HRMT20024 Managing Human Resources- Sustainable Mineral Institute

Report 

The Sustainable Mineral Institute will act as the base for supporting it’s six core related centers by collecting the ideas and the knowledge of the industry and incorporating them into the projects of research in each of these centers (Arafat & Ahmed, 2013). The overall directions of the research are managed by the SMI director along with the functioning of the institute whereas each of these centers is having its own considerable responsibility and the autonomy.

Goals, Mission and Operations of SMI

The director of the SMI is Professor Chris Moran. He has a belief that this particular institute and the related six centers are having the bright future ahead because of its concentration of the knowledge and the expertise which is possessed by them and because of the fact that the research that is conducted by them is in the industry which is of extreme economic significance to Australia (Conley & Smith Jr, 2013).

Operating from its foundation, that mining will not go away the SMI has the aspiration in order to help the scientists and the companies to work collaboratively in developing the practices that are sustainable within the industry is the major challenge. This institute at the University of Queensland organization is successful because of its innovative manner in which it will be conducting research within the industry of mining (De Silva, 2013, February). The research that is undertaken by them is mostly driven by the industry needs for structuring the solutions that are practical and economically viable for the issues of sustainability.

Recruiting practices and strategies

In this organization since the high level of research is being undertaken the SMI is dependent mostly on the mathematicians and scientists along with the engineers who are qualified with higher degree qualifications in research. A role of training is also accepted by it which will be enabling the scholarships for the students doing a PhD and salaries for the research fellows at the level of early, mid, and the career researchers that are well established (du Gay & Vikkelsø, 2013).

Within the mining industry the SMI is also finding itself in the interesting position while most of the mining companies will be dependent on SMI for carrying out the research at the highest level, to which some of the industry will be competing in terms of providing the best and the brightest young scientists, engineers, geologists, mathematicians, and other scientists (Efanga & Olefero, 2014).

It is considered to be the area of the availability of the skill which seems to be most challenging for the future success of the SMI. In the SMI team, one of the senior members has noted that in the future plans the greatest fear for the institute will be revolving around the lacking of the availability of the researchers and the staff members.

In the mining industry as it is expected that at the time of the growth of the industry massively the SMI will be struggling with the private industry in order to compete with them with respect to the packages of the salary. As it is voiced by the Director of Sustainable Mineral Institute that in the labor market, which is strong with the graduate the salaries that are offered by the industry are quite attracting (Gupta & Bhaskar, 2016).

Hence, the strategy that is promoted by SMI rather than trying to compete with that of the salaries of the industry is that it will be providing the opportunity for potential recruits so that they will be involved in conducting some sound and the significant research so as to make sure that the industry which is considered to be creating the problem to the environment often will be able to develop the practices which will be leading the development that is sustainable and the responsibility of the ecological balance is increased within the industry (Henderson, et al., 2013).

This view towards the industry has attracted most of the scientists who were working within the SMI and has been kept in the practice with the help of many of the projects that are industry based in which the researchers of the institute of the University are involved at.

Regardless of this approach, the availability of the researchers who are well qualified and are highly motivated is very rare. The prominent difficulty has been found by the SMI while recruiting the people who are qualified with a high degree for the research positions. In Australia, particularly the extent of expertise is considered to be relatively thin. Hence, within the institute and the other related centers, the Director of SMI and the other senior staff members will be expanding their search broadly while recruiting the individuals for fulfilling the new positions (Holmqvist & Spicer, 2013).

Therefore the leaders of the industry will be relying on the contacts all over the world for recommending the good people. To be specific, staff is required from the various number of particular universities in the US and the UK some areas of Latin America and South Africa.

In some of the cases, if an exceptional individual has been found the industry do not hesitate in creating the position for such kind of people. One such instance is that the staff has interviewed one of the individuals who was a researcher in English and he has met the SMI Director when he had the visit to the international conference, so for her skills, she was offered a position who has already accepted the postdoc fellow before three months she has just completed her PhD (McDonnell, Scullion & Lavelle, 2013).

As the employment opportunities in the mining industry for the graduate people is strong, very often from the past many years the SMI has found the necessity for hiring the staff for the research with high qualification but not at the level which actually they have hoped for. For the capabilities of research instead of making it as the limiting factor in most of the cases the Sustainable Mineral Institute has helped the individuals in undertaking the training for improving their skills along with the qualifications while carrying out some key research for the institute (NAIR, 2015).

In the climate of the employment one of the things that are experienced by the mining industry from past decades is that the above-mentioned approach is measured to be both effective and practical. The difficulties in recruitment are not only being experienced with respect to the finding out of the researchers with highly qualified degree staff.  But also for filling the PhD scholarships the recruitment team of SMI has been facing the difficulties particularly in the recent times (Zheng, 2013).

Solution

For excluding the difficulties in finding out, the researchers for the staff and for filling the positions of the PhD scholarships the SMI has found out the solution. The solution that has been engaged in solving out this issue is to search for the students who are graduates internationally and who can adjust to the position for suiting the individuals who are available for work (Rowley & Bae, 2013).

For instance, the two PhD scholarship positions in the field of mathematics which they were not able to fill recently have been converted in the form of funding for the position of postdoc for the mathematics faculty from one of the University of Queensland who had returned recently from the abroad posting (Surujlal, 2016).

Career enhancement strategies

In addition to the preliminary sessions and the university-wide workshops, the Sustainable Mineral Institute of the University of Queensland organization has involved the staff that is recruited along with the students in various programs which will be providing them with the opportunity of the development of their career (Sule, 2013).

One of the opportunities is teaching, the researchers will be having the opportunity for teaching the graduate students or at the honors level and the postgraduate research students. The other opportunity is that their involvement in some kind of short course which is being delivered by the SMI (Suhail & Azhar, 2016).

Conclusion

An important example is provided by the Sustainable Mineral Institute of the University of Queensland organization with respect to the employment of the mathematicians and the scientists with high qualifications of degree within the sector of the University. In this research, this has been chosen as the case study for numerous reasons in which the approach of multidisciplinary has been included in the research as it is keen on building the talent and capabilities for the future and it has been involved in the highly profitable industry which is important economically for Australia.

It has to be noted particularly in this instance, which has been narrated within the mining industry are the partnership of the research that has been built by SMI with that of the core companies. This kind of partnership has not only provided help for the SMI in growing and providing the employment for expanding the number of researchers but also it has helped them in facilitating the sustainability within the industry and has provided paths for the future career for the staff members at the level of occupations that are industry based.

References

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