Employee retention and skills scarcity is often a challenge in the mining industry. High turnover is found across job seniority levels and among residential as well as Fly In Fly Out (FIFO) workers, leading to many skills being scarce in the industry. Due to this attracting and retaining employees is important for mining companies. One of the ways to retain staff is to maintain high morale and provide for a high quality of life. Here’s what mining employers can do to boost morale, enhance their quality of life, and improve retention as a result.

How can mining employers raise the morale of staff and enhance their quality of life?

Continuous and immersive training

Companies that continuously provide employees with regular training are known to have lower turnover rates and staff with higher morale. Continuous training means investing in employees and helping them to upskill, making them feel valued. Frequent training also enables employees to grow their skills and in turn grow their careers in the mining industry, which is an incentive to remain in the industry.

Specialists in educational technology claim that using AI and augmented reality technology to provide immersive employee training helps learners to retain more information, throw themselves more into learning programmes and materials, raise safety awareness, and enhance job performance. This results in staff who are more productive and engaged.

Good remuneration and optimised rosters

It is imperative that companies keep abreast of market standards when it comes to salaries so they can attract the best talent and retain them.

What’s more, mining companies should offer financial-based incentives that reward strong performance from employees, such as share schemes with the company or attractive bonuses when employees meet KPIs.

As well as remuneration, it is important that employers examine their company rosters and optimise them for efficiency and sufficient rest and work-life balance for employees. To do this, they could create flexibility when it comes to employees working from home as well as longer rosters.

Companies that optimise their rosters will see not just an improvement in staff morale and retention, but also in productivity.

open communication between staff and management

Creating and maintaining open communication pathways between mining management and employees can greatly help to raise morale and increase workers’ job satisfaction. It promotes trust between these parties and emboldens employees if they need to communicate their needs or approach their bosses about important things like promotions, raises, or career growth and opportunities.

Giving workers regular feedback on their performance is one important form of maintaining open communication that boosts morale as well as productivity and retention. Transparency through communication is also valued by employees.

Build strong team bonds

Establishing positive relationships and a sense of trust amongst workers and their colleagues and between workers and managers is part of creating a strong, cohesive team. Employees who are part of a team they know they can rely on, be supported by, and trust are going to be far happier on the job, more productive, and better at collaborating. This makes for a healthy, positive work environment for everyone, and keeps staff morale high and turnover lower.

Provide staff with amenities that promote health and happiness

Mining employees, especially FIFO workers spend a lot of time away from home when they are onsite. It is important to provide them with facilities, services, and environments that they can use to meet their needs outside of work. This includes the need to take part in healthy activities like sports, have fun, be creative, socialise, and stay connected to family and friends in the outside world. This helps to support their mental and physical health and keep their morale high.

Here, little things can have a large impact. For example, providing workers with onsite sports facilities like gyms or tennis courts, good WiFi, their own bedrooms if possible, and places to socialise or even just read or draw.

This brings work-life balance back into employees’ days, lowers fatigue, and can help to increase retention.

Prioritise health and safety compliance and training

Providing staff with well-thought-out occupational safety training and enforcing health and safety protocols works to not only reduce occupational risks and health issues in mines, but also help employee morale by making them feel their safety is a high priority and their company is working to protect them from avoidable injury, illness, and harm.

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What other things do you think mining companies should do to improve employee morale and increase retention? Let us know in the comments below!

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