A mining contractor sells machine hours and tonnes moved at someone else's mine. Its crew is posted to client sites far from home, and every idle excavator or missing operator shows up in the client's review.
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Share your requirementsA mining contractor does work for mine and quarry owners: removing overburden, drilling, loading and hauling ore, building benches or running a whole pit on a rate per tonne or per machine hour. Its people are excavator and dumper operators, drillers, mechanics, supervisors and helpers, posted to client sites that may be remote and far from home. Contracts start, grow and end with little notice, and a crew may be moved between sites in a week. The client watches output and incidents closely, and its own rules apply on top of the contractor's. See also the energy and utilities sector and the mining and quarrying hub.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
The client wants machines working soon, and the contractor must find operators, supervisors and helpers who can start fast and fit the site.
People sit far from the head office and from each other, so company culture, rules and pay practice vary from site to site.
Each mine has its own entry, safety and permit demands, and a person fine at one site may be refused at another.
When a client stops work for weather or blasting, the crew sits waiting while costs run on, and morale slips.
Housing, food, transport and travel home affect whether operators stay. Complaints are heard late because the head office is far away.
A pit foreman manages a crew, the client's staff and the machines with little support, and his decisions are rarely reviewed.
When a job finishes, the contractor must place the crew on another site or let them go, often without a plan.
Start with the topics that matter most here: HR Strategy and Workforce Planning; Recruitment and Talent Acquisition; Policies, Compliance and Governance. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for energy and utilities, not in general.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a mining contractors business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A list of trialled operators, drillers and mechanics, with notice they can give, so a start date can be met.
What this coversHideA list of trialled operators, drillers and mechanics, with notice they can give, so a start date can be met. The recruitment process consulting service builds the process.
A short common standard on attendance, conduct, safety and pay practice, with a place for the client's own rules on top.
What this coversHideA short common standard on attendance, conduct, safety and pay practice, with a place for the client's own rules on top. See HR policies and governance.
A simple forecast per site of crew size, relief and end dates, updated monthly.
What this coversHideA simple forecast per site of crew size, relief and end dates, updated monthly. The HR strategy and workforce planning work gives the method.
Training for pit foremen on briefing, handover, difficult talks and reporting to the head office.
What this coversHideTraining for pit foremen on briefing, handover, difficult talks and reporting to the head office. See leadership and people management.
A checklist for each camp on housing, food, water, transport and phone access, reviewed on a regular visit by someone from head office.
What this coversHideA checklist for each camp on housing, food, water, transport and phone access, reviewed on a regular visit by someone from head office.
A note of where each crew goes when a contract ends, with a talk to the people involved before the end date, not after.
What this coversHideA note of where each crew goes when a contract ends, with a talk to the people involved before the end date, not after.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
A trialled bench of operators and mechanics, so a new contract starts on time with people who fit.
One set of site rules that fits many clients, written in plain words and used the same way everywhere.
A forward view of crew needs by site, including relief and the people between contracts.
Practical training for pit foremen who lead crews far from head office.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in energy and utilities, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Engineers, technicians and operators leave energy and utilities firms for reasons that differ by project and plant. How to listen, ask better questions and act.
6 min readRead article
Hiring decisions made one request at a time, in the month the pain is worst. What a workforce plan contains and why a twelve-month view changes what you hire.
7 min readRead article
Sources beyond the neighbouring gate for setters, turners, inspectors and leak test hands, plus a one-hour bench trial built from your own rejected parts.
7 min readRead article
A practical contents list for an employee handbook in a growing Indian business: what to cover, what to leave to policies, and how to keep it usable and current.
5 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Keep a standing list of operators and mechanics you have trialled or worked with, with their notice period. Call them first, then use other channels. Always run a short practical trial before posting anyone to a client.
Write one short company standard for attendance, safety and conduct, and add the client's own rules as a separate page for each site. Brief every person on both before they begin.
Agree with the client what is paid in such periods, and use the time for training, maintenance and rest. Be clear with the crew about what to expect so waiting does not feel like neglect.
Often because of housing, food, travel home or feeling forgotten. Visit regularly, ask directly and fix the small things first. Pay matters, but daily living conditions often decide who stays.
Give him a weekly call with a named person at head office, a short training programme and a simple report format. He should not be the only voice in the pit.
We would list your contracts and end dates, ask how quickly operators can start and compare the rules your people follow at two client sites. A trialled operator bench plus one common set of site rules is a natural first project, with scope written down for your approval.
All 5 business types in mining & quarrying businesses · Find another business type
See all HR topics for energy and utilities, or another industry.
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