BHP Billiton Human Resource Development - Example

BHP BILLITON HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT Student’s Name Course Professor’s Name University City (State) Date BHP Billiton Human Resource Development (HRD) The BHP Billiton According to BHP Billiton (2017), the BHP Billiton refers to an Anglo-Australian multi-global company with its headquarters in Australia’s Melbourne. The BHP Billiton is a mining, petroleum and metals company. As per the market values in 2015, the company was ranked as the largest mining organization. It also remains the 4th largest company in Australia, going by its revenues. It was previously the largest company in Australia. The BHP Billiton was formed via the merger of the Anglo-Dutch Billiton plc and the Australian Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) company limited in 2001, thus resulting in a company that s dual-listed. The BHP Billiton is listed on both the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Furthermore, the company is a member of the FTSE 100 Index. As of 2015, the company had total assets worth over 130 billion dollars, with approximately 45,000 employees globally. Its head offices are situated at 171 Collins Street in the CBD area of Melbourne, Australia. The company also has offices in London, Houston, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Santiago, Singapore, Brisbane, and Perth. Apart from the above mentioned ASX and LSE, the BHP Billiton also trades its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The BHP Billiton currently operates in over 25 nations through its variety of oil and gas production, processing and mining activities. The company mainly deals with the mining, processing and production of coal, iron ore, copper, petroleum, and potash. The organization boasts hundreds of mines and facilities in countries like Algeria, Australia, Angola, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mozambique, Colombia, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, the United States, and Trinidad & Tobago (BHP Billiton 2017). In order for the company to achieve such enormous success, a lot of effort has been placed in its human resource development. Human resource development (HRD) basically entails the process of assisting employees to develop their personal and organizational abilities, skills and knowledge. The BHP Billiton places extra emphasis on developing a workforce that stands above competition. The BHP Billiton’s main human development methods include training and education. As stated by Dowling, Festing & Engle (2013), training at the company is mainly focused on the employees’ specific job roles, while education further focuses on the various jobs and roles that the employee may be handed in the future. At the company, senior managers sponsor all training and education initiatives as the line managers are tasked with performance, resources and coaching. All the development initiatives are facilitated by the department of human resources (HRM) while the providers are mostly specialists in each of the concerned fields of employee development. Training and education as tools of human resource development in the BHP Billiton are often accomplished through formal processes like planned efforts for organizational change, seminars, workshops, college courses (sponsorships for further studies), and classroom training on a myriad of issues concerning company management and the mining industry (Garavan, McCarthy & Morley.2016). Moreover, informal methods of training are utilized for employee development. These informal approaches to training and education include classes which are taught by consultants/ experienced internal staff, and coaching by managers/ mentors (Werner, Schuler & Jackson 2012). With the mining industry facing technological changes year after year, such training and education programs importantly enable employees to gain competence on the use of various trending and more efficient tools, techniques and methods in the industry. In addition, the BHP Billiton utilizes workforce meetings in which employees from various departments occasionally deliberate on a host of issues concerning the company and performance therein. These meetings allow for the identification of critical challenges which hinder employee performance. With the management of the BHP Billiton keen to listen to the concerns of the employers, such meetings often form vital avenues for employee development (Smith 2012). Aside from this, the company also allows for open communication channels through which employees are able to share ideas and concerns without fear of reprisals (Hubbard, Rice & Galvin 2014). Since time immemorial, such initiatives have been very influential in promoting employee development at the BHP Billiton. Besides undertaking in rampant education, training and employee deliberations initiatives, the BHP Billiton further asserts that skills, talent and knowledge alone cannot compensate for the negative effects of poor relationships between employees and the clients, peers and superiors. The company maintains that conflicts and sour relationships can be major impediments to employee development and sound HRD practices (Chen et al 2012). Consequently, the BHP Billiton has since placed a lot of focus on conflict resolution strategies. If an employee has an issue/ concern, they ought to fist discuss such with their immediate supervisors. The employee is allowed to involve the employees’ representative at such times if they so wish. If the supervisor is unable to resolve the issue, the supervisor notifies the site manager or any other relevant manager to solve the issue. In like manner, if the issue cannot be resolved by the supervisor and the site managers, the senior management thus steps in. Issues that reach the senior management are treated with exceptional seriousness and urgency in the best interests of the employee, department and company (Gee 2014). The BHP Billiton has a clear and effective chain of dispute resolution which helps employees realize their utmost performance potentials in their various units. Challenges