Juniors up job stakes

JUNIOR mining companies are putting pressure on their larger competitors’ ability to attract staff by offering more diverse salary packages that include company shares.

Roles offering big pay packets have historically won out over offers from smaller miners, which don’t have the ability to offer salaries at the same levels.

But according to recruitment specialist Ed Cross, associate director of recruitment firm Robert Half International, junior miners are becoming more inventive with their offers.

“(Junior miners) continually find it difficult because they can’t just compete with the offer of a big salary; that’s the advantage of the bigger miners because they can offer that, and they have the big name attraction as well,” Mr Cross said.

However, smaller companies had the advantage of offering better working hours, private health insurance and job mobility.

A significant change has been workers at the lower end of the scale being offered the chance to become shareholders; something traditionally reserved for senior executives.

“Junior miners feel that if they can buy someone into the company’s vision they’re going to be more productive,” Mr Cross said.

“The miners know those junior workers are an important cog in the wheel … so they know that the offer of a share scheme, where it still gives an employee the opportunity to invest, gives them a sense of belonging.”

As a result, he said, more candidates were being enticed to join less-established companies.

“We are seeing people taking pay-cuts, while not huge pay-cuts, they are moving into lesser-paying roles because of that flexibility,” Mr Cross told WA Business News.

He said the opportunity for job progression was a key advantage of junior companies.

“People sometimes get pigeon holed in one role and they don’t get the opportunity to broaden their experience (with larger companies), this is an attraction to the junior miners that someone’s going to be able to broaden their skill set for the future,” Mr Cross said.

Meanwhile, larger companies have begun employing less-experienced workers because of severe labour shortages.

Jan-Henrick Norberger, general manger of Richards Mining Services, which trains staff for mining employment, said big miners would now take on qualified but inexperienced workers.

“They’re beginning to purchase simulators and setting aside maybe one or two older dump trucks for training purposes and saying ‘we’ll just take on some able-bodied people and we’ll train them ourselves’,” he said.