Mining companies need better insights into their internal talent in order to identify future needs. They should reexamine performance reviews and feedback to employees to better understand employee performance and potential. Cameco is trying to better integrate talent acquisition and HR policies with business strategy for increased flexibility. This allows them to gain insights into pressure points and problems to save time and resources. Mining work is always changing, so companies must understand the core competencies and skills required for each role to support changes from new technologies and automation.

1. Human Capital in Mining
What Insights Companies Need for Increased Flexibility
How could mining companies better
identify their future talent needs?
This starts from gaining a better insight
into the internal talent. They should
reexamine how they run their annual
performance reviews and how much
feedback they provide to employees.
They must have an understanding of the
performance and potential of key
individuals.
Interview with: Sean Junor,
Manager - Workforce Planning and
Talent
Acquisition,
Cameco
Corporation
“Mining organizations need to do a
better job of understanding their
workforce,” advises Sean Junor,
Manager - Workforce Planning and
Talent Acquisition, Cameco Corporation.
“They spend very little time assessing
the human capital, focusing more on
physical capital inputs (equipment, cost
of propane or tires). That is to the
detriment of the industry,” he adds.
A speaker at the marcus evans Global
Mining Summit 2014, in Las Vegas,
Nevada, March 17-18, Junor talks about
workforce planning and optimization.
Cameco is trying to align its talent
acquisition policies with operational
planning. Why and how?
Cameco is attempting to integrate its
talent acquisition and Human Resources
(HR) policies and programs with its
business strategy to allow for greater
flexibility for managers and business
unit leaders. Also, ensuring the same
processes do not need to be repeated
every time.
The company has integrated short- and
long-term planning into the operations
and business unit cycles, so they have,
at least, an annual review of pressure
points and potential internal problems
that would give them insight to save
time and resources.
Equally important, they need better
insight on core competencies and what
is required for each role. The
competencies required today are likely
not the same as those the company will
be leaning on in a few years. Mining
work is always changing.
Whether change is due to new
technologies, the need to automate or
increase productivity, it impacts the
workplace, so the skill-set of employees
must change accordingly to support
that.
A u to m a t io n m ay r e q u ir e f e w e r
employees, but it adds a level of
complexity that cannot be handled by
every entry level job.
How should they plan their
w o rk f o r c e
for
s c en a ri o s
of
prosperity, stasis and austerity?
They need insight into the drivers of
potential change. It could be pending
retirements or voluntary turnover. If
they are planning new projects, they
need to be aware of the demographics
of their workforce and availability of
talent. That is often heavily influenced
by commodity and stock prices, but
when the industry is expanding, the
company will be competing for the
additional labor against other
organizations as well as itself, as
employees will have options to leave.
What is critical for companies to
consider is how employee turnover is a
lagging indicator often correlated with
absenteeism and engagement, and what
its demography can say about the
predictive nature of their workforce.
If companies had better intelligence on
these metrics for each unit, they would
have a good idea of what their future
workforce will look like and what
support will be needed.
How can your department influence
expenditure reduction?
We look for resource optimization. The
goal is to simplify, automate and
standardize logical work processes.
These processes can allow operational
staff to spend more time on strategic or
production activities.
In addition, I believe companies have to
put an increased priority on their
internal talent, gain insights into what
their people have as career interests
and what they can undertake, so that
they do not go purchase labor on the
open market every time they need to
fulfill a role. That often has a long time
lag and proves more costly.
They should leverage their investments,
leadership and training capabilities to
grow their own workforce.
Mining
work is
always
changing

2. The
Mining
marcus
evans
Network
–
Summits group
delivers peer-to-peer information
on strategic matters, professional
trends
and
breakthrough
innovations.
About the Global Mining Summit 2014
This unique forum will take place at the Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa, Las Vegas,
Nevada, March 17-18, 2014. Offering much more than any conference, exhibition or
trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together esteemed industry thought
leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and interactive networking event.
The Summit includes presentations on mine productivity, automation of the mining
process, safety and how to retain a highly skilled and educated workforce.
www.globalminingsummit.com
Please note that the Summit is a
closed
number
business
of
event
participants
and
the
strictly
limited.
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To view the web version of this interview, please click here: www.globalminingsummit.com/SeanJunor