Facing HRD in the Company At any given time, there are a plethora of challenges in using human resource development at the BHP Billiton. The BHP Billiton is the globe’s largest mining company with operations in numerous world nations. This globalization often presents significant challenges for its HRD initiatives. Developing a shared identity for employees from various cultures (parts of the world) whose job descriptions often vary from petroleum extractors to gold explorers becomes a significant challenge (BHP Billiton 2017). It is not uncommon, therefore, for some development strategies to face stiff resistance from sections of the diverse workforce for various reasons. Furthermore, the mining industry has generally been characterized by an aging workforce of late, as severe shortages are consequently predicted for the future (Kaufman 2014). As a result, the BHP Billiton is often forced to spend substantial amounts of its budget in attracting and retaining new employees in the competitive mining industry, such as through superior remunerations. This leaves the human resource department with very little resources to conduct its development activities in a manner that is satisfactory and effective. In order to attract new professionals, the BHP Billiton has, among other things, had to enter agreements/ partnerships with institutions of learning and students, hence increasing the costs of overall human resource management in the organization. It thus appears wasteful for the HRM to embark on rampant employee development activities for employees that are soon exiting the workforce (Williams 2013). In most instances, therefore, the company is forced to cut down on its HRD spending and focus on recruitment and retention processes to avoid wastage of resources. In addition to an aging workforce, HRD is also often impacted on negatively by poor change management practices. Poor change management has been one of the major impediments to employee development in the ever-changing mining industry, leading to employee resistance and resentment (Mello 2015). When the employees are not sufficiently engaged in the change process (change is not accepted but is forced down on employees or implemented without their knowledge), consequent HRD initiatives concerning such changes have in most cases been met with apathy and resistance leading to wastefulness in terms of company resources. Human resource development in the organization has also been impeded in the past as a result of accidents. For instance, in 2007, a helicopter crash in Angola involving several company officials left a majority of the operations of the BHP Billiton suspended. Also, in 2015, a company mine collapsed in Brazil killing at least 16 employees and injuring over 50 others as a result of the ensuing mudslides. The ecological damage in the wake of the accident was also considerable, making it the biggest environmental accident in the history of the country. As a result, it became difficult for the company to recruit and retain its employees, operations were stunted and the company placed under close scrutiny (Loots & Cronjé 2014). Finances that were initially set aside for such things as HRD were inevitably shifted to safety management, compensation, recruitment and retention of employees and the restructuring of regional operations across the globe. On top of that, there is a very high rate of technological advances in the mining industry as new technologies continue to quickly replace previous kinds. Also, technologies and techniques that are used for human resource development and training keep on changing. The HRD professional must thus always upgrade their knowledge and skills in order to satisfy the requirements of contemporary HRD. This has not only been tedious but also resource consuming for the company and its branches worldwide. The process of HRD requires an environment of accountability, imagination, justice, fearlessness and meritocracy (Long, Jacques & Kepos 2014). Creating and sustaining such environments in the various sites of the BHP Billiton has often been a challenge for human resource personnel. Even so, the HRD teams must tailor their operations to be aligned with the practices of the company around the world. In addition, the process of human resource development often becomes tedious and time consuming since the HRD professionals must endeavor to understand the lifestyles and habits of the workers so that they are best able to bring a change that will positively impact the behavior of the employees. The BHP Billiton is ever keen to undertake in succession planning in its various units and departments. In the end, such succession plans may hinder HRD programs as employees do not see the need for further development in the current positions that they are to imminently leave (Robbins & Judge 2016). Similarly, with fluctuations in commodity prices becoming a ubiquitous phenomenon in the mining industry, the BHP Billiton often has to contend with hiring practices that are reactionary. This presents a problem in workforce planning and hence impedes human resource development initiatives (Niederberger 2016). Other common challenges for HRD in the company include shortage of skills, heightened entry level talent competition, mismatch between required competencies and the characteristics of the labor pool, as well as the limited capacity among leaders and managers. Recommendations There are several aspects of HRD that the BHP Billiton has excelled in. For one, the company realizes that there are other regions of the world where HRD professionals are scarce. This has often diminished employee development in these parts of the globe where the company operates. As a result, the BHP Billiton has introduced the FIFO (fly in, fly out) employment program through which the company can source employees from adequate locations to sparse regions where they can assist with human resource development (Edwards 2014). The ethos of the organization is thus spread throughout its global branches as uniformity and excellence in HRD are achieved. Secondly, owing to the challenge of diversity, the