Rio Tinto Indigenous Employment Program in Australia - Report Example

RIO TINTO INDIGENOUS EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM IN AUSTRALIA Essay Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Course Title Date RIO TINTO INDIGENOUS EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM IN AUSTRALIA Rio Tinto is an international mining Group which is listed in Australia and the United Kingdom. The group is involved in the business of exploring, mining and also the processing mineral resources from around the world. The group seeks to invest in large scale in the mining industry and to ensure that there are maximum returns for the investors. The major products from this group include diamonds, energy (uranium and coal), gold, titanium, aluminum including others. The group’s activities take place all over the world but its presence is mainly felt in Australia, South America, Asia, South Africa and parts of Europe. The Group’s business in Australia makes up about a third of all its global assets employing about 16,000 people. Some of the values held by the Group include ensuring continued contribution and sustainable community development. To this effect the Group has several policies, strategies and standards that will ensure the sustainability of the programs. The group has hence invested in activities that address communities’ issues and this is done in consultation with the community. The programs are aimed at ensuring that the community’s skill, knowledge and capacity are built.1 The stakeholders in the project include the indigenous people and the Australian Government who all work together with Rio Tinto. According to Prager, the approach used is that of creating a common and acceptable approach to the local peoples' needs and addressing unemployment while creating opportunities for business.2 There are the family support programs and other community support programs which are also involved in the program. These play a big role in ensuring that the families are able to settle into the towns where mining is done. The communities also play a role in enabling Rio Tinto to create a link with the Government programs that are also ongoing in the community where Rio Tinto operates. It is of essence that there is coordination between the different co-operations and organizations that have activities to assist the community. This is because it helps to avoid duplication of work.3 Duplicating work in the community would lead to slowing down of growth and even wastage of resources occurs. The group also works together with the Australian Museum. This is one of the leading institutions when it comes to matters of biodiversity and related scientific processes. The aim of this partnership is to help develop other ways which are better and can be used to manage the natural resources. According to Hogan and Barry, such a cooperation ensures that there is documentation of the areas of conservation and develop a mapping program which encourages the participation of the communities.4 By working with this institution the community is further enhanced. The conservation that results from this cooperation is also important in that it ensures there is sustainability of resources which makes sure that there is continuity of production by the Rio Tinto group. The major benefits of this are that the community gets to enjoy the other operations that exists due to the operations of Rio Tinto in the place of location. This ensures that there is longer provision of jobs and even development projects in the community are sustained. This is also ensures that there is no depletion of the natural resources since this would amount into environmental degradation.5 The working with the Museum also provides for the preservation of artifacts that act as a heritage of the people who are the natives of this area. The preserved items are used for the studies which help to build the knowledge and level of education for the local people. Notwithstanding these are also used as a tourist attraction and are able to earn the local some revenue that can also be used to build their wealth.6 Once the education of the communities is addressed through such co-operations, the company ends up benefiting in the end of the day. This is because when the community is educated they are able to be more careful and more concerned with the preservation of the natural resources which the company can tap into in the future. The company is able to get a big pool of people who can be useful in its ranks. For example scientists who are trained through the cooperation with the museum are bound to have an understanding of the operations of Rio Tinto. When such cases when such are hired, they help to ensure that there will be continuity of the operations of the Group and even build on this.7 The Group also benefits in that the workforce available is well aware of the activities that the Group undertakes in the communities and are hence able to appreciate it even more and seek another way of ensuring that it is enhanced and sustained. The company also partners with the Australian Science innovations. This is used main to focus on the science education in the schools around the area of operation of the Group. The funds are used to organize science competition in the regions of operations. The aims of these competitions are to showcase the relevance and also the importance of science in the world that we live in today. It is from such competitions that the youth are able to discover their interests in the field of science and technology. For the company this is an opportunity to be able to tap new talent as it emerges.8 The Group can also be able to identify new technologies that are developed during those competitions and be able to develop them fully to completion. Those whose projects are funded the get to bring in their fresh talents and new ideas into the Group. This is important in ensuring that the Group remains competitive in the business that it operates in. This is also a good way of cutting costs as hiring the youth at the time when they are at the beginning and nature them to maturity, is cheaper as compared to going out there to seek to hire seasoned scientist who has been in practice for a long period of time.9 The group also works with the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CAT). This is a nonprofit organization that works in the remote areas of Australia. The function of this organisation is to conduct research, to develop and also implement new technologies within the rural areas of Australia. The partnership does not end in the development of technologies but also in the creation of employee fellowship program. This is one of the avenues which are used by the Group to gain an understanding of the community’s problems and create a way of addressing these through the use of the technologies that are discovered. This is a two way benefit as CAT also gets to an access to the specialist engineering and technologies that are available in the Group which operates in Australia.10 This is an opportunity to share the knowledge among the scientist and also to make sure that there is a fruitful exchange of ideas and hence the modification of the existing knowledge to be able to fit the new needs of the mining industry.11 This also offers the opportunity to develop new relations for the consultancy which helps to build more working relations. The HR department is charged with overseeing the direct recruitment, training, selection and also career development of the local communities. This has to be done in accordance with the cultural programs that are relevant to the local community’s ways of life. The employees of Rio Tinto also are undertaken through a cross cultural education so that they can be acquainted with the way operations are done at the community level so as to ensure that there is guaranteed coexistence of the Group and the community.12 The local Aboriginal Traditional Owners are also involved as they facilitate a two way learning by way of introducing the Group to the culture and traditions of the local people. The HR has developed a good policy which helps to measure the success of long-term employment program. The interesting thing about this is that the success is measured through evaluating the number of indigenous people who are retained in their positions of work.13 This is as a result of HR functions which seek to provide family and community support activities in order to assist them in being able to settle in their new towns of work where the mining locations are taken to.14 The HR also provides some training which helps to ensure that the employees are able to get some life skills which are useful to ensure that the safety of the employees is well taken care of. These are actions that the HR has instituted which at the end of the day cast the group in good light and are able to create good faith in the organisation by the communities and hence to enable them be able to trust the organisation. This is important as they are accorded the activities of the organization the respect it does and at the end of the day its benefits with the success of its activities of mining.15 The indigenous people are also used to mentor the other people in the community so as they can be able to learn directly from people with the experience of what goes on the ground. These experienced employees also provide great advise that helps to get the other new coming employees to hit the ground running. Here the cross cultural programs of education are also incorporated so as to ensure that there is effective communication in the workplace. This is a key HR strategy that is used to ensure that the challenges that usually emanate when an organization sets out to work in the rural community as Rio Tinto does.16 There could be a lack of communication with the workers who are residents of the area in which the Group is operating in. By having a blend of the experienced natives and the new one participating in the training the Group does not experience the challenges that may arise such as barriers of language which can render the activities of the organisation unattainable. Lack of cooperation from the local communities could lead to some level of sabotage for the Group’s activities in their mining towns wherever they operate. This could lead to disastrous results and reduced profitability for the organisation.17 The policy of the Group is to work with the local people wherever they operate in so as to engage the communities and also get to adhere to their traditions. The relationships that are built are based on mutual respect, partnership and commitment to work together. In Australia the Aboriginal people are able to participate in the affairs of the Group. The activities that take place ensure that there are robust activities that range from the development of technologies and the nurturing of the new and upcoming scientist. This is a platform that is used to ensure that the two parties get benefits from these arrangements.18 The preservation of the natural resources in the mining towns also takes place hence ensuring that there is continuity of the mining activities. The preservation of natural resources is important as it also provides the opportunity to allow learning activities to take place. The success of the Rio Tinto projects is attributable to the strong HR policies that have been instituted. Most of the HR policies are also in line with the Group’s objectives of ensuring that there is an engagement of the community. The HR has instituted policies that enable the Group to retain the local employees. This serves a great deal in instituting confidence in the Group among the local people. Reference list Barney Jayb. "Is the resource based 'view' a useful perspective for strategicmanagement research? ." Academy of Management Review 26, no 1 (2001), 22-56. Brammer Stephen and Stephen Pavelin. "Brammer, S., & Pavelin, S., 2004. Building a good reputation. European Management." European Management Journal 22, no. 6 (2004): 704-713. Elliot Peter. Key Economic, Environmental and Social Issues in Sustainable Mining Operations and Closure. Adelaide: S.A, 2003. Hogan Lindsay. and Berry Peter. "Mining and regional Australia. Australian Commodities." Australian Commodities, 7, no. 6 (2009), 648-659. Joyce S. and McFarlane, M. Social Impact Assessment in the Mining Industry:Current Situation and Future Directions. London: MMSD project IIED, 2001. Prager, Sharon. "Changing North America's mind-set about mining.” Engineering and Mining Journal, 198, no. 21 (1997) 36-41. Richmond, W. H., and P. C. Sharma. Mining and Australia. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 1983. Veiga Marcello. Et al. "Mining with communities." Natural Resources Forum, 25, no. 3 (2001) 191-202. Wartick, S. L. "Measuring corporate reputation: Definition and data. Business." Business and Society, 41, no. 4 (2002), 371-392. Zappala Gianni and Caitlin Cronin. "The contours of corporate community involvement in Australia’s top companies." Journal of Corporate Citizenship, (2003), 59-73. Read More