MULTINATIONAL GOLD PRODUCER
Newmont may be a global leader in its
field, but with the resource industry facing
new competitive pressures, even it is
taking stock of its operations to eliminate
lost productivity or efficiencies.
An immediate focus area is in its people
policies and procedures – starting with its
drive-in, drive-out remote workforces.
“Newmont’s concentration on the
utilisation of labour came out of a
bigger picture project to assess the full
potential of our site and opportunities
to improve efficiencies,” says senior HR
adviser Linda Crowe.
“We realised there were significant
gains to be made in the way we utilised
our people and, with the Boddington
mine in particular, through addressing
issues around leave and absenteeism.”
Since pouring first gold in 2009,
Newmont’s wholly-owned West Australian
NEWMONT’S TOOL
to tackle absenteeism
As resource employers seek new operational efficiencies to boost productivity and
address competitive challenges, the work of Newmont Boddington’s HR team is
proving that often the subtle changes – like leave management – can go far.
open cut gold and copper mine,
Boddington, has become one of the
largest gold producers in the country with
a 704,000 ounce output in 2013.
A mine life expectancy of more
than 20 years means the company is
understandably keen to establish a
desired culture and to maximise workforce
outputs for the long haul.
Crowe explains that as it is located 130
kilometres southeast of Perth, Boddington is
ideally placed to employ a full drive in, drive
out (DIDO) workforce of 1,030 people.
While this eliminates many of the human
resource challenges associated with FIFO
practices, she says it does pose other
people management difficulties.
“Having a DIDO workforce, we are
able to integrate a broad range of
different rosters across the site, which is
quite different to our FIFO counterparts
and works to our favour in some ways,”
Crowe says.
“But while it is easier to track FIFO
employees’ movements through inflight
systems, we didn’t have the infrastructure
in place to be tracking our employees as
they drove into site. We were trusting a
large number of workers that they would
adhere to their working hours.”
Determined to properly start quantifying
absenteeism, Newmont’s HR team pored
over monthly leave reconciliations, which
confirmed some regrettable planned and
unplanned leave trends.
“While we didn’t necessarily have a
high absenteeism rate, it confirmed our
assumptions that leave was not being
accounted for,” Crowe says.
“If an operator who is planned to be on
site is not present, it results in a ‘no-operator
standby’ which means a truck is laying idle
because there is nobody to drive it.
“That can cost up to $5,200 per day.
Newmont is improving workforce efficiencies
through a new leave management tool
SUMMER 2014-15 RESOURCE
PEOPLE
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HUMAN RESOURCES
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