Embracing the Digital Revolution – Revolutionising People Management in the Australian Mining Sector
Like any industry, the highly regulated mining sector has its own unique set of challenges when it comes to managing its workforce. Mining companies have large workforces spread across thousands of kilometres, complex shift patterns and rotations with many Fly-In-Fly-Out (FIFO) workers. Mining sector organisations face exponentially more challenges as they grow and experience the complexity of a transient workforce.
The varying overtime rules, complex awards and travel allowances, award interpretation, efficient onboarding, leave and accruals, time and attendance, rostering and reporting compatible with remote mine workers are all extremely important for their Human Resources (HR) departments to get control over.
Recently, many industries have removed manual workforce management processes that hindered organisational efficiency. While the digital transformation of HR can unlock numerous benefits for mining companies, only some have digitised to automate the laborious processes. Many still need to rely on manual paper-based processes that have been shown to hinder productivity and save time, money and resources.
Mining companies are always looking for ways to boost productivity, so accurately managing mine site efficiency and mitigating risk by measuring their capacity and making calculated decisions on workforce priorities is extremely valuable.
Time and Attendance Software for Remote Locations
Automation offers clear advantages for the Australian mining sector, which often operates in remote and geographically challenging locations. Designed to deliver greater oversight over labour costs and liabilities, a time and attendance system intuitively allows employees to clock in and out to track employee hours and efficiently manage work schedules. It will enable them to change duties, take breaks and request leave.
Automating these tasks in remote locations reduces the administrative burden on the HR department and payroll processing to ensure accuracy.
Not having the correct award interpretation leads to sloppy or fatigued pay rules and places businesses at risk of underpaying their employees. When employees are entitled to overtime payments or shift allowances and penalty rates for weekends, businesses are more likely to fall into a trap.
Likewise, time and attendance software improves the monitoring of employee hours, preventing time theft and unauthorised overtime. Mining companies can enhance efficiency and minimise labour costs by accurately recording employees’ working hours and their precise locations.
Working in a remote location exposes workers to various hazards associated with the type of activity undertaken. Mining employees working long shifts have reduced productivity, are more likely to make mistakes and are subject to an increased risk of workplace injuries, so monitoring excessive work hours to identify potential worker fatigue is essential in such high-risk environments.
Auto Rostering for Efficient Employee Management
Creating employee schedules for rotational work can be complex and time-consuming. Auto rostering software streamlines this process, considering employee preferences, skills and legal compliance. It ensures staffing requirements are met without causing employee fatigue or scheduling conflicts.
An Auto Rostering system allows business rules to be applied more readily, keeping transparency around shift patterns and costs attributed to authorised or unauthorised overtime.
By reducing the time spent on manual rostering, auto rostering software allows HR professionals to focus on optimising workforce allocation and developing strategies to improve employee well-being. This, in turn, leads to higher employee satisfaction, increased and improved productivity.
By achieving end-to-end visibility of the entire workforce, mining companies can cover all facets of their business with the right resources. With a digital workforce management solution, mining companies will have better control and transparency of employee leave entitlements and the capacity to manage various accrual types. The benefit for employees is that they have total visibility of their holiday entitlements in real-time, saving the HR department time to answer queries of this type.
Conclusion
As the Australian mining sector embraces digital transformation across its operations, the benefits of digitising its people management function become increasingly apparent. Organisations that have digitised these workforce management processes have already saved time and money and can offer an exceptional employee experience.
Mining companies that digitise HR can foster a more engaged, satisfied and productive workforce with a complete workforce management solution that manages their award interpretation, onboarding, leave and accruals, time and attendance and rostering with real-time reporting that integrates with other business systems, such as payroll and compliance.
By freeing HR professionals from administrative burdens, digitisation empowers them to focus on strategic initiatives and overall talent development. As we continue to witness the positive impact of digitisation in the mining sector, it is evident that the amalgamation of technology and people management is the way forward for organisations seeking to thrive in a highly competitive and dynamic industry.
