In conjunction with China Mining conference China International Mining Group runs morning sessions that provide insights into mining and exploring in China.

Paul Pittman, Swann Global Managing Director The Americas, explores how HR Is The Missing Link for China, looking at how talent management, talent pipelines and retention can make a huge difference to your operations.

"The War for Talent" speaking notes below: 

Slide 1

Paul Pittman leads the Swann Global Americas Practice as well as heading Swann Consulting which is focused on providing talent management services to the resource and industrial sectors

Peter Arkell is a resident of Shanghai and has led Swann Global’s Asia practice since its establishment in 2002.

Slide 3

Major mining companies will continue to staff projects already in the pipeline. While exploration groups may be trimmed engineering staff will continue to be in short supply. Additionally many of the developing world’s mining companies are eager to be seen as world class and are also staffing up with internationally experienced personnel. Timing is everything and the so called lost generation; those engineers who decided to take a different career path during the last downturn would no be entering middle management and their loss is beginning to be felt numerically. We often here of untapped markets where engineers and geos await in great abundance – not so; most of the obvious spots in eastern Europe are already tapped out.

Meanwhile this shortage is being recognized as an acute execution risk by investors and Boards are taking up the mantle ensuring that management have the appropriate talent management processes in place. Search is becoming less spur of the moment; companies are having to think in advance how they execute staffing projects and plan them carefully in order to have maximum impact.

As an industry we rely on our people being mobile; far fewer young people are today either by choice or necessity. Younger generations are less driven by the values of their parents e.g. security and tenure. Our terms and conditions model however are designed for the boomer generation. More companies are spending more time to look at competency fit and less at hard skills i.e. leadership qualities are becoming more important

Slide 4

For any position candidates typically fall into one of three categories that essentially reflects the size of the position and/or the size of the employer.

The Swann royal family are a group of high potential managers that we have been tracking through their careers from junior positions> Some of these we have helped into more senior positions along the way.

Slide 5

Expand the supply by accessing previously unrecognised sources

Exploit remaining pockets with new approaches

Form recruitment partnership rather than use opportunistically

Selectively target skill sets to leverage inefficiencies

Track projects around the world that are nearing completion

Building geography specific sources

Creating an effective alumni network

A flow of talent not searched with individual positions  in mind

Delivered “just-in-time” to meet staffing and project shortfalls

More effective screening to enable better cultural fit

Slide 6

Highly rated candidates are identified for future potential employment (e.g. up to two years hence)

Facilitated through Swann, relationships are developed with the understanding that an offer will result in the future

The extended courtship will enable a company to:

Confirm candidates are technically sound

Monitor development, fit and technical progress

Ensure candidates committed to employment brand

Integrate external and internal succession

Minimize talent risk, integration and down time

The process is transparent to candidates and supported by a documented schedule of meetings and interaction with client

The process requires a clearly defined employment brand, offering career opportunities

Slide 7

An attractive employment brand is the key to appealing to better candidates. This will of course be unique to each employer but will demonstrate the organizations approach and commitment not only to reward but also:

Personal and professional development

Reward and incentives

Organizational, culture, values and aspirations

Alignment of these principles with incentives and training

Career planning and mobility

A detailed assessment should not be seen as a barrier to attracting the right individuals. In fact the best candidates will aspire to joining those organizations that have the highest standards

It is not enough to talk about these components. Particularly younger candidates, will want to see tangible evidence of a well thought out approach to a “total package”

Slide 8

This is the ideal picture

A candidate joins an organization and proves to be a perfect fit. The organization manages to retain him/her thru several assignments

enhancing the vale to the company of that individual by leveraging its investment thru ever more influential positions and in the process developing the individual to be more valuable in the market. Of course this requires an employer to take greater steps to lock the executive into the company.

Bu this is not achieved  without hard work and careful planning – it does not happen by accident. The HR function needs to have a sophisticated approach to development and career planning – not the distinction from Succession planning which is strictly risk management and from the employees perspective unappealing.

Slide 9

Here’s what we mean

Many different things can take an assignment off track

Both pre and post assignment start

But typically despite this being a well known challenge HR effort is at its peak during the recruitment process and then trails off. Whereas the reverse should be true – as the value of human capital increases so should the nurturing and attention it receives