You can learn a lot about any business by how they manage their people. Obvious, but true.
I’ve found you’ll gain more powerful insight to a company’s values by observing how they prioritise the function responsible for helping them manage people. How it is resourced. Whether it genuinely has a seat at the table for key decisions. How the business listens to HR leaders and then actions their subject matter expertise.
Almost exclusively, industry will bang on relentlessly about how people power their business. But if you are not investing in the primary function that helps people join, develop and fuel your business, this isn’t just soulless spin. It’s an opportunity missed.
I joined Roc-Drill in 2020. I’ve been in human resources most of my career, working across heavy industry in energy, mining, and resources. Supermajor’s, small players – I’ve seen the profession working at different scales in different fields at both its best and less than its best. In boom and bust. Growth and rationalisation.
I started with the company during an inflection point (the period we were in, not the event of my hiring). We sat at about fifty full-time staff and were mid growth cycle. That expansion is best described as exponential, as today we sit at almost two hundred and fifty employees with an additional five-fold increase in our contractor base. This period has been bookended by a pandemic and cost of living pressures. We also had a majority holding acquired by Norcliffe Mining Services, our (now) parent company.
That’s a lot of HR. Whatever way you spin it.
For a company that had previously made its way by following its nose, I wasn’t overly surprised by what I found early on. HR wasn’t new to Roc-Drill, it just wasn’t highly evolved. Policies, procedures and technology were all in early stages of development. The appetite for development was a surprise.
Senior leadership had an upfront approach founded in honesty which brooked no bullshit. Many of this team had done the hard yards on a rig themselves – and do they know drilling or what. They could tell you that a good driller could feel variations in the ground through their bum cheeks. What they had in equal measure was a healthy respect for subject matter expertise outside of their own. An appreciation that as the business evolved, experience from different quarters would help it to achieve its emerging goals. An appetite to learn, develop, and trust HR to play a core role in helping get the mission done.
As an experienced manager in this field, this is almost always the green light that matters most. They offered buy-in. A mindset that investing in helping HR develop infrastructure wasn’t a matter-of-fact cost of business, but a strategic play that would fundamentally impact our potential, performance and profit.
Our trainee programme at Ravenswood has been a phenomenal success, with a development rate of almost 80%. Labour markets don’t always let you purchase what you immediately need – sometimes it simply must be developed. This also provides a sustainable lane to future-proofing talent requirements. A blend of bred and bought is always best. This programme is now one we are seeking to replicate across the business where practicable.
We’ve made a focused investment in communications. Our communications with the workforce are vital, especially considering we are a disparate collective spread geographically. We share stories and celebrations using a range of different tools and technologies now, helping the team to feel part of the broader journey and to identify in our shared goals. We are constantly and consciously breaking down the barriers of isolation that naturally exist in site-based mining services.
The HR team have been brilliant during our expansion. Angela has made the journey from fifty to two hundred and fifty seats a case-study in application and hard-work. The sheer volume of effort she, and hiring managers across the board, have put in to helping us get the talent we need to where it needs to go is testament in commitment to both company and profession. The QHSE team have greatly assisted with integration and training – stepping up at every point to essentially make our lives easier. When QHSE and HR are in lockstep, things just work. Kyran and his team make ours look good. I feel confident in saying they’d admit the reverse is true.
Ultimately, the support from the top is what has given us license to make tangible progress. Our results prove that when you invest in both people and the infrastructure that supports them, you’re doubling down on a successful strategy.
My time at Roc-Drill has reinforced to me that the attitude of senior leadership towards HR can shape a company’s likelihood of achieving their ambitions. We’ve still a way to go I grant you. But we have all the support we need to attract, develop and retain the right people in the right roles, backed up by a personable culture and supported by leadership that, for want of better words, just get it.
Our track record is strong. Our team is dynamic.
Our future is bright.
Adam Gall, HR Manager
Roc-Drill is one of Australia’s largest blast hole drilling contractors. It is part of the Norcliffe Group of Companies, one of Australia’s fastest growing mining services providers.