Skills challenges reach boiling point

Brad Thompson, Senior Communications Advisor, AMMA

Having a clear ‘full picture’ understanding of the everevolving skills landscape continues to be a critical challenge for Queensland’s mining employers, says the Australian Resources and Energy Group, AMMA.

The disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic has only amplified workforce and skills challenges for Australia’s resources sector – challenges the industry must overcome to successfully take advantage of future growth opportunities. Forecasts suggest significant growth is at the industry’s fingertips. Earlier this year, the Department of Industry described the resources and energy sector as being on the verge of a “new growth cycle”, with $334 billion worth of new major projects in its investment pipeline. At a national workforce level, AMMA’s forecasting reports identified 98 projects that are advanced in planning stages and could create over 100,000 jobs between now and 2026. “This is why now, more than ever, the industry must be on the front foot to work through the complex challenges of skills shortages, both present and into the future,” AMMA Chief Executive, Steve Knott AM, said. “Assessing and understanding the complexities of future workforce demand is not only critical for employer and industry level workforce planning, but also in assisting government in directing skills and labour mobility initiatives.” As the peak employer group for the resources and energy industry, AMMA has recognised the value that comprehensive skills reports can provide to employers. In October the Group produced a new skills report, Resources and Energy Workforce, State of Play, collating insights, data and projections on key occupations for the mining, oil and gas and allied service industries. It highlighted the level of disruption the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted on long-established interstate FIFO practices, including significant migration of select occupations, including LNG operators and electronics trade workers, from the Eastern states into Western Australia over the past 12 months. The report shows many occupations are presently in critical undersupply and are forecast to have continued strong demand to 2025. This includes Mining, Petroleum and Civil Engineers; Building and Engineering Technicians; Structural Steel and Welding Trades; Chefs; and Human Resources Professionals.

“This report is a critical tool for one of Australia’s largest and most dynamic industries to understand the scale and complexities of labour market supply and shortages,” Mr Knott explained. “Over the past two years, AMMA members in every subsector and resource region of Australia have reported that challenges in sourcing skilled labour is their greatest ongoing workforce-related issue.

“While resources investment and commodities demand are not at the level of the historic resources boom of 2002 to 2012, anecdotally members are telling us that skills shortages are today more acute than they have ever been.” A number of complex, overlapping factors are to blame. Some skilled occupations, for instance mining engineering, have seen a long and sustained decline in university intakes and graduate levels.

Other long-term challenges include attracting skilled workers into the regions, boosting apprenticeship levels in key trades and overall promoting the industry as an attractive place to make long-term life-changing career choices – the latter especially challenging in the face of anti-industry activism. “Add to this the unexpected shock of the COVID-19 and the perfect storm has been created for skills shortages,” Mr Knott said.

“The pandemic has caused great disruption to Australia’s domestic labour market - border closures, lockdowns and general reluctance of skilled people to travel for work."

“In addition, Australia has always relied on a proportionately small but very important number of skilled migrant workers to supplement the national labour market. Without access to this pool of supplementary international skilled labour, Australian industries are cannibalising each other for talent – from operators and tradespeople to chefs, hospitality professionals and cleaners.”

Mr Knott said it was patently more clear than ever that securing the pipeline of skills to support future project growth will be a significant challenge. “We know it is a challenge that must be met head-on, collaboratively, by industry and government. Employers, peak industry bodies and state and federal governments are united in our desire to be well prepared for the workforce demands of this next phase of industry growth,” he said. “We must avoid a scenario where nationally significant mining projects are delayed by skills shortages, or competing for engineers, trades and skilled operators with the $100 billion worth of public infrastructure projects reportedly in Australia’s pipeline.”

Queensland’s talent bleed

Delving deeper into the report’s Queensland data and insights, it finds several developments and trends of interest for employers. For example, in the engineering subsector, those in Mining and Petroleum are spread much more evenly between metro and regional areas compared to WA. Additionally, in the 12 months to August 2021 there was 40.7% growth, with 22.6% uptake in the five years to August 2021. Regional analysis of Civil Engineering Professionals shows similar growth, with approximately 70% of these workers in Queensland located in the South-East. In the Operations / Production space, Drillers, Miners and Shotfirers in Queensland make up 33.8% national share), dropping in the 12 months to August 2021 by 3.9% after rising nearly 30% in the five years to August 2021. In the Chemical, Gas, Petroleum and Power Generation Plant Operators subsector, the 12 months to August 2021 saw an alarming 50% drop, compared to 14% rise for the five years to August 2021. “The big challenge for Queensland’s mining industry, coming out of COVID-19, is that the associated border policies have resulted in a great deal of its engineers and technical production personnel relocate permanently to Western Australia,” Mr Knott said. “For example, we estimate Queensland has likely lost around half of its LNG operators to Western Australia over the past 12 months. “Even in construction, maintenance and electrical trades, Queensland’s talent pool has dipped by over one-third in the 12 months to August 2021. “Addressing these skills issues is the number one threat to the ongoing growth prospects of Queensland’s mining and energy sectors.”

Becoming an 'industry of choice'

As skills shortages continue to bite, the resources and energy industry’s ability to attract and retain talent has never been more important. Offering safe and diverse workplaces, while promoting the breadth of career options and benefits within the industry, will be vital to securing the skills required to fuel our enormous pipeline of project growth. “Unless we rapidly transform into an industry of choice for school leavers and job-seekers, these skills shortages will be prolonged,” Mr Knott said. “Not only is it a serious concern for employers, it will also leave an irreplaceable void in the many billions of dollars in revenues our industry delivers to state and national accounts, which fund public infrastructure and services, and support regional areas and businesses.” While the solutions will be multivaried, Mr Knott points to two areas which have been under the microscope in 2021 – the industry’s track record on diversity and inclusion and promoting working environments and practices that are conducive to employee mental health. “We want to get as many people into the industry, from all walks of life, as possible. And we want to ensure the sector has the right working conditions and focus on overall wellbeing, to keep those people in the industry,” he said. “Improving mental health and wellness outcomes, building diversity and inclusion, and actively promoting the sector’s future, are all non-negotiables if we are to attract the next generation of resources and energy employees.” Building and maintaining mentally healthy workplaces will require deep considerations to navigate the industry’s distinct workforce mental health challenges, including varying rosters, remote isolation and fly-in, fly-out working arrangements. AMMA has been heavily involved in driving positive mental health outcomes across the industry, guided by its Mental Health Advisory Board comprising a range of industry executives and professionals. “The physical and psychological safety of the people in our sector is the number one priority. There is strong motivation of industry participants to better understand mental health at work and the kinds of actions they could take to drive improvement,” Mr Knott said. “In particular, we need to better understand and work to overcome one the biggest factors affecting employees’ mental health at the moment - the impact of the COVID-19 global health pandemic.” “Many factors must be addressed to assist leaders and employees in the recovery from the impacts of COVID-19, such as maximising organisational productivity and improving their general wellbeing.” Another significant focus for the industry in 2021 has been eradicating workplace sexual harassment from the sector. This is both critical for safety and wellbeing, including mental health, but also to send a message to talented women that the industry is a suitable place for them to spend their careers. Overall the industry is making slow, but gradual improvements in its female participation rates, with the LNG and ‘Metal Ore Mining’ sectors being the best performers but only recording a 2% increase in participation since 2016. “With the level of women participating in our industry hovering around 16% for the past decade, stamping out the abhorrent instances of sexual harassment in resources and energy workplaces has been a key focus in our pursuit of attracting new female talent,” Mr Knott said. “As an industry we must continue to explore contemporary best practice initiatives, collaborate on where the industry is making progress and where barriers remain, and develop future industry and government interventions. “In line with employers’ relentless drive to stamp out abhorrent and inappropriate behaviours and cultures within their workplaces, we must drive accountability, new initiatives and cultural improvement across the sector.” 

In particular, we need to better understand and work to overcome one the biggest factors affecting employees’ mental health at the moment - the impact of the COVID-19 global health pandemic.