Reference no: EM133181955

Case scenario: XYZ Coal Productions 

XYZ Coal is a large Queensland coal production mine, located in the state's central north. It currently employs close to 700 workers, however large-scale plans for the coming 5 years will see an increase of about 300 additional workers for the duration of the projects, bringing the total workforce number up to almost 1000.

XYZ Coal's Mission:

To provide industry leading returns for our shareholders through the mining, production, and marketing of high quality coal.

We can achieve this only through genuine partnerships and mutual value creation with all stakeholders including employees, customers, shareholders, and local communities. 

Strategic Objectives:

• Zero Harm- To achieve and maintain the highest standards of health, safety and environmental performance at our operations and to work in partnership with local communities for mutual benefits, supporting the principles of sustainable development
• Value creation- to create further value through ongoing portfolio optimisation, delivery of capital and operational efficiencies and real cost reductions
• Continuous improvement- to foster a culture of innovation, integrity and high performance through empowering our workforce.

XYZ Coal Productions:

Venus mine:

The Venus mine is located in the North of the Bowen Basin, about 75 kilometres south of Moranbah. Coal is exported through Mackay, approximately 250 kilometres east by rail. The mine has a current capacity to produce 7.8 million tonnes of high grade coking coal annually, which is currently sold to customers in 3 countries; Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. The high grade of the coking coal in conjunction with the mine's low-strip ratio positions the Venus mine in the lowest cost quartile of Australian coal producers.

The Venus mine is open-cut, using dragline and truck/shove fleets for overburden removal. Coal seams are mined by front end loader and hydraulic excavators, and the cost is transported to mine preparation plants by large capacity haul trucks.

In response to expected increased demand for the product, particularly from India and China, the organisation is assessing its growth options and considering the expansion of the existing operation as well as the development of new mines. They have already commenced the expansion of the Venus Mine through the Mars project. 

Overview of Venus Mine Operations:

*299 additional positions by 2015. Note, the workforce of 982 will be spread across both the Venus operations and Mars expansion project. 

Mars project:

The Mars project is an expansion of the existing Venus mine operations, producing an additional 2.2 million tonnes per annum. The project will use a combination of draglines and truck-shovel fleet. Mining activities will include clearing vegetation, topsoil stripping, removing overburden to in pit and out-of-pit spoil dumps, coal mining and progressive rehabilitation.

The location of the project is restricted by the location of the resource and the location of the mining lease. The open cut mining method was selected based on the relatively shallow depth of coal and the multi seam stratigraphy of the deposit. Underground mining was considered, however due to the seam geometry and thickness it was not regarded as an appropriate method given the lower resource recovery which would have resulted.

The Mars project is expected to produce 2.2 Mtpa of hard coking coal for the export market over a life of approximately 45 years. Construction commenced in 2010, with first cola being produced in 2013. An initial capital investment of approximately $1 billion will be required to bring the project to full production. Operational expenditure will be about $300 million per annum for the mine life.

The key benefits of the project will include:

• Increased export income
• A total of 299 operational jobs and flow-on indirect employment opportunities in the region
• Revenue into the regional economy
• Significant State and Government taxes and royalties

Your role:

You work for the XYZ Coal's Human Resource Department as a workforce planner. Your role includes estimating and forecasting future workforce needs and trends, ensuring the company has access to a highly skilled and talented workforce, and that you find, develop and retain the workforce numbers that are required. 

You also need to evaluate and predict any issues in relation to this task that may lead to difficulties in filling the required job roles, and develop action plans for overcoming these issues. Your job is very important to this company; it employs a large number of workers, has big plans for expansion in future, and its ability to carry out these plans depend on your success in obtaining sufficient numbers of highly skilled workers that are available when needed. You are only able to do this if you are well aware of the trends and future plans, the needs over the next few years, the supply/demand in the overall job market, and the issues and difficulties that need efficient addressing through action plans to be resolved. 

You have been asked to put together a report for the Executive Human Resource Manager which addresses some of the issues you can foresee and makes recommendations in the form of an action plan that can be used to improve the department's capability to secure the workforce numbers required. 

Question

Recruitment, retention and redundancy strategies.

Develop strategies to support agreed objectives for recruitment, training, redeployment and redundancy of workers. You are also required to discuss how you will obtain agreement and endorsement for your objectives and targets as this is a critical aspect for any proposed action.

Your actions should be suitable for the overall workforce objectives and aim to achieve the best possible outcome for each activity. It may be suitable to utilise the following format to cover the requirements of this question: