Government Understands so Why Not Us?

The appointment of the honorable Gary Gray to lead the government’s taskforce is an excellent move by the government as it looks to address the resources industry’s future skills shortages. Mr Gray grew up in the South Australian mining town of Whyalla, has worked extensively in northern Australia and has worked as a senior executive with Woodside. The Rudd government’s commitment to this issue is very welcome and is a proactive measure which has often not been seen regarding this issue amongst government.

All reading this blog will be familiar with the long-term skills shortage issues that our industry faces and if you read some of our abridged reports, you will know some of the demographic issues which are conspiring against our industry. Government is beginning to do its bit through the taskforce (stay tuned to this blog for updates on what it is up to) and now we need to do ours.

The first thing we need to do as an industry is to continue providing jobs for vacation students and apprentices. These programs are usually the first to be cut (and have been the first cut) during downtimes and those who cut them are often the first to complain of skills shortages when the industry does pick up. Ours is a cyclical industry and investors, HR and management need to recognise this. These programs cost a minimal amount and if your operation(s) needs to cut these programs to stay alive then you should not be alive.

Again, read our industry report to appreciate the importance of branding and how effective these programs are at improving your employer brand and attracting the best talent for when the industry does boom again. We all know that government can only move so fast ,so unless we as an industry double our efforts and ensure our efforts interface with those of the government’s much of the attention this issue is receiving will be in vain.

Now is the perfect opportunity to look to address the industries staffing issues. The downturn has allowed us all to take a breather and develop a clear strategy to attract the best young talent to this industry. This opportunity cannot be wasted if the industry is to grow and thrive into the future.