It has been an interesting month at MRC. I’m going to attempt to weave together some things that have happened this month with the common theme of our talent shortage in mining and how we might consider solving this.
Let’s start with the catalyst – Emily King! I had the opportunity to speak with Emily King of Prospector. Prospector is an AI-enabled, institutional quality investor tool built by Emily to help investors find and fund mining assets by giving them the functionality they need to build their own proprietary deal flow, customized by investment criteria – geography, commodity, deposit type, deposit size, project stage, risk profile, team and others. Prospector is built to attract new, non-traditional mining investors to the industry by turning public disclosure data into powerful intelligence.
Emily invited me to join her on her podcast – On The Rocks. We discussed everything from working with family, the talent gap in our industry, and how to attract new talent and investment into mining. We joked that we need to make mining sexy – but in fact – we determined the industry needs its own colorful visionaries to promote awareness of mining and all the things it makes possible – Electric Vehicles, Batteries, Computers, Smart Phones to name a few.
Which brings me to my nominee for the role – Anglo America’s CEO, Mark Cutifani. Cutifani spoke at the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) event this year. He discussed the role of mining in society and encouraged us to “take the time to understand our role in society and make sure we’re creating the future…”
He touched on many areas that I believe to be powerful in attracting new talent into our industry: sustainability, decarbonization, technology, and the reliance and impact mining has on an array of critical industries (energy, food production, construction, transportation renewables, and communications). He also pointed out that “One of the things we don’t do well as an industry is talk about what we do.” His message a powerful one, we just need it to reach outside our industry.
Next up, I joined Adam Shapiro and Seana Smith of Yahoo Finance to contribute to a segment focused on the mining industry/commodity prices and the labor shortage in our industry. I am by no means the spokesperson for our industry (But as Emily King and I discussed we need one!) but perhaps mining is finally getting its 15 minutes!
In my preparation for the segment on Yahoo Finance and On the Rocks, I did a quite a bit of prep work, most of which we did not discuss in either interview! Now I know how my candidates feel when they prep for an interview. That being said, here are some of my thoughts on what we might consider helping #makeminingsexy and attract/retain talent into our wonderful industry.
Create Awareness
o We need visible leaders in the industry to speak out about the positive attributes of mining, presenting the exciting, global opportunities
o Promote the industry value and purpose-driven organizational cultures
Sustainability
o Cultural: Job creation, enhanced investment in education, infrastructure
o Environmental: Responsible use of land, water, protect environment
o Nine out of 10 millennials would consider a pay cut to work at a company whose vision/mission aligned with their own
Workforce Development
o Succession planning, knowledge transfer, ongoing internal training/development
o Partnerships with colleges and technical schools to attract new talent into our industry
§ Start educating kids from elementary school forward about where things come from – tablets, phones, cars, fertilizer, medications, make-up (yes, it’s all from mining!)
Diversity & Inclusion Programs
o Mining is a global industry, we have the opportunity to attract-train-retain a diverse workforce
o In upper levels women and minorities are underrepresented
§ As of 2019, women represented only slightly over 15% of the mining workforce
o Training programs for underrepresented groups keep them in the industry and moving up within organizations
o Training hiring teams to avoid unconscious bias in recruiting practices
Technology
o The possibilities here are nearly endless: Tech can be used in training, simulation’s automation, troubleshooting, providing more flexibility in travel or location requirements, enhanced opportunity for remote work, collaboration, communication, etc.
Ultimately our industry must be creative, innovative think outside the box, and put their people and values first to attract and retain new talent.
Let me know your thoughts on this!
If you’re looking to make a career change, MRC can help connect with us or submit your resume.