BHP Billiton now screens potential employees for cultural fit. Screening potential workers for cultural fit has proven very useful in smoothening out the previous challenges in HRD that pertained to diversity. Currently, the company can very easily pass over talented applicants who do not fit into the culture that the organization has strived hard to build over the years (Stone 2014). This is so even as a culture of transparency is stressed by the HR teams during job interviews. Moreover, the BHP Billiton has done well to create online and interactive talent communities through which valuable content is shared with potential employees, current employees and their managers. The HRD teams have also streamlined their activities at the company through technology, hence facilitating enhanced accessibility and communication. These include electronic applicant tracking, payrolls that are internet-based, and system software for human resource management (BHP Billiton 2017). Furthermore, consistency in the HRD processes at the company has been key to its numerous achievements and immense growth. After setting up procedures and policies concerning human resource development, the company is always careful to ensure that all the rules are consistently and fairly applied for all the employees. Previous inconsistencies created perceptions that HR teams were playing favorites, thus undermining their respect and causing workforce strife. Yet still, the HRD of the BHP Billiton can further be improved by enhancing the capabilities of line managers (Nel et al 2017). The company has often attempted to directly satisfy the needs of all stakeholders by thinly spreading limited human resources. The company should however prioritize its human resource focus by enhancing the line managers’ capacities. This allows HR teams to partner with line managers instead of working around line managers that are often ill-prepared or incompetent. The company should also develop enhanced employee planning capacities in order to tackle the challenges brought forth through succession planning. This can be achieved by incorporating advanced workforce analytics and forecasting into the HRD processes so that they are able to translate external work-force segment information, business information, and company talent into useful/ practical insights. The online systems for self-service and community building should equally be enhanced beyond its presently limited scope to include a range of management dashboards, recruitment tools that are web-based, and portals for sharing knowledge (Harris & Short 2014). This allows employees access to a sea of information in a timely, effective, efficient, and convenient manner. The company can also further outsource human resource development services for its units according to the prevailing needs while also improving its structures of corporate governance for a clearer demarcation of roles and functions. Impacts of HRD at the BHP Billiton Human resource development at the BHP Billiton has been critical towards enhancing individual and organizational performance. The relationship between HRD and individual/ organizational performance is mediated via the outcomes of human resource development on the behavior, attitudes and skills of employees (Alagaraja 2013). Through HRD, the employees in the organization better understand their performance standards and performance objectives. The employees are also imparted with the knowledge and skills which are required of them in order to satisfactorily fulfill their mandates. Moreover, the HRD of the company provides for feedback and the opportunity for employees to discuss their performances. These have the effect of creating positive attitudes towards change, correction and development. The attitudes of the employees are also changed via the strategies for remunerations and rewards that come with the HRD plans of the organization. Furthermore, individual attitude, and consequently skill and behavior, are sharpened through counseling concerning an unwanted behavior and/ or underperformance, even as individual employees are always supported through their personal issues/ challenges. Through its HRD initiatives, the BHP Billiton is able to avoid issues with industrial relations and human resources which may affect the company or other employees that are on-site. HRD also ensures the just management of employee relations issues in the company while also facilitating organizational adherence to codes of practice, agreements, awards and legislation (Thomas & Lazarova 2014). Furthermore, the HRD of the organization helps alleviate industrial action and aids the attraction and retention of a competent and skilled workforce (Delahaye 2015). Improved employee assistance, guidance, communication, monitoring and relations as a result of HRD aids overall organizational performance. The BHP Billiton’s HRD also importantly establishes the performance objectives of individuals and teams hence aligning performance with the operational and strategic objectives of the company. Reference List Alagaraja M. 2013, Mobilizing Organizational Alignment through Strategic HRD, Human Resource Development International, 16(1), 515-524. doi: 10.1080/13678868.2012.740794. BHP Billiton 2017, A Leading Global Resources Company, Retrieved March 14, 2017, from http://www.bhpbilliton.com/ Chen, P., Wright, S., Nelson, D. L., & Jackson, S. E. 2012, Leadership and Change Management: For University of South Australia, South Melbourne, Vic.: Cengage Learning Australia. 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Smith, A. 2012, Building the Capacity to Innovate: The Role of Human Capital, Adelaide: NCVER. Stone, R. J. 2014, Human Resource Management, Milton, Qld.: John Wiley and Sons Australia. Thomas, D. C., & Lazarova, M. B. 2014, Essentials of International Human Resource Management: Managing People Globally, Los Angeles: SAGE. Werner, S., Schuler, R. S., & Jackson, S. E. 2012, Human Resource Management, Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning. Williams, C. 2013, Effective Management, Australia: South-Western. Read More