Barrick Gold Corporation barrick_logo

Innovative Practice/Initiative:  Discover Barrick - Short Term Assignment Initiative

Organisation Profile

Barrick Gold Corporation is the gold industry leader, with 25 operating mines and a pipeline of large, long-life projects located across five continents, in addition to large land positions on some of the most prolific mineral districts. 

Our vision is to be the world's best gold mining company by finding, acquiring, developing and producing quality reserves in a safe, profitable and socially responsible manner. At Barrick, we recognize that recruiting, motivating and retaining the best people is a critical success factor for our business. We are committed to developing the full potential of our employees. We offer employees educational opportunities, career and skills development, and attractive salaries and benefits tailored to the region. 

Due to the geographic and cultural diversity of our workforce, we have a blend of global, regional and site-based Human Resources programs. We take a global approach to workforce planning, employee development and talent management to form a consistent understanding of the labour markets in which we operate and in the performance of our people. We take a regional approach to compensation and benefits, training and employee relations to address the unique labour markets and social conditions in the countries where we operate. This combined approach has allowed us to implement targeted local programs that attract, retain and motivate our staff, while reflecting local norms. 

Regional or site differences in employee turnover rates range from very low in some areas where we operate, to high in others. Global expansion in the worldwide extraction industry is putting stress on the existing labour pool, as evident in regions where there are high turnover rates. 

One way that Barrick is addressing the challenges that today's labour market presents in filling roles with experienced workers, is through the use of Short Term Assignments.  To the mutual benefit of Barrick and its employees as these skill gaps arise, Barrick has re-engineered the Short Term Assignment process to better meet our needs cutting the time to deploy internal resources by more than half.  

This has been supported through the creation of an in-house database; capitalizing on Barrick Central (intranet), internal recruiting portals and customized tools tailored to speak directly to our existing employees.  Those interested in participating in a Short Term Assignment are encouraged to sign up in advance of opportunities being available.  By altering the traditional recruitment process Barrick is better prepared to deploy resources quickly and efficiently, while managing the expectations of all parties.

The Organisation's Initiative iStock_000011097988Small.jpg

In response to increased requests for on-demand skilled labour to support ongoing operations and project sites, Barrick has implemented a new Short Term Assignment category to enhance our repertoire of Expatriate assignments types.  To support this initiative, Barrick has developed several tools to launch the program and connect those employees that are willing and capable of undertaking assignments, as the opportunities arise.  This has been primarily facilitated by the reorganization of the recruiting process and 'signing up' interested employees before the request for assistance is made.  This reorganization essentially reverses the typical recruiting process and reduces time and confusion by sharing the terms and conditions of accepting a Short Term Assignment ahead of an opportunity becoming available and actually being offered to the employee.  

Barrick's approach has been driven primarily by critical site demand that cannot wait the customary three months often necessary to deploy assignees.  Add to that the benefit to employees that comes from exposure to international travel, new and challenging assignments based on their critical skill set and the opportunity to build global networks, all the while in many cases gaining invaluable third world experience.   The company also benefits from not losing an employee longer term and having to backfill the home country position had a traditional long term assignment been used in its place.  Beneficial to both parties, the Short Term Assignment allows personal and professional growth while avoiding excess costs to the organization (ie/ shipping/storage of goods) or familial inconveniences (ie/ uprooting and relocating the whole family).  

Once it was decided that these types of assignments would be necessary going forward (based upon the successful completion of two rounds of Short Term assignments, equaling roughly 30 assignees in total) Barrick completed an exercise to determine if certain measures could be undertaken to reduce the lead time to deploy assignees.  The result of this has been positive; weeks have been removed from the process and Barrick is better prepared to respond quickly to requests for immediate skills and assistance.  

How it works -

Through Barrick's internal job portal, 'evergreen postings' (postings that have no end date) will be created in broad buckets of functional areas that contain the types of positions that are most often sought by our sites or projects for short term support (ie/ maintenance, operations, etc).  

The intent is to launch a campaign globally whereby representatives, likely from HR, will attend functional team meetings, conduct lunch n learns, post notices where employees congregate, to generate some excitement about the program and drive people to the internal postings and sign up if they truly are interested.  Additionally, employees will be able to watch a slide show (with audio voice over) outlining the program, the compensation package and its elements and what they can expect from signing up to take on a Short Term Assignment.  From there, they will have the opportunity to 'apply' to one of the evergreen postings and when an opportunity arises matching their skills and experience, they will be ready to deploy almost immediately.  

Once an employee has demonstrated their interest in a Short Term Assignment, and their performance and level of experience and skills have been vetted internally, they will begin preparing for an assignment; further discussions/review of the Short Term Assignment package to ensure clarity and understanding, conducting background checks and finally updating their passport and travel immunizations.  All this is done in order to be ready for when an opportunity becomes available.  By completing these steps up front, we have a pool of 'ready to deploy' Short Term Assignees to support the sites and projects in short order.  Due to Barrick's numerous operations and projects, the ever tightening labour market and the general challenges faced in recruiting skilled, technical labour, in conjunction with the benefits and growth development this presents to Barrick's employees; being able to respond quickly and efficiently to critical requests will help Barrick achieve our global objectives on many fronts.

Evidence of Impacts

This initiative is new to Barrick, though we have enjoyed success with our first round of Short Term Assignees, from both an employee and an operational standpoint.  This is evidenced by the desire expressed by more sites/projects and employees to participate in this program.  Barrick will continue to monitor the success of assignments and the demand by the operations to balance the supply and demand of internal assignees and if necessary will look to take this one step further and open it up to the market in an effort to have a pool of external assignees in the database.