HR strategy and workforce planning for Mining contractors: crew sizes, relief and the gap between contracts
A contractor's workforce rises and falls with its contracts. A simple forecast by site, with relief and next-site plans, tells you when to hire, when to move people and when you are carrying idle cost.
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Share your requirementsWhy HR strategy and workforce planning matters in mining contractors
Many contractors plan crews contract by contract and only once the order arrives. They find themselves short on operators at one site, with idle ones at another that has just closed. Relief cover for leave and sickness is taken from whichever site complains loudest, and the best operators are overworked.
Workforce planning here means a monthly table: for each site, the crew needed by role, the relief required, the contract end date and the people available after it. It shows when hiring must begin and when to move a crew rather than release it. It also reveals the real cost of waiting between contracts.
How to set it up
1. List sites, roles and numbers
For each active and expected contract, the roles, the crew size, the shift pattern and the end date, in one table.
2. Add relief and leave cover
Work out how many extra people are needed for leave, sickness and rotation, using last year's absences as a guide.
3. Match ends with starts
Where a contract ends soon, note which expected contract could use the crew. Talk to the crew early about the move.
4. Set trigger dates for hiring
Decide how many weeks before a start date hiring must begin, based on how long fills took before. The HR strategy and workforce planning page describes our approach.
5. Review monthly and cost the gaps
Update the table each month and show what idle hands and unfilled posts cost, so owners can decide on bids and bench size.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- Write down which contracts end in the next six months and where those crews could go.
- Check how many weeks it took to fill the last start-up and compare with your trigger.
- Look at relief cover at your largest site.
- Ask the head office who keeps the crew table and when it was last updated.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach HR strategy and workforce planning in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
Six to twelve months for contracts, and weekly for relief. Contract dates move, so update monthly. The aim is early warning, not a perfect forecast.
Plan options early: move people to other sites, give leave, agree a short notice period or release in a fair way. Confirm the rules with a qualified professional before you decide.
Use your own absence and leave records for the last year, then set the pool at the level that would have covered most gaps. Review it when the number of sites changes.