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Innovative Practice/Initiative: Community Recruitment and Training Road Show

Organisation Profile

BHP Billiton is the world's largest diversified natural resources company and is distinguished from other resource companies by the combination of the quality of our assets; our deep inventory of growth projects; our customer-focused marketing; our diversification across countries, commodities, and markets; and our petroleum business. As at 30 June, 2009 we had some 40,990 employees working in over 100 operations in 25 countries. Reflecting our aim to be a premier global company, we occupy significant positions in major commodity businesses, including aluminum, energy coal and metallurgical coal, copper, manganese, iron ore, uranium, nickel, silver and titanium minerals, and have substantial interests in oil, gas, liquefied natural gas and diamonds.

BHP Billiton EKATI Diamond Mine, located 310 km Northeast of Yellowknife, is the first surface and underground diamond mine in the Northwest Territories. Operations began 14 October, 1998. EKATI has a long history in Canada's North. We currently have approximately 700 employees and 600 contractors running our business.

We've really thought about what our vision, and what it is we're trying to achieve - and it's more than just operating a mine. EKATI values Outstanding People, High Performance, and a Proud Legacy - and at EKATI, diversity is a top priority.  Diversity it enables us to honour commitments and made to the communities of the North and government which allow us to operate in this pristine area of the world, and also helps us gain a competitive advantage for our workforce.

The Northwest Territories geographically large, with a small population; the capital city has 18,000 people and the remaining population lives in small communities often between 100-3,500 people. Being so sparsely populated and dispersed, one of the challenges for these communities is the lack of access to services and employment opportunities.  Our latest diversity initiative attempts to remove these barriers by bringing training and recruitment opportunities to these communities by means of a traveling road show. Through this approach, we hope to provide people with transferable skills and better access to employment opportunities that will contribute to the economic viability of the North.

The Organisation's Initiative

The North is so beautiful and pristine, with many people still living off the land. Before we established our operation, EKATI developed Impact Benefit Agreements (IBA) with the communities impacted by the operation; these agreements outline how by working together, mutual benefit could occur. We want to ensure that we are minimizing our footprint and helping these communities to grow and prosper and we accomplish this through two key areas: employment and training. EKATI has Aboriginal Northern employment targets, and our goal is to exceed these targets.

BehchokoHRRoadShow_Feb-11.jpgThe Community Recruitment and Training Road Show is a new initiative during February and March of 2011. We will be visiting each of the seven local communities on a road show basis, traveling from one community to the next. To date we have visited three communities: Kugluktuk, Lutsel K'e, and Bechoko. Within these communities we are going to be running four weeks of training and employment pre-screening, in partnership with the Mine Training Society, Aurora College and Arctic Response.

The program is split into three phases.  The first two weeks are a Ready to Work North program, which provides essential skills and work-readiness training. The second week of the program involves Simulator Competency Training. Participants will be trained using a CAT 777 haul truck simulator, helping them clarify whether driving a truck is something they can envision themselves doing. This component can gauge both interest and ability.  First Aid training is also provided which contributes to safety at work and at home - a key Value at EKATI.LutselkeHRRoadShow_Feb-11.jpg

During the final week of the Community Recruitment and Training Road Show, BHP Billiton will provide resume writing training, and open up 20 interview spots to members of the community. It's a more proactive approach, allowing us to interact with the community and ask who is interested in working and invite them to come to an interview. This will help expedite recruitment efforts and give people in these communities an indication of if they have what it takes to work for BHP Billiton.

This process will give us a better idea of the quality of people who are looking for work and it also provides the EKATI HR team, as well as employees working from Mining Operations to Corporate & Community Affairs, exposure to these communities so people working in all aspects of our operations have a better idea of what these people are going through and can understand the challenges and barriers they face and how we can better support them.

We are also working very closely with Community Development Officers as they actually know the individual members of the community, and are familiar with their background, so we will utilize their help in pre-screening people into the program. This program is about working partnerships with people in the community to help take our relationships with our communities to the next level. BHP Billiton has communicated to community Chiefs that we would not be doing this without the intention of hiring people; we are doing this because we want to hire people from their communities and provide them with skills that are long-lasting for the benefit of individuals, their families and the community as a whole.  It's real action.

Evidence of Impacts

At the end of February 2011 50% of the road show was completed and we are able to report good attendance from all the communities visited.

Early results show that those participants who took part in all of the 3 weeks of training, as described in the practice outline, performed better at the interview stage than those who did not.  BHP Billiton is now able to place some of these candidates, and is delighted that the program is already yielding excellent results.

An overview of diversity management at BHP Billiton:LutselkeHRRoadShow_Feb-11_2.jpg

BHP Billiton has had a number of successes in the area of diversity management. Achieved so far: 

  • We've employed 15,400 person years and spent $4 billion, mostly with Northern Aboriginal and Northern businesses so the monies are ultimately being returned to the North as much as possible
  • We've directly funded numerous training initiatives in local communities, including trades training, apprenticeships, underground mining programs, minerals processing programs, adult education, and work readiness programs, from which many Northerners have benefited. Consistently since 2000, we have exceeded our Aboriginal Northern employment target from what was predicted in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
  • Because the Community Recruitment and Training Road Show is a new initiative that will be taking place in February and March of 2011, we do not have specific evidence of impacts on this program, but EKATI is doing quite well in diversity management and we have developed many initiatives in support of this area; the Road Show is about doing something different and taking our accomplishments to the next level.