Americans like nothing better than creating a kitschy tagline and branding. It makes us feel part of something, a movement. Our workforce generations have names like Baby Boomer and Gen X, and our eras have names like the Summer of Love and the Roaring 20s. The pandemic era’s Great Resignation is no different.
The Great Resignation refers to the millions of U.S. workers who ditched their current employers or who were forced out when COVID-strapped companies laid off employees or closed altogether. It began in 2020 and continues today.
You likely know some people who fall into this category. They were close to retirement anyway and hung it up early. They did some soul searching and realized that life is short and they should change careers. Their kids’ schools closed and someone had to be home with the littles, so they left the workplace. Seemingly every industry was hit and I argue the mining industry more so.
MRC forecasts that half of mining’s current workforce will retire by 2029. That’s in addition to the thousands of industry employees who already left for the reasons stated above.
We see the hiring signs everywhere and while many are in fast food and hospitality service companies, white collar firms are no different. Mining is no different. We’re all trying to attract scarce talent and 2022 will be challenging.
The good news is that ours is a dynamic career. It offers sometimes exotic locations, better-than-average salaries and a terrific outlet for those who like working outside of a cubicle. Unfortunately, the operations portion of our workforce requires a good deal of formal and on-the-job education, work sometimes far from home and family, and right now all varieties of engineers and project managers are in high demand in numerous industries.
It’s critical that we retain the employees we have and position ourselves as attractive options for those we still need to hire.
We do that by capitalizing on our industry’s strengths and developing new pathways to attract talent. Industry apprenticeships with trade schools and universities, and even high schools, can reap benefits we perhaps haven’t explored in the past.
Don’t just do this at the typical state schools and big-name universities. There are between 5,000-6,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. alone and another 6,000+ trade schools. Thousands more abroad. Educating young people by tying our industry to the things they use every day is paramount. We know how mining affects our tech, transportation, manufacturing and green industries, but there are a lot of teens and adults who don’t.
We know it’s inefficient keep chopping the tree without sharpening the ax. It may seem antithetical to take the skeleton staffs you may have now away from the day-to-day work and ask them to become mining brand ambassadors. It may be bad for the bottom line for a bit, but if we don’t, we’re never going to get our companies – or our industry reputation healthy.
The hiring crisis is going to get worse before it gets better, but developing flexible pathways to career success in our industry will reap benefits for years to come.
If you’re looking to make a career change, MRC can help connect with us or submit your resume.