MPi News provides short sharp ideas on management, leadership and communication in the workplace.

AS WE SEE IT: People who accept personal responsibility for their actions, efforts and lives, contribute the greatest to those around them. The best employers accept responsibility for urging people along a path to their fullest potential. The best employees accept responsibility for adding value to that organisation. Therefore, the most effective work environments are those in which all participants recognise it is a two way street. Much of the information presented hereafter is governed by these ideas.

FEEDBACK:If you have an idea to share, email info@miningpeople.com.au and mark the heading ‘Feedback MPi News’. If we’re happy that the item supports our broad editorial policy, then we might use it directly, or as the basis for an inclusion into a future edition.

OUR EDITORIAL POLICY IS: We aim for these articles to be current, personal development focused and to talk to individuals rather than corporations. They must also represent a positive slant on life. Why is that? Because the media would have us believe the world is more negative than positive, and so MPi News is our small attempt to balance that up. The articles should also not shirk from generating debate.

What is MPi News about?

MPi News is printed using vegetable based inks on paper that is chlorine free and manufactured from pulp sourced from plantation grown timber.

Mining People takes care of our Environment

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The Commodity Wrap (rap)…

Gold up/down, Iron Ore cracked,

Nickel to the moon, then half way back,

Copper slid slowly, as did Coal,

But then the $Aussie/US dipped, into a mid 80’s hole.

Once again tough times; however we’re seeing consolidation, mines still running and even inquiries for a small number of explorationists!

OUR 2014 MINING WRAP AND 2015 CRYSTAL BALL

N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 4 | E D I T I O N 85

Resilient, Innovative, Creative & Smart …This is how we describe the operators still hanging in after the early and easier cost reductions.

What’s ahead? Well firstly … we’re very excited and proud that in 2015 MPi turns 20!

Whilst we expect more peaks and troughs, innovation is everywhere and great businesses are getting on with it with renewed optimism.

There are more operating mines than 10 years ago, however we expect more closures. We see some people who joined the industry in the boom times, have now left, bringing a more even balance to markets for certain jobs.

What did we learn?Hanging on is not enough!

You need a purpose beyond survival through these times. Ours remains to be the best we can, create a great place to be, with great experiences for those who work with and deal with us. We don’t always hit it, but we always try. Lastly, changing and growing in NEW directions, must always be part of the picture.

Our Christmas creed While Gold weighs more than Love (and its price “might” STILL go to the moon), Love is infinitely more valuable; and

While Diamonds sparkle like stars, compared to your smile, they’re still only old rocks.

To you all …

Our wonderful friends, clients, suppliers, candidates, staff and your families, whatever your contribution to MPi this year, we again thank you. Whatever 2014 delivered to you, we hope you enjoy great times in 2015 and share our sense of optimism.

Have a fantastic, safe Christmas and New Year.

With best regards from the team at MPi;

Angus, Brad, Darrell, Gail, Gary F,

Gary K, Jessica, Keeli, Kellie, Michelle G,

Michelle T, Nicky, Nicole, Samantha M,

Samantha W, Sarah F, Sarah P, Scott,

Shane, Steph, Steve, Stuart, Sue, Suz,

Tony, Veronica.

The annual MPi Commodity Rap, What’s Ahead, MPi Turns 20! What Did We Learn and our Special Friends Christmas Message

AUSTRALIAN BASED GLOBAL NETWORKS miningpeople.com.au PERTH • KALGOORLIE • BRISBANE • ADELAIDE

What it also does though is increase the relative importance of the people who are left, making them more critical cogs in the wheel. In an environment of more concentrated human resources, when one of those key cogs walks in and quits, perhaps after you backed them ahead of someone else during the redundancy phase, it can hurt, not just your department, but your feelings and you emotionally.

It is true, that the way an employee resigns often defines them, rarely does much to assist their future, but can easily do a lot to damage it. Similarly, the way you as the employer handles the bad news, can define you.

This article was based on one first spotted in August 2014, on a blog post by recruitment industry trainer and speaker Greg Savage. The full article can be found on Greg’s site www.gregsavage.com.au and was entitled:

Someone quit? Don’t be a fool. Stay cool.

The emotions that follow an unexpected resignation, can cloud your judgment. You are angry, feel betrayed and might even be scared of the repercussions. However it is essential to retain your dignity and act with grace.

Keep calmRetain your cool. Avoid threatening statements. Avoid saying emotive things.

It may be best to say very little, that is if you don’t think it can be balanced. Perhaps just “well clearly I am disappointed, and you would know I would feel that way, but I wish you all the best.”

Certainly anything you do to inflame things simply gives the person reason to neglect their remaining obligations.

Understand the reasons This is also hard.

The employee has prepared their ‘spiel’ – finessed how they portray the reasons.

Often it’s designed to diffuse the situation and is not the real reason at all. Sometimes it’s an outright lie!

You need to dig and explore, calmly and rationally, why this person wants to leave. Maybe the situation can be saved, if that is what you want. Maybe you can learn something about your own business that could save future resignations.

Avoid impulsive counter-offersYou face losing a key person so you throw more money at them on the spot. This is rarely the right move and often regretted. First explore the reasons. Dig and discuss. A restructured package or evolved role may be an answer. But that comes later, in another discussion, if at all.

Don’t boot them outThis happens often and makes no sense. If the person is going to take data or secure relationships for their future job, trust me, they have done that already! The damage is done. So, you now need to act in your own best interests, which may well be to keep them right where they are, while you put a few things in place to mitigate the damage. It might be just for a week, or a few days. But don’t kick them out the door in a knee-jerk display of pique. Suppress the emotion and the impulse. Play to the commercial imperative.

Don’t be petty“Well, stop using the company car park from today then!” Be bigger than that.

Thank them.

Hard to do as you’re hugely p…d off, but this person worked for you. If they are still there, we presume you valued their input. So thank them. It can do no harm, and usually helps a lot.

Pay them what they are owedShortchanging someone at this point inevitably leads to bitterness and often costly repercussions, and your remaining staff will hear of it and your reputation will be damaged.

This past two years many mining businesses and

site departments have ‘trimmed the fat’, ‘right sized’

and basically lost every person that wasn’t deemed

absolutely essential to daily operations. This certainly

cuts costs and sometimes gives an operation the

best chance of survival, as well as survival for all

the staff who DO remain on board.

WHAT TO DO

WHEN SOMEONE QUITS ON YOU

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One door closes, another opensFrom personal experience, I have felt, and others have told me “We were devastated when he/she resigned, but in fact, it’s been for the best. We never realised how destructive the person was in the team, and things are much better now and other people have stepped up …” A resignation may be a negative, but it’s also an opportunity. Look for that opportunity. Who can you promote? What team structure can you now change for the better?

Keep the door openIf the person leaves on a sour note, tells lies, is destructive, does not stick to their notice obligations, or slacks off through that period, they are history to me as far as future employment goes. If, on the other hand they resign for sound reasons of their own, give appropriate notice, help with handover, maintain the right attitude, the last thing I say to them is this;

“I wish you well, and if the circumstances are right for both of us, the door may well be open here in the future”.

I’ve probably re-hired 25 people over the years. And they just about all worked out, because now they know the grass is not greener on the other side. The way you handle stressful and challenging situations defines you as a leader. It adds to, or detracts from, your internal credibility.

I know it’s easy for me to give this advice, and in truth there are many times I have not behaved like this myself. But I learned. I got better. I handled things differently over time.

And I was a much happier and more effective as a leader as a result.

BACK IN THE DAY … SOME MPi HISTORYOne of our earliest whole project recruitment jobs

was awarded to us by the specialist underground

contract mining company, Byrnecut. Back in the

early to mid 90’s they were awarded the job to

develop the new Kapok Decline to access a Lead/

Zinc ore body on the Lennard Shelf, in the Kimberley

region of Western Australia near Fitzroy Crossing.

Byrnecut started the job with an innovative approach, using a road header (sort of like a coal face cutting machine) to drive the decline. We supported them through the early scale up phase and processed thousands of applications over a period of several months.

Suffice to say computing systems back then weren’t what they are today and our process required allocating paper letters and sorting CV’s into several piles from “no”, ‘maybe’ and ‘yes’, across 12 different disciplines and alphabetically, all manually.

There was an awful lot of sticky labels and cardboard boxes involved ... A far cry from the cloud hosted, super secure candidate/client relationship management and online time-sheet systems we run with today.

Thanks Byrnecut and their end client Western Metals, with whom we also developed a successful five year partnership, from which many relationships endure today.

Top Tips Stats & Facts

3AUSTRALIAN BASED GLOBAL NETWORKS miningpeople.com.au PERTH • KALGOORLIE • BRISBANE • ADELAIDE

Brad ThorpManager Recruitment Operations

Gail RogersSenior Consultant Professional Technical

Gary FitzgeraldSenior Consultant Client Services

Gary KearnsSenior Consultant Professional Technical

Jess KerrSenior Recruitment Administrator & Special Projects Manager

Keeli RobsonSenior Accountant

Kellie Johnston Consultant

Michelle Glossop Consultant

Michelle ThompsonPayroll Administrator

Nicky O’BrienManager Business Support

Nicole RewetiManaging Consultant Workforce & Labour Hire

Samantha McCarthy Consultant Workforce & Labour Hire

Samantha WareConsultantClient Services

Sarah FelminghamRecruitment Administrator

Sarah PiscioneriRecruitment/Office Administrator

Scott DeakinConsultant Professional Technical

Shane MooreManager Workforce Operations

Stephanie LoganSenior Consultant Workforce & Labour Hire

Steve HeatherManaging Director/Principal Executive Search

Sue HeatherBusiness Services Manager

Suz ThorpSupervisor Commercial Accounts

Tony TurtonPrincipal Consultant Professional Technical/Executive Search

Veronica EstermannSenior Office Administrator

WHAT WE PROMISE OUR SPECIALTY SERVICES

JOB SEARCH SERVICE

WE PROVIDE AN ONLINE JOB SEARCH SERVICE TO OUR

CANDIDATES

SALARY RESEARCH

WE PROVIDE TARGETED SALARY RESEARCH AND MANAGE

THE SPECIALIST PORTAL MININGSALARIES.COM.AU

JOB ALERTS

WE PROACTIVELY DELIVER JOB ALERTS

TO OUR CANDIDATES

INDIGENOUS RECRUITMENT

WE DELIVER INDIGENOUS CANDIDATES ACROSS ALL MINING

DISCIPLINES

INTERNATIONAL RECRUITMENT

WE PLACE CANDIDATES EITHER PERMANENTLY OR

TEMPORARILY, ON AUSTRALIAN 457 VISA’S, ACROSS A BROAD

RANGE OF MINING DISCIPLINES. WE CAN ALSO FILL SENIOR

AND TRADE/OPERATOR POSITIONS IN MANY LOCATIONS

AROUND THE GLOBE.

THE MPi PEOPLE: PUT A FACE TO A NAME OUR RECRUITMENT AND CONTRACT HIRE SERVICES

MINING PEOPLE INTERNATIONAL PERTH | KALGOORLIE | BRISBANE | ADELAIDE

miningpeople.com.au

EXECUTIVE

SEARCH

General Manager Operations/COOManaging Director/CEOChief Financial OfficerBoard Members

WHOLE PROJECT

RECRUITMENT

For new companies and new mines we will create an integrated partnership and help you get started

MINING AND

RESOURCES

Geology Surveying Mining Engineering Mining Management Site Supervision

PROCESSING,

MAINTENANCE

AND

ENGINEERING

Minerals ProcessingMaintenance and Engineering

BUSINESS

SERVICES

WORKFORCE

AND LABOUR

HIRE

TradesField StaffUnderground and Surface MiningProcessing and LaboratoryDrillersDrillers Offsiders

WE WORK

ACROSS

ALL MINING

COMMODITIES

SupplyAccountingHealth and SafetyHuman ResourcesManagement

Information Technology

Environmental Services

Administration/Clerical

CoalCopperDiamondsGoldIron OreManganese

NickelPhosphateUraniumVanadiumZincand many more …

• WE WILL RESPOND TO EVERY PERSON, EVERY TIME THEY REGISTER WITH US.

• WE ADVISE CANDIDATES, EVERY TIME, BEFORE REFERRING THEM TO A CLIENT.

• WE KEEP CLIENTS INFORMED, WHETHER WE’RE WINNING OR NOT.

• WE ADVISE CANDIDATES OF THEIR OUTCOME; WE DON’T LEAVE THEM WONDERING.

• IF WE PLACE SOMEONE WITH A CLIENT, WE DON’T APPROACH THEM AGAIN UNLESS THEY SAY THEY WISH TO MOVE.

• WE’RE UP-FRONT WITH RATES, HOURS AND OTHER DETAILS. WE DON’T MISREPRESENT JOBS OR COMMUNICATIONS. WE HONOUR OUR COMMITMENTS.

• IF WE MAKE A MISTAKE, WE ADMIT IT AND FIX IT.

• WE HAVE FOUR CUSTOMERS, TO WHICH OUR PROMISE APPLIES EQUALLY:

• CLIENTS

• CANDIDATES

• SUPPLIERS

• STAFF

SUCCESS. PROGRESS. RESPOND. INTEREST.