It is interesting, but not surprising, to note that during this time of unprecedented growth and prosperity in the mining and resources sector and amid continuous complaints of skills shortages and lack of people, how little time is actually spent by senior leadership teams on the strategic development of their organisations. In a notoriously conservative industry, with a focus on all things geological, technical and financial, companies have been slow to realise that in such a competitive people – short environment, it is not merely financial reward which will attract and retain the best expertise.

We are all aware of  numerous organisation health or culture surveys which provide us with that understanding, but it is hard to act on that information if there is not a shared commitment amongst Boards of Directors and  Management Teams to establish a strategic workforce plan, lead its implementation and support its results with a transparent performance development system

Some questions worth asking of our leaders:

• Do we have a clear, shared, articulated understanding of the organisation we want to create? Or are we merely subject to market forces and “luck”?
• Do we behave as an organisation according to shared core values?
• Do we have agreed goals and targets which we measure on our journey?
• Do we have a clear framework for how we achieve our goals? (Structure, policies, procedures, clarity of roles, performance development, measurement – short and long term)
• Do we allocate sufficient time to reflect on, review and monitor our plan?
• Do we support our commitment to our strategic workforce plan through our actions and resourcing?

If an organisation can demonstrate to its existing and potential employees that it can honestly answer these questions in the affirmative, it is well ahead of its competition in attracting and retaining the people it wants; financial reward is no longer a competitive advantage.