Mining years of experience

Underground coal mining used to be a family affair, with sons following fathers into the job, already imbued with an inherent "pit sense".  But the days when extended families provided a steady supply of "cleanskins" (new miners) are long gone, says Solid Energy HR Manager Mary Reynolds.

However, the need for skilled staff is more urgent than ever. The extraction industry faces talent shortfalls just as its ageing, predominantly male workforce heads for retirement.  It also needs to make sure knowledge stays in the company, rather than being lost as miners surface for the last time.

"You have to make sure you don't lose that knowledge; you've got to have systems in place that capture what people know," says Mary, who is based at Solid Energy's Spring Creek Mine near Greymouth.

To grow its own staff and ensure they inherit the acumen of their predecessors, Solid Energy set up a trainee scheme in 2004. Trainees are generally aged between 18 and 30, and always men. "Despite our best efforts, we just don't get any interest from women," says Mary.

After completing an induction programme, each trainee becomes a member of a crew of about 10 people. Trainees follow an on-the-job programme, overseen by a training manager, which leads to level 2 and 3 national certificate qualifications.

But an important part of their trainees' learning - and a critical plank in making sure knowledge is handed down - is being buddied up on the job with a more experienced hand in their crew.

However, buddying isn't a formal arrangement with certain people picked out to support the newcomer. Rather, crews know that they are all responsible for their trainees' learning, group dynamics are left to do their thing - and that has allowed some particularly good natural coaches to shine. 

"When we introduced the trainee programme, we didn't go to people and say 'we want you to be a buddy'; we talked to people as a whole and said: we want to place a trainee in your crew, and this is what they need," says Mary, a West Coaster and the fifth generation of her family to work in mining. "We took a whole-crew approach. And we know there are people that coach very well.

"Some are just naturals and they don't consider it being a buddy - they consider helping others learn as doing their job. And it's lovely that they think that."

There are 13 trainees at Spring Creek at present. In regular review meetings, they are asked who in their crew is giving the most effective support, and then those people are rewarded. "Miners are really unassuming, though," says Mary. "If you said, oh you did a really good job buddying that guy and teaching him what he needs to know, they'd say shucks, I was just doing my job, I wasn't doing anything different ... they'd be embarrassed. We recognise these people, such as giving them a dinner chit so they can take their partner out to dinner."

Mary says there has been some discussion about formalising the buddy system, "but we think that might detract from the way it goes at the moment".

Mine Manager Bryan Harrington agrees: "If you imposed it on the men, it would fall over. Informality works well - that's the only way it would work." And the informal approach to sharing knowledge works, he adds, because mining has always had a team culture - it's essential, given the hazards of life below ground. "People understand the importance of looking after each other," says Bryan. "That's the way we have all been brought up".

Adds Mary: "There's a sense of camaraderie in mining crews that you might not find in other industries. When we recruit, we focus a lot on people's attitude to working in a team. It's a huge focus, working together, and that kinds of drives the culture."

 Bryan, who has been in the mining industry for 28 years, adds that the buddy system has exposed some latent talents in the long-timers. "There's been people you wouldn't expect stepping into the role and teaching these trainees a hell of a lot. A lot of the older guys with experience are coming to the end of their days in the mine, and they put a great deal of effort into making sure the trainees understand what's going on."

Buddies won't necessarily be the team leader, who often has a very full timetable, or the guy who cuts the most metres in a day because he thinks about nothing else, says Bryan. In his experience, good buddies can be anywhere in a team, but they invariably "put detail into the guy and show him how to operate. These guys tuck them under their wing and look after them."

So what are the attitudes and attributes of these buddies that make them effective? "People either have 'it' or they haven't," says Mary. "It's like a willingness to understand trainee needs, and a memory of what it was like for them when they came into the industry. They have to be able to communicate at all levels, and they've got to be able to communicate and coach in a very difficult environment; it's underground, it's dark and it's very noisy.

"The coaches have to have special qualities: patience, tolerance and really high standards. Safety is the primary focus for us in everything we do at our site, so everything they do has to be mindful of safety management."

Solid Energy's Huntly East mine also runs a trainee programme. With an eye firmly fixed on the future, Solid Energy is also feeding talent to its seven mines around New Zealand through programmes for both school leavers and graduates. Says Mary: "There's a world-wide shortage of mining staff and we are competing internationally for talent, so we have to grow our own. "