Abstract

All industrial companies are facing an existential crisis; the people and skills they need to succeed today are harder than ever to find and retain, and the capabilities required for the future are opaque concepts with no obvious connection to technical work. This will hit mining particularly hard; university offerings have been reduced and changing geo-political forces and generational interest have led to declining interest in mining careers, causing some of the best technical talent in the industry to leave. There is a pressing need for companies to develop internal programs to develop the capabilities, knowledge and skills of the present and future to transform.  

We have created a Capabilities Development Program specifically designed for the deeply technical mining industry and practices and that can be used to both elevate the workforce of today and prepare the company for the requirements for the future.

We will discuss and demonstrate our Capabilities Blueprint Development process, explaining how we engaged the organization to bring it to life, from start to finish. As part of this we will demonstrate the foundation for this blueprint, built on three-tiers of tools:

1. Skills Referential: To enable skills management, a skills matrix setting the knowledge requirements for each role was defined, based on actual present and future objectives and outputs of work. After mapping the entire community of practice and grouping them into “profiles” with shared objectives, critical technical and business skills needed today and in the future were identified through a first-principles, objectives-based approach, prioritized by scarcity and impact and broken down into needed skills, proficiency levels and specific knowledge areas for customized learning development.
2. Assessment & Development process: We crafted a repeatable process to assess the skills of the community and identify development priorities for current and future roles. This process and tools allow us to define where the individual sits versus where they both need and aspire to be, to succeed. It includes a customized self-assessment tool to allow a skills assessment relative to their peers and requirements for their current or future roles, a tool to view readiness across regions and levels, and the creation of customized development pathways.
3. Upskilling Toolbox & Catalog: To enable upskilling, learning pathways have been defined for each knowledge area, defining what type of learning method should be employed for the skill and where the knowledge sits globally, internally and externally. This includes:
   1. Active learning methods: Focused on “on-the-job” learning, optimal active learning approaches were identified (absorption, mentoring etc.) as were the resources best positioned to deliver the knowledge (individual, department, consultant).
   2. Passive learning methods: Focused on “classroom/digital” type learning, a scan of global institutions as well as available off-the-shelf relevant courses and potential partners who could develop customized content was executed, and profile of these provided in a catalogue.

Additionally, we will share key learnings to both develop and engage the organization in bringing this to life at any mining company and within any discipline.