Poll results: what is tempting mining employees to change jobs?

November 13, 2019

The Mining People Polling/Media Centre recently asked: In this candidate-friendly market, what would tempt you to consider making a change to a new role?

We received 172 votes, with all voters allowed to choose one or more options.

So, what does this mean?

At a high level, the results seems to suggest that each of these reasons is broadly as likely as any of the others to sway someone’s decision to switch jobs on any given day.  

But we also gave respondents the chance to provide a comment, and those provided some real insight. These were common themes:

• There was a general recognition of the perceived different risk profiles of various commodities. For example, the future of coal mining job security, as opposed to gold mining
• Older respondents expressed a higher level of insecurity, borne out of the changing nature of mining work due to technology. This seemed to be leading some older respondents to question whether a role was a long-term opportunity for them. Interestingly, this was consistent with some research released by Rio Tinto very recently
• Longer-term (as opposed to shorter term) contracts were regularly cited as a strong reason to convince people to move
• Offering flights from various capital cities around Australia would make it possible for people to accept a job without changing where they live, or at least make it easier to return home on their rostered breaks.

The take-out for mining companies and recruiters

So, what do we do with this information? How do we act on it positively?

This survey tells us that candidates could be tempted to accept a new job, by a number of different things. Because of that it is essential that during the recruitment process, everyone  communicate consistently, so as to clearly demonstrate  how a job delivers these things. This will ensure you effectively engage with the greatest number of potential candidates.

Communication can be delivered via numerous methods, including:

• Job advertisement text
• Position descriptions
• Phone interviewers
• Face-to-face interviewers
• Hiring managers, and
• Letters of offer.

Some might think of this as plainly obvious, but we often see that while there is a general understanding of how a job opportunity needs to address each of these elements, the delivery of that is often completely inconsistent (depending on who interacts with the candidate first, second and last).

This often leaves candidates confused or, worse still, results in important omissions that see candidates withdrawing their interest early or, worse still again, declining job offers.

Do your own research to gain a competitive advantage

You can use the Mining People Polling/Media Centre to commission your own targeted research, with results provided exclusively to you. Please contact us if you’d like to know more.