Veteran business technology journalist Martin Veitch scrutinises the nexus between mining’s digital and real-world realms

The news that the careers service of Birkbeck college at the University of London will no longer deal with mining companies is another reminder of the dire need for the sector to do more to recruit and retain talent. And when it comes to hiring digital skills, that need is especially acute.

Birkbeck wasn't backwards in coming forwards when it made its announcement, telling The Guardian that it "will not hold relationships of any kind with oil, gas or mining companies". More ordure followed as it pointed an accusatory finger at fellow universities "propping up the companies most responsible for destroying the planet". Tough talk indeed…

Mining leaders are already facing an elephant-sized obstacle under the HR table in hiring into an industry too often perceived to be plagued by the three Ds: dirty, dangerous and declining. What to do? Well, we surely know that miners have to share a vision of a brighter, future-facing sector with better practices, focus on cleaner practices and attempt to build bridges between the fossil fuel world and what is coming next. And that is precisely what every progressive organization in the sector is doing, even if some or more active than others in this regard.

Virtual worlds

Arriving at that brighter future will require a smorgasbord of approaches but making full use of digital tools for business transformation is the path followed by every other sector. Why? Because by replacing physical processes with virtual ones, we make our industry more sustainable and more efficient. We can remap value chains, we can try things out faster, we can innovate and ideate with partners around the globe in real time.

Smart miners know these things as facts but they are hobbled in their change programmes by a number of soft factors including organisational inertia and ‘we've always done it this way' cultures, and one major hard factor: finding people with technology skills.

Therefore, for those mining companies seeking aid from IT, announcements like Birkbeck's represent yet more pain in a world where digital skills are already scarce and organisations such as educational institutions want to send out a political message that they won't play ball.

Prashanth Chandrasekar, the CEO of software developer knowledge exchange site Stack Overflow, told me recently that the company reckons there are 300,000 IT positions currently open in the world today. Software developers especially are the modern masters of the universe, slowly displacing the power of bankers and financiers in importance. They are the talent engine that powers competitive differentiation, they are the people who can move markets, re-engineer operations and provide the on-ramps for enterprises to enter new markets. No wonder there is such a battle to recruit them.

In mining, opportunities abound to capitalise on tech. A concise list might include Digital Twin for safe creation of virtual operations, autonomous vehicles (effectively software and sensors wrapped in tin), wireless networking, virtual reality and augmented reality for training and visualisation, machine diagnostics for pre-emptive maintenance and so on and so on. It's easy to list potential but finding the people who know about this stuff? Harder. Much harder.

Here's the rub. When it comes to technology skills, mining is competing with a full hand of glamorous alternatives from tech itself, with its promises of fast-growing stock awards, to retail, banking and finance, automotive, science and engineering and healthcare. The so-called war for talent is indeed brutal. 

1-2-3… go!

Clues to the solution can be picked up other verticals though.

First, for recruitment, miners should seek a first-mover advantage by aggressively targeting school leavers and offering scholarships and apprenticeships. Companies such as Accenture, HMRC and the British Army have shown that it's possible to attract people who want a competitive salary early in their lives and the chance to learn on the job. We need to break away from the entrenched view of further education being a process whereby people learn theory for three years, pass an exam and then face a sudden shock when they enter the real world of the jobs market.

Second, for retention, miners should create academies of talent, offering not just jobs but clear career ladders and the ability to enhance CVs and gain job satisfaction through continuous learning programmes. Companies need to get over their fear of losing the staff they invest in. Staff attrition will happen anyway over time and those that have been great employers will enhance their brands, gain word-of-mouth approval and stand a good chance or rehiring ‘bounce-back' staff or at least benefiting from their input on alumni networks.

Third, miners have to invest in the tools and equipment that will excite tech talent. Give them what they need to do the job but also to future-proof their careers. Developers want the chance to work with the latest and greatest technologies: give them that chance and you have a chance of finding and keeping them.

Mining has a great heritage but it needs to do better at communicating the fact that it is powering the future: it's a wonderful irony that the very minerals we need to for our smartphones and tablets come from mining, a sector slammed as being a technology laggard. Companies in the space must communicate with the next generation of talent and show that a career in mining can be about innovation, creativity and the application of cutting-edge technologies.

Source - Mining Magazine

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