helped them to provide a detailed insight about the current and existing trends in the mining sector in Australia and how it is eventually influencing the talent management and talent retention strategies at BHP Billiton.

Search Strategy 

The success of a secondary research invariably depends on the efficiency of the information searching strategy that has been employed by the researchers to find out relevant data and information about the chosen topic of research. In this particular research, the researcher has adopted an effective search strategy by making use of certain keywords such enabled them to streamline the entire searching process and this helped the researcher to find out accurate and reliable data and information regarding the chosen research topic (Panneerselvam, 2014). The researcher has also made use of Boolean operators like “and” and “or” in order to further optimise the information searching process and this eventually helped them to save their value time and energy in the research process

Keywords used in the Searching Process

Some of the important keywords that have been utilised by the researcher in order to streamline the information searching process include “mining industry”, “sustainability”, “competitive advantage”, “future trends”, “talent management”, “talent induction”, “current challenges”, “human resources management”, “talent retention”, “employee satisfaction”, “motivation” and “job loyalty”. This eventually helped the researcher to find out accurate data and information pertaining to the research.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

The inclusion and exclusion criteria play a major role in ensuring a thorough and accurate research process. It helps the researchers to ensure that all the data and information use in the research are up-to-date and are relevant to the selected research topic. In this present research, the researcher has decided the exclusion criteria to be those research articles and magazines that had been done in the English language. This helped the researcher to ensure that only articles written in English language are only considered and examined for carrying out this research( Blessing and Chakrabarti, 2009). The inclusion criteria for the research have been set as the time duration of last ten years. By utilising this inclusion criterion, the researcher was able to utilise and examine all business articles and reports that had been published during the last ten years.   

The mining industry is not only contributing to the ores mined or extracted sector but also to the greater value chain of the industry related to the associated services and processing. The following table is depicting the growth and size status of the industry.

The data in the above section shows that the mining sector of Australia is based on the largely on metal production, ore extraction, exploration activity and exporting them. But the supporting service sector plays an important contribution in the overall size. Among all of them dependency on the iron ore is the highest. Around 60% of total export is contributed by the mineral industry of Australia. The exporting countries are the India, South Korea, Japan and china (acola.org.au, 2014).

Developing Effective Talent Management Strategies

Commodity industry and the Australian mining industry phase

The commodity market around the world has seen strong change in their price index in recent times. The peak of 2012 steadily declined but in last 1 to 2 years improvement is seen. The industry worldwide is ready to witness another rising trend. But the Australian mining industry is at different stage now. Up to the 2012-13 the industry was in the investment phase where the sufficient production capacity has been created to be used (acola.org.au, 2014). Now the production phase would be useful for the export oriented approach through commercial production and scale utilisation.

Political and legal wise the risk to reward ratio for the Australian mining sector is favourable. On the other hand the legislative aspect of the market is one of the best of the world (acola.org.au, 2014). In the world commodity market largest consumer is the China. China is also the largest importer of these mining products of Australia and that is the result of the agreement of 80’s decades (aph.gov.au, 2017). But in recent times the bilateral relation between these two countries has faced some strong problem.  The situation went to a stage where in the China market the Australian’s products faced some boycott like situation (Couriermail.com.au, 2017).

Economic

World economic environment is important for driving growth for the mining industry. the world is expected to grow by 3.9% in the current year and the future growth prospect is also strong (IMF, 2018). China’s economic growth is slowing down and that would reduce the consumption. On the other hand the rising trend of the commodity market is providing better prospect for the industry (indexmundi, 2018). World class deposit of mineral and diverse step of mineral resource of Australia makes this industry competitive in the international market. but the economic problem for the industry is the rising cost, moderate commodity price, and greater scope for productivity improvement (acola.org.au, 2014).

Social

The community surrounding the mining industry is changing their negotiation and becoming sophisticated. In the Australian mining industry one of the important concerns is the shortage of talent in the industry (Dickie and Dwyer, 2011).  on the other hand the local area near the mining industry is having higher cost of living (acola.org.au, 2014).

Technology

Change in technology and innovations have in recent time changed the efficiency level in the industry that reduced cost factor. In recent time this industry has invested around 600m AUD for the technology development and process of exploration (australianmining, 2017).

Environment

Waste, pollution, size of mine, use of water and consumption of energy are some of the important environmental concern for the industry. Pollution of air and the greenhouse gas is the most impactful aspect of this industry. Some of these factors had in recent times became the cause of agitation and project work disruption (Mudd, 2010).

Challenges found from the external environment analysis  

• Growing cost
• Need for specialised and talented personnel in the mining industry
• Commodity prices moderation
• Declining productivity
• Declining investment in the industry
• Need for faster technological development

The financial performance analysis shows that in the last year’s operation operating revenue improvement has been achieved by 15% through broad range of commodity (pwc. 2017). The price improvement in the Australian coal price has provides strong growth factor in that commodity.

Importance of a Talent Management Model

Impairment or the permanent reduction in the fixed asset based company value is also visible in the 2017 but the trend is fluctuating. This aspect needs strong consideration in the cost cutting part of the business operating approach. But in the mining industry of Australia the production phase is on and that may drive the higher operating cost for the businesses.

In the 2017’s operation close to 4% drop in the total debt has been seen because of the stronger cash flow from the operation (pwc. 2017). But the significant aspect is that the gearing ratio is now higher than the global peers. The decision to invest for the future activity would not be a easy decision in the current environment.

The strong growth of 33% in the operating cash flow part was the result of the flat cost structure followed and the growth in the top line revenue (pwc. 2017).  The chart below shows the sector specific growth in cash flow.

Challenges from the financial position

• Lack of financial strength to invest
• Maintaining the operating cost

In recent times there has been different aspect that helped the industry and continuous importance of those factors is becoming the trend factor in the market. Some of the important trends are discussed below

Digital technology implementation

Within this digital technology internet of things based data capturing sensor, wearable technology, 3D printing, drones, vehicles of autonomous type are some of the important trend making technology for the sector. The data analysis, management and decision making implementation would be beneficial for the operational efficiency.

Innovation drive

The process of innovation is the future of the industry but the barrier in this innovation process is the main challenge for the industry. The reason of barrier is the uncertainty in longer term direction of business, risk adverse tendency, impact on cash flow because of higher cost for innovation start-up and the licensing issue are some of the barrier making factor in this process. The data below shows that mining industry traditionally is lagging behind in the overall industry context.

Future work

The technology inclusion would be beneficial for the company in better decision making and reducing cost through automation. But for the job market it may have a negative impact. On the other hand the companies would have to search for better source of talent.

Stakeholder relationship transformation

Local opportunity for employment, environmental protection, infrastructure improvement is getting priority in the industry. The better relation with the government is also important for the future better policy direction. On the other hand changing work environment and technology inclusion also influencing the industry to rethink employee relation.

Reverse replacement

In this industry lower expenditure in the exploration work because of the price to earnings rise, and increase in debt is not suitable for the industry where reserves for the cobalt, copper, silver and gold is depleting.

Commodity of future

In future there would be different commodity need and the industry needs to invest in that. Demand for the copper, nickel, cobalt, graphite and lithium is expected to rise further because of the technological development in the battery and electric vehicle industry. Considering this the businesses in the mining industry needs to invest in theses mining sector.

Identifying the Right Individuals for the Right Jobs

HRM implications for the industry

From the above industry wide information search has provided different challenges and trends. From the human resource management perspective talent management is going to be the most important need that the organisations have to focus on (Al Ariss et al., 2014). The reason is that the companies in Australia are stressed out and not in any position to further invest through capital investment rout. On the other hand the production cost and productivity is a significant issue for the industry. This recent bad time for the mining industry was one of the causes of job cut in the industry for the cost cutting process and many people also changed the industry.

There have been talent crises situations in the industry for a long time. From the operating cost, productivity and affectivity working approach perspective the industry would now invest in technology and innovation. This means highly skilled personnel would be needed for the industry (Vaiman et al., 2012). Employee relation would be important from the job loss situation of technology implantation. Considering all of these from the strategic HRM perspective the talent management approach needs to be revaluated based on the goals like attracting right talent, further developing those as per the future needs and retaining them (Al Ariss et al., 2014).

Talent management approaches and existing researches’ data analysis 

According to a recent study by Deloitte (2018), the context of technological change and disruption is highly considered for the HRM challenges of staffing and talent management. Under the current circumstances of lower investment in the exploration work because of the financial difficulties of the industry, the depleting resource base of the current sites has made the situation worse. Under this circumstances .

the study stated that the investment in technology, transforming the mining practices and disrupting the current status would be important for the next bid mining companies under this circumstances the staffs who would be working in this industry in future is a significant resource that the HRM process has to manage (deloitte, 2018). HRM process needs to make this talent base change ready, able to attract best talent for the future requirement and also retain them in the long run. In this part of research the importance of talent management and important aspect would be explored through previous research investigation.

Importance of talent management approach can be understood from the growing importance of this HRM subject’s research work. The diagram below shows that over the last few years number of research article has increased in a significant manner (McDonnell et al., 2017). The source article would also help to find out this importance factor. The next table in this section shows that majority of research article are published in the ‘international journal of human resource management’ (McDonnell et al., 2017). This aspect also has been able to show that the HRM field in recent time because of different environmental change, considering the talent management process as one of the important tool to contribute in the business strategic management.

The study by McDonnell et al., (2017) showed that the research on talent management lacks strong theoretical backgrounds. For example theories like learning theory, institutional theory, dependency and social exchange theory and the resources based view theories are some of the important theoretical based which were used to build those researches. Because of this reason in those researches the talent management subject has been linked with the aspect like the retention, recruitment or competitive advantage of the business. in this field of research there is a lack of proper definition that could be explored further, as shown by Jones et al (2012).

But a literature approach can be focused here to divide the literature into two different parts. One of is these are the reward, retain, recruit and talent attraction based talent management approach. Other one is the behaviour of the people who are talented and the constitution of talent. This current research project is focused on the mining industry and the BHP Billiton like global mining company. Considering this the first literature type would be explored to find effective insight from them. The secondary research has been able to collect appropriate credible research article to produce the perspective of talent management at global level. The findings are provided through the following table format.

[Source: Burbach and Royle (2010); Doh et al., (2011); Farndale et al., (2010); Garavan, (2012); Hartmann et al., (2010); Harvey et al., (2011); Huang and Tansley (2012); Iles et al., (2010a); Kim and McLean (2012); Li and Scullion (2010); Mäkelä et al., (2010); McDonnell et al., (2010); Mellahi and Collings (2010); Mellahi and Collings (2010); Minbaeva and Collings (2013); Preece et al., (2011); Preece et al., (2013); Ready and Conger (2007); Ready et al., (2008); Schuler et al., (2011); Shi and Handfield (2012); Skuza et al, (2013); Sparrow et al., (2013); Stahl et al. (2012); Tarique and Schuler (2010); Tymon et al., (2010); Vance et al., (2013); Zander et al., (2010); Zheng, (2009); Zheng et al., (2008)]

These review of the research articles done above shows different approaches, concerns and aspect of talent management but a uniform conceptual or theoretical approach is still cannot be developed from this analysis. Therefore a region specific, sector specific approach of talent management would be most useful.

Another important study that is done by Rastgoo (2016) shows the correlations between the process of talent management and the job satisfaction. The research showed that around .83 correlation is been found which means that proper talent management process would improve job motivation for the employee of the organisation. Other research in the HRM field confirmed that higher job motivation is beneficial for the job engagement and employee retention (Eskandari and Ghanbari, 2014).

Then Rastgoo (2016) also showed that organisational developments also have strong correlation with the job motivation process. Therefore organisational development also has the strong relation with the talent management. Organisational development is the study for the performance, organisational change process, developing capability and capacity for the long term achievement of organisational goal (Cummings and Worley, 2014). Therefore the current change need already identified in the earlier section of the research would have higher level of correlation with the proper talent management process for the mining industry of Australia.

In this part of the research the findings of the research would be compared with the organisational specific context of BHP Billiton. The industry specific challenging factors can be expressed through the following points.

• Growing cost
• Need for specialised and talented personnel in the mining industry
• Commodity prices moderation
• Declining productivity
• Declining investment in the industry
• Need for faster technological development
• Lack of financial strength to invest
• Maintaining the operating cost

The trend setting aspects of the industry are

• Digital technology implementation
• Innovation drive
• Future work process and approach change
• Stakeholder relationship transformation-especially with the staffs
• Reverse replacement- slow investment growth for the exploration and capacity building
• Commodity of future- investment new minerals for future needs.

All of these factors has in the earlier section been analysed and the need for talent management is identified. The mining industry in UK is currently showing the sign of market recovery but the change in the operational approach became essential considering the current challenges and trends. Therefore the organisational development would play a big part in the future HRM practices (Cummings and Worley, 2014).

On the other hand highly skill staff need, developing them and retaining them would be important. Job motivation and engagement would be critical for the industry (Eskandari and Ghanbari, 2014). From the findings of the above research the needs for the better talent management approach is quite visible. The comparison of BHP Billiton can only be done after understanding the internal situation of the organisation and that is done through the SWOT analysis below.

SWOT Analysis of BHP Billiton

Strengths: 1) The organisation has a good brand image and reputation in the market and this has enabled them to maintain their strong position in the market. 2) The organisation has been able to successfully create a diversified revenue stream and this has enabled them to tackle the market competition with their business rivals in an effective manner (BHP Billiton, 2016). 3) The organisation has a strong international presence making it one of the largest mining companies of the world. 4) The organisation has been actively involved in social work and charity as a part of their CSR initiatives and this had allowed them to enhance their brand image and reputation in the market (AFR Business Case Studies, 2018). 5) The organisation has a good track record of product and service innovation and this had allowed them to develop a competitive advantage in the market.

Weaknesses: 1) The organisation needs to improve their gross margins and the financial return on equity in the long terms to pose a significant challenge to their business competitors (Stevens, 2015). 2) The organisation is facing several HR issues which have invariably impacted their business operations in the market. The organisation is presently facing a shortage of qualified staffs that are trained and experienced in the mining sector (Roberts, 2018). 3) The organisation has not been successful enough to integrate their organisational culture with the work culture followed in different nations (BHP Billiton, 2016). 4) There are certain loopholes and drawbacks in their corporate communications as well as the staffs are not proactive enough in making use of the modern digital media while responding to corporate enquiries and this has compromised their relationship with their stakeholders in the market.

Opportunities: 1) Acquisition of smaller mining companies will give them greater leverage in the market. 2) Rising global demand for commodities in the coming years will help the company to generate more revenues and profits from their business (BHP Billiton, 2016). 3) Strategic collaborations and tie-up with other global companies will help them to ensure their long term growth and sustainability in the market by enabling them to share their resources and expertise (Roberts, 2018).

Threats: 1) Reduction in export demand in certain countries due to increasing domestic production capacities could invariably threaten their business operations in different countries (Calam, 2018). 2) Entry of new business competitors in the market will invariably lead to more competition in the market, thereby reducing their operational profits and revenues (Promo.mining-journal.com, 2018).

From the above SWOT matrix it is clearly evident that BHP Billiton is facing problems regarding their existing manpower and this is why they organisation needs to review their existing talent management and retention strategies if they want to produce the desired results and outcomes from their business operations in the market. Similar operating cost and productivity issue is also there in BHP Billiton. Therefore the technological and working process change is also required for the organisation. Considering this a talent program is needed for the organisation. In this context the following recommendation is to be followed by the organisation.

Recommendation

Following the challenges and trends of the market, BHP Billiton must be able to answer some of the key question for the talent management process. The organisation must first define their aspiration and goals for the new growth process (Wheelen et al., 2017). Then they should decide the focusing point for this growth process. After that the success formula needs to be developed. To follow this formula critical capability needs to be decided. Then at the end must answer the success measuring criteria. In this regard the organisation can follow the following questions developed by Deloitte to find holistic answer of the above critical aspect on business strategy.

After developing the above answers, the organisation specific talent management process needs to be designed for BHP Billiton. Earlier section of research was able to demonstrate that there is no single approach, concept or theoretical basis of talent management and that why industry and organisational specific approach would most suitable to develop better talent management process (Vaiman et al., 2012). Considering that the following framework is development for BHP Billiton from the job satisfaction and organisational development perspective.

Conclusion

The current research has been able to take a holistic look at the mining industry in Australia from its challenge and trends perspective. From those aspect the HRM issue and strategic need has been identified to be specifically explored through wider secondary research process. The Talent management needs for the mining industry is identified here but not general conceptual framework has not been found from the research.

Therefore sector and company specific approach is recommended. But the higher correlation with the job motivation in found. The higher correlation with the job motivation and organisational development is also found in the later part of the research. Following these findings the research is concluding that BHP Billiton must develop them talent management process in relation with the job motivational and organisational developmental approaches.

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