Health and Wellbeing
Golden opportunity or a cage with gold bars? AFTER ALMOST TWO YEARS OF WORKPLACES OPERATING DURING A GLOBAL PANDEMIC, THE GOLD INDUSTRY GROUP’S GREAT DIVERSITY DEBATE TACKLES THE POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES OF WORKING FROM HOME.
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s vaccination rates increase and Australia moves closer to opening its borders following the COVID-19 outbreak, the concept of working from home will become less of a necessity and more of an option to many in the workplace. Remote operations have allowed the nation’s mining sector to continue operating and provide a muchneeded economic boost throughout the global pandemic. While some people have welcomed the change from day-to-day office life, others have found it restrictive and lacking in social interaction. In November, the Gold Industry Group’s Great Diversity Debate resumed after its successful national tour in 2019 to focus on one of the hottest topics to hit the workplace since the pandemic. IS WORKING FROM HOME A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY OR A CAGE WITH GOLD BARS? In conjunction with Women in Mining and Resources WA, the annual debate dissects and promotes diversity, challenges perceptions, and opens new doors in its unique and thoughtprovoking format. Gold Industry Group chairperson and Gold Fields legal and compliance vice president Kelly Carter, who returns as adjudicator for the latest debate, says the success of the diversity debate over
Rebecca Johnston, Lisa Rowden, Cliff McKinley, Holly Keenan, Jeff Dang and Kelly Carter.
the past three years is a testament to the importance of the issues tabled and also the unique perspectives of the gold industry speakers. Bellevue Gold principal mining engineer Jeff Dang opens the debate for the affirmative, with the goal of persuading the audience that working from home, a hybrid model, or type of flexible working arrangement is a golden opportunity, not just for the employee but also the employer. “Any employer that doesn’t offer flexible working from home arrangements is detached from reality and will find themselves not competitive in a post-COVID world,” Dang says. “Surveys show that 70-80 per cent of respondents prefer some form of hybrid working from home arrangements.”
SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 24 JAN-FEB 2022
Dang says there are three main reasons why employers should offer flexible work arrangements. “Number-one is eliminating the everincreasing commute time,” he says. “According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian workers in major cities spend on average 67 minutes per day commuting, time that could be better spent doing anything at all. “Number two is increasing productivity where days working from home are for concentration and days in the office for collaboration. Dang says the third reason is increasing the worker’s ability to balance time spent at work and at home. “A truly flexible work arrangement, where people work the hours that complement their lives, allows